The Shepherd's Grave


There is the story of the shepherd Faithful, Christian name and exact date unknown from 'The Book of Days' published l863, a collection of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar.
Chamber's (Publishers London & Edinburgh)

Instance of persons desiring to be buried in some favourite spot are too numerous to be specified . . . . But one of the most interesting burials is on the Chiltern Hills. It is called 'The Shepherd's Grave', and although in the parish of Aston Clinton is far away from the village and habitation of mankind; it is in a lonely spot on the Chilterns, that remarkable range of hills which crosses Buckinghamshire and stretches on the one side into Berks and the other into Bedfordshire.

High on a towering knoll it commands a fine panoramic view of the whole surrounding country. To this spot, about a century ago, a shepherd named Faithful was wont to lead his flock day by day, to depasture on the heathery turf around.

Here, from morning to night, was his usual resting place. Here he saw to eat his rustic meals. Here he rested to watch his sheep, as, widely spread before and around him, they diligently nibbled the scanty herbage of these chalky downs.

Here, without losing sight of his flock, he could survey a vast expanse of earth and heaven, could contemplate the scenes of nature and admire many a celebrated work of man. Here, as he saw at perfect ease, his eye could travel into six counties, a hundred churches came within the compass of his glance, mansions and cottages, towns and villages in abundance lay beneath his feet. And he was not a man whose mind slept while his eyes beheld the wonders of nature or of art; he became a wise and learned, though unlettered philosopher.
His head was silvered o'er with age,

And long experience made his sage'

In summer's heat and winter's cold

He fed his flock and penned his fold;

His wisdom and his honest fame

Through all the country raised his name.


The spot which had been from youth to age the scene of his labours, his meditations, his enjoyments, had become so endeared to him, that he wished it to become his last earthly resting place.
'When my spirit has fled to those glorious scenes above', said he to his fellow shepherds, 'then lay my body here'. He died and there they buried him. And let no one say it was to him unconsecrated ground. It had been hallowed by his strict attention to duties; by meditations which had refined and elevated his mind; by heavenly aspirations and spiritual communion with Him who is the only true sanctifier of all that is hold.

His neighbours cut in the turf over his grave this rude epitaph:

Faithful lived and Faithful died,

Faithful lies buried on the hill side;

The hill so wide the fields surround,

In the day of Judgment he'll be found.


Up to a recent period the shepherds and rustics of the neighbourhood were accustomed to scour the letters; and as they were very large, and the soil chalky, the words were visible at a great distance. The scouring having been discontinued, the word Faithful alone could be discerned in l848, but the grave is still held in reverence, and generally approached with solemnity by the rustics of the neighbourhood.
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From Bucks Life, March 1969;
Letter to The Editor;

Dear Sir,

In your January issue, Browne Wills writes about Faithful the Shepherd. He suggests that the Aylsbury Ramblers Club might try to find Faithful's Grave.
According to my information it would be impossible to find the grave. Towards the end of the nineteenth century a chalet was built near Faithful's Grave at Aston Hill, Buckinghamshire. To make the site level for the chalet, about four feet of earth was removed. Workmen wishing to see whether there had been a burial there dug a little deeper, and found his skull quite perfect with other bones and the skeleton of his dog. There were nails of the coffin but the wood had entirely decayed. A gentleman from Wendover and one from Aston Clinton were present and saw that the bones were re-interred in the same spot.
George A. Osterfield
Alysbury.

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These articles have been supplied by, and shown with permission from, Brian Faithfull, who has been researching the Faithfull name for over 20 years, and is instrumental in much of what is known today about this family.
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