Coffin Holding Samuel Taylor Coleridge Found in Brick Wall

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's remains, in their lead coffin, have been discovered in a brick wall not far from the church plaques that memorialize the poet, reports The Guardian. The coffin is "just visible through a ventilation brick, together with those of his wife, Sara, his daughter, also Sara, his son-in-law and his grandson," writes Maev Kennedy.

“From a safety point of view it would be quite impossible to bring members of the public down here,” said the vicar, Kunle Ayodeji. “But we hope that the whole crypt can be cleared as a space for meetings and other uses, which would also allow access to Coleridge’s cellar. I don’t think we would open up a view of the coffins, but we could place a suitable inscription on the wall.”

Coleridge, author of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Kubla Khan, was a genius who suffered from poor health and depression. A heavy drinker, he also became addicted to opium in the form of laudanum originally prescribed for his health, and died aged 61 in July 1834.

Coleridge could see the distinctive red door of the handsome new church from his last home across the green, where he lodged with a doctor he hoped could cure him – a house now owned by the model Kate Moss. He was buried in the nearby chapel of Highgate school. In 1961 it was noted that Coleridge’s vault had become derelict, and after an international fundraising appeal the coffins were moved to St Michael’s, with the poet laureate John Masefield giving an address at the unveiling of the stone.

But in the words of Drew Clode, a member of the St Michael’s stewardship committee, “poor Coleridge was moved from a tip to a tip – they put the coffins in a convenient space which was dry and secure, and quite suitable, bricked them up and forgot about them, and never did anything about the rest of the space”.

The full report is at The Guardian.