Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: County Durham

  • A Regency epitaph for a child

    Stephen MartinCounty Durham, UK In some spot where common herbage growsPerchance a violet rears its purple head:Some careful gardener plucks it ere it blowsTo spread and flourish in a nobler bed:Such was thy fate dear child, thy opening suchPre-eminence in early bloom was shown:Too good for earth perhaps or lov’d too much.Heaven saw, and early…

  • The medieval hospitals of County Durham

    Stephen MartinCounty Durham, UK County Durham in the northeast of England is rich in the atmospheric remains and documented history of medieval hospitals, all connected with the church. Looking at the whole group has some interesting new lessons. Durham Cathedral Durham City’s Benedictine Priory, later the Cathedral, ran two infirmaries.1 One, for “lay folk,”2 with…

  • The memorial of Thomas Johnson, eighteenth-century barber surgeon

    Stephen MartinDurham, UK, and Thailand In the churchyard of St. Brandon in Brancepeth1 village, County Durham, UK, is an unusual headstone monument.2 (Fig 1) Dating to the very last year of the eighteenth century, it has three sections, including the name and dates, and then a cryptic verse pertaining to judgment. Carved in relief within…