Actually, they’re not that inexplicable. Photos from the George Washington Birthday parade in Alexandria yesterday (well, some of them are still inexplicable). I would have included captions explaining them all, but you’ve probably got as much idea what’s going on as I did (there’s only one extra photo under the cut by the way).
Yes, while I was wandering around the cemetry finding the grave of the female stranger, I did find a few more interesting ones while I was at it. I’m only including the photo of Elsie though. She lived from 1894 – 1918. I couldn’t find any of her history.
Meanwhile, over the course of the weekend I’ve picked up some bargain items for my house. In fact there’s not too much else I need now. Went to an estate sale on Saturday – it was pretty alarming, the whole house was opened up and everything in there was for sale. People were throwing things everywhere. If you found something you wanted you had to guard it with your life, as if you turned away for a moment it would disappear. The house had belonged to an old physician and his wife, and they had obviously been gifted hoarders, who were big on Christmas decorations and buying useless things from the shopping channel.
I picked up some more useful items (including a bed and sofa) from a guy who is moving interstate on Wednesday, and needs to get rid of the stuff before he goes. There’s a lot of that here, people seem to be continually coming and going, and all of the bigger items just aren’t worth packing, so they just sell them for whatever they can get.
It was September 1816, and the port town of Alexandria, Virginia, was recovering from occupation by British soldiers after the North American War of 1812. A man and his wife disembarked from a ship in port, and went to stay at the City Hotel (later to become Gadsby’s Tavern). The lady was ill, and a doctor was called for. As days passed and her condition continued to deteriorate, her husband summoned the doctor, hotel staff and the owner’s wife, and asked them to swear an oath to never reveal the couples identities.
The lady died in the room shortly afterwards, and was buried in Alexandria’s St. Paul’s cemetry, with an elaborate funeral costing in excess of $1500. Meanwhile, her husband, with money owing to a variety of businessman around Alexandria for funeral costs as well as medical care and boarding, mysteriously disappeared. However, all of those who swore the oath never revealed the identities of the strangers.
There have been various suspicions about her true identity, including the idea that she may have been one of the Royal English Family on a tour of the country, or a local girl who had disappeared in 1812. There’s even an alternate version of the story, which puts the woman arriving first, with a few servants with whom she conversed in French. Her husband arrived four days later, and an hour after his arrival, she died in his arms.
Her gravestone can still be read quite easily, despite it’s age.
The inscription says:
To the memory of a FEMALE STRANGER
whose mortal sufferings terminated
on the 14th day of October 1816
Aged 23 years and 8 months.
This stone is placed here by her disconsolate
Husband in whose arms she sighed out her
latest breath and who under God
did his utmost even to soothe the cold
dead ear of death.
How loved how valued once avails thee not
To who related or by whom begot
A heap of dust alone remains of thee
‘Tis all thou art and all the proud shall be
To him gave all the Prophets witness that
through his name whosever believeth in
him shall receive remission of sins.
Acts. 10th Chap. 43rd verse
The lines of the third paragraph comes from Pope’s Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, but in the poem they are preceeded by the lines:
So peaceful rests, without a stone, a name,
What once had beauty, titles, wealth, and fame.
Most of the cars here don’t have orange indicators. They just have red ones in with their brake lights. Which makes them not particularly visible. So even when people do decide to indicate, half the time you can’t tell anyway.
And now a quote from the Australian newspaper, The Age:
“Up to 12 people wanted over the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq hariri are believed to be Australian citizens who could have returned home after the bombing earlier this week, according to a senior Lebanese minister. Lebanon’s Justice Minister Adnan Addoum said authorities had contacted Interpol in Sydney over the departure from Beirut to Australia of 12 men – most bearded – on Monday, the day of the bombing that killed Mr Hariri and 16 others.”
You have to watch out for those bearded men. The emphasis is mine, but that’s how the article was written.
Oh, and I’ve just realised why it doesn’t feel like my birthday. My birthday is in summer. It’s quite often stinking hot. It’s never been -2oC before (oh no, sorry, today actually reached a maximum of 0oC, but with windchill making it much colder).
Also, apologies to people who are trying to look at my site using internet explorer. I might get around to fixing the silly menu behaviour sometime this weekend.
There are three squirrels that come and visit the place I’m staying at the moment. There’s Hooky, with a bent ear, there’s the little one with it’s tail half missing, and there’s Fatty, the biggest of them all. They usually turn up separately, and eat the nuts that have been left out for them. If they arrive at the same time, there are squirrel domestics. These pictures are of Fatty the squirrel – he’s the boldest of them all – none of the others would even consider coming inside, but he does. He’ll also sit around on the bars waiting for you to feed him if there are no nuts out. Cheeky little bugger.