Mystery
Upside-Down Major
Head down, feet up, and right at last.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Small modern memorial stone in woodland
- Legend from
- Recorded burial, 1800
- Tone
- Light-hearted
The world's upside down, said the Major. So when they buried him, they turned him over.
Near the old fort on Box Hill a small stone marks the grave of Major Peter Labelliere, a Dorking eccentric. When he died in June 1800 his instructions were carried out to the letter: he was buried on the hill, head downwards. The usual explanation is that he thought the world was topsy-turvy and he wanted to be the right way up at the end. Another, from a friend, is that he was copying St Peter, who was crucified upside down. He also asked his landlady's children to dance on his coffin. The modern stone gets both his name and the date slightly wrong.