Memento Mori

Sorry to be so maudlin, but I took these photos last week, and I could not help sharing the beautiful blooming lawn with you.

The cemetery, which is part of the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church, dates from the eighteenth century.

The old oak tree you see here is thought to be at least 600 years old. That would make it a sapling when Columbus discovered America, and already full grown when Jamestown was settled in 1607.

History tells us that famous English evangelists James Davenport and George Whitefield preached to a crowd of 3000 in the shade of its branches in 1740.

George Washington shared a picnic here with his officers, including the Marquis de Lafayette, during the Revolutionary War. Today it's branches spread over 156 feet, making it the widest of any tree in New Jersey.

You will find more information in two other posts I have written, here and here.

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church

1 East Oak Street

Basking Ridge, NJ 07920

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