Description

ST 69 NE BERKELEY CHURCH LANE
(Inset, Section E) (south side)

10/117 Dicky Pearce m.onument, about 7m
north-east of Phillips Monument in
churchyard of Church of St. Mary the
Virgin.

GV II

Chest tomb, Dicky Pearce, died 1725. Limestone. Flat top in two
layers, top layer with tooled edge, lower layer roll moulded.
Tooled plinth and base in elongated octagon. Recessed arched panels
on all faces, with coats of arms to east and west and inscriptions
to north and south. The so-called "Jester's Tomb". Dicky Pearce
was the Berkeley Court Jester killed in revelry at the Castle
(q.v.) in 1725, although the tomb verse inscription gives the date
of death wrongly as 1728. Inscription in capitals on north side as
follows: "Here lies the Earl of Suffolk's fool/ Men call'd him
Dicky Pearce;/ His folly serv'd to make folks laugh, /When wit and
mirth were scarce./ Poor Dick Alas! is dead and gone./ What
signifies to cry?/ Dickys enough are still behind/ To laugh at by
and by./ Buried XVIII June MDCC XXVIII/ Aged LXIII years."

Listing NGR: ST6848399076

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26380958

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)