Moonlit Rail ™
A Path
The restoration work within Highgate Cemetery includes clearing out some, but not all, of the dense foliage that enveloped the cemetery during the years it lay abandoned. This path is a typical example; the brush deliberately left near the monuments and markers adds an air of the undisturbed.
The cemetery was built in the mid 1800s, and saw activity until the 1960s. The "Friends of Highgate Cemetery" bought the rights to the cemetery, set about to clean up a quarter century or more of dense foliage growth, and have opened the grounds to the public for a modest fee.
Though one of the previous pictures (of Terrence Lee Arnold) shows one of the last graves to be dug before the cemetery officially closed, that is by no means the most recent grave to be dug here. That title is bestowed upon a gentleman from America who came to London shortly after the "Friends of Highgate Cemetery" opened the grounds to the public.
With a noticeable English accent, this gentleman appeared to be related to one of the deceased; he had traveled all the way to England to visit the grave of what was believed to be one of his siblings. This task in life accomplished, he passed away quietly in his London hotel room the day before his flight back to America was to depart. Seeing as how he had traveled all this way to visit his family grave, the "Friends of Highgate Cemetery" thought it fitting that he should be buried here, where his heart evidently lay, rather than being shipped back to America to an anonymous burial. And there is the story of the only grave in modern times to be added to Highgate Cemetery.