The Mystic Umbrellas:
Langton Freeman's Summer-house Tomb

Langton Freeman's Summer-house Tomb:
Part 1: Autumn Cortege
Part 2: The Winding
Part 3: The Sealing
Part 4: Cypress, Laurel and Yew
Part 5: Dark Blue Palings

Peacock House
Prince Jali
Journey To The West

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“The remains of the Rev. Langton Freeman, a native of this parish [of Whilton, Northamptonshire], and a man remarkable for his eccentricities, lie enveloped in a feather bed in a summer-house a little south of the village, in accordance with the following extract from his will, dated 16 th September, 1783: - ‘And first, for four or five days after my decease, and till my body grows offensive, I would not be removed out of the place or bed I shall die on; and then I would be carried and laid in the same bed, decently and privately, in the summer-house now erected in the garden belonging to the dwelling-house where I now inhabit in Whilton, and to be laid in the same bed there, with all the appurtenances thereto belonging, and to be wrapped in a strong double winding-sheet; and in all other respects to be interred as near as may be, to the description we receive in Holy Scripture of our Saviour’s burial: the doors and windows to be locked or bolted, and to be kept as near in the same manner and state they shall be in at the time of my decease; and I desire that the building or summer-house may be planted around with evergreen plants, and fenced off with iron or oak pales, and painted of a dark-blue colour.’ His body was deposited in the said summer-house on the 11 th October, 1783.”

- Whellan’s Directory of Northamptonshire, 1849, pp338-9

Few other traditions of Langton Freeman have survived, except that he interested himself much in the songs and rhymes and stories of the labouring people and children of his parish, who greatly mourned him: and he would often sing or whistle to himself the tunes he heard from them, rather to the surprise of his more staid parishioners. We should preserve his memory if only for the wonderful inconsequentiality of the last stipulation of his will.

The Mystic Umbrellas:
Mark Valentine: reed organ
Mark Lancaster: all other instruments, sounds and samples
Graham Cooling: non-playing member

Original recordings made in 1979 at Duston, Northampton
Digitally remastered and remixed in 2004 by Mark Lancaster
At Waterden Studios, Scunthorpe