St Philip's Cathedral

Colmore Row, Birmingham

This elegant plaque on the west wall of the cathedral focuses on the inscription, which ends with some poignant lines of poetry about a "tender plant" that flourishes again in Paradise. But it also has some delicate carving to illustrate the verse: a rose on a broken stem at the bottom, and a budding rose in a burst of light at the top. The inscription explains that Beatrix was born in 1775 and died in 1810, so was aged 35, and was the wife of the then rector of the church, and a niece of a late master of Trinity College Cambridge. Hence the rather unexpected words describing the "tender plant" as having been "borne from the fostering gales that breathe on Cam's fair margin."

Photograph and text by Jacqueline Banerjee

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