“Despite its sad and almost uncared for history, the old cemetery breathes an aura of peace and serenity.
I admit that when I have been depressed I have often climbed over the locked gate and, after wandering by the graves, have never come away without a feeling of comfort. It is as though those who are buried here have found peace at last and are glad, rather than sorry, for their anonymity.
While they lived, some must have found life almost intolerable, though since the time of Dr. Boyd, the first Superintendent Physician, much is being done to alleviate this. Then too their loneliness has frequently been aggravated by physical illness.
To them “The Dark Angel” must have been a welcome visitant rather than the usually abhorred spectre of Death. However this may be, I often trespass among their graves – albeit reverently. “
(Written by W R Litman who was a patient at the Mendip Hospital, in 1974).