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GHOST IN THE GARDEN
SIR Your article "The Ghosts of Grantchester" in the Summer edition of Evegreen interested me very much as I have memories myself of an incident which happened to me in my childhood. I must have been aged about six when I went with my parents to tea at the vicarage at Little Linford near Newport Pagnell (Bucks) where we lived. There were other guests there too, friends at Mr. Sills, who was a widower. The group sat in the drawing room, whitch had French doors leading out to the garden, and I was told that I could go out and pick forget-me-nots if I wished. I picked some and then went into a little summer-house which was at the bottom of the garden and sat beside a pretty young lady. I do not remember any conversation but I was so taken by her frock, which was of muslin with a pretty stripe in it - mine also being of muslin with a pink sash. She did look so pretty in that dress, woth its pinched-in waist and leg-of-mutton sleeves, the kind of my young mother often wore.
When I returned to the room I showed them my flowers and told them of the pretty lady in the garden. Mr Sills said "She has seen my dear wife". He took my hand and quickly we went back into the garden and summer-house, but she was gone. Not until years after did my mother explain to me that the wife was dead, and I alone had seen this vision of her as she used to be. How is it, I wonder, that often in childhood these visions are granted to us, and in later years when we would dearly wish to see them, they are not? MRS. LILIAN SMITH, WYMINGTON, BEDFORDSHIRE - Evergreen, Spring 1987, p.98-99
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Wolverton Express 17th December 1926
FUNERAL OF THE REV. E. R. SILL, F.R.G.S
The funeral of the late Rev. Ernest Richard Sill took place on Thursday at Gayhurst. As the funeral cortege made its way from the Vicarage at Little Linford to Gayhurst, across the fields, parishioners followed. In the parish church of Gayhurst, where the first portion of the burial service was conducted, a large congregation of public mourners and sympathizers had assembled. The robed clergy were: The Rev. J. L.L. Dove (Rural Dean, North Crawley), the Rev. C. Stafford Jones (Stoke Goldington and Gayhurst), the Rev. L. Moxon (Newport Pagnell), the Rev. R. R. Vivian (Ravenstone), the Rev. U. J. Esson (Chicheley), the Rev. H. A. Blomefield (Sherington), The Rev. H. H. Bartrum (Lathbury), The Rev. H. A. Uthwatt (Great Linford), the Rev. C. B. Hulton (Emberton), and the Rev. M. H. Beauchamp (Olney). Among the congregation were the Rev. C. W. Fulmer, Mr. W. W. Carlile, D. L., O.B.E., and Mrs. Carlile, Mrs. G. B. Whiting, Mr. W. G. Eyles, Mr. Frank Whiting, Mr. George Tayler, J.P., Mr. W. H. Tarry (Wolverton), Mr. and Mrs. John Adkins, Mr. John Roberts (Newport Pagnell), Mr. Edward Whiting.
The family mourners were: Mr and Mrs. Arthur Sill (brother and sister-in-law), Mrs. E. Johnson (sister), Misses Lavinia and Caroline Sill (cousins), Mr. H. Johnson (nephew).
The Rev. C. Stafford-Jones intoned the prayers and gave an address whilst the Rural Dean read a special lesson from Thessalonians. The 90th Psalm was chanted, and at the close of the service in the church, Mr. F. F. Freshwater (organist) impressively rendered the Dead March, in “Saul”. Before the service the organist rendered Beethoven’s Funeral March and “I know my Redeemer liveth”. During the service the hymns sung were Now the labourer’s task is o’er, “Jesu, lover of my soul”, and “Peace, perfect peace”.
At the graveside in the churchyard the Rev. R. R. Vivian performed the committal rites. The grave was beautifully lined with evergreens and flowers from the conservatories at Gayhurst House, by the instructions of Mr. and Mrs. Carlile. The coffin bore the inscription “Ernest Richard Sill, Priest, Entered Paradise, December 5, 1926, aged .. years”. There was a beautiful collection of floral tributes
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