Quirky Dorset

 

Have I found, here in Dorset, evidence of the most boring sermon ever?  One so dull that the preacher sent even himself to sleep? In the gorgeous medieval church at Tarrant Crawford, on the chancel floor, right in front of the altar, is this brass cross and plaque:  “On this spot, the Rev. Francis Alfred Smith fell asleep July 15 1877” Being right in front of the altar, he must have fallen asleep during the service, and presumably whilst conducting it. To fall asleep during your own sermon suggests a level of dullness that would have attracted the attention of Narcolept , Peter Simple’s reporter on the fabled tournaments organised by the British Boring Board of Control.   Definitely a world-class bore.   So what really happened? Of course he didn’t really start snoozing, and the Victorians would certainly not have commemorated it had he done so. Yes, I know, “fell asleep” was a standard Victorian euphemism for dying, and by the 1870s was a common phrase...