CAR HUNT FOR PARSON.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3348, 14 October 1911, Page 3

CAR HUNT FOR PARSON.

CURIOUS SEQUEL TO DISPUTE. Quite a sensation was created in the village of Holton. Somerset, on a recent afternoon, by a burial dispute. The rector of the parish did not officiate at tlie funeral of Richard Rowden, aged ninetv-one. whose body was kept twenty minutes on the bier at tlie churchyard gate while another clergyman was brought. It appears that the relatives of the deceased man wanted him buried in -a grave next to where his wife lies in the churchyard, there being plenty of space. They were, it is stated, willing to pay the usual fees, but not the special burial fee of one guinea demanded by the rector, who, it is alleged, intimated that the burial must take place in another part of the churchyard, and ordered the grave to be dug there. The relatives objected, and iiad the grave dug at their own expense where they wanted it. The funeral was fixed for two o'clock, and as the rector was not officiating a messenger cycled to Colonel Ridley, of Mapperton Park. Colonel Ridley immediately motored for anotlipr clergyman, and on the road met the Rev. F. Haines, of Blackford, who subsequently conducted the funeral services’ at Holton.