As legend has it, on New Year’s Day, 1917, Hubert Eaton, aka The Builder, stood on a hilltop overlooking the small country cemetery of fifty-five acres which had just been placed in his charge. As he gazed at the sere and brown hillside, at once a vision came to him-that he should build a Memorial-Park worthy of Evelyn Waugh’s mockery.
By 1947, he had done just that-Forest Lawn stood magnificently and The Loved One was published. Some have argued that Gus succumbed to mortification, while others feel he had served The Builder’s Dream proudly and, having done so, left the body.
In any event, here’s the pond, under the charmingly picturesque eye of the Tudor manor house (seemingly derived from Warwickshire’s Compton Wynyates, especially in the half-timbering) that serves as Administration Building and Mortuary.
And now, a vintage photo of the cob himself:
