In the Fountain Churchyard and Cloister, once the burial ground for the parish, is a baked brick from Iraq, incised with cunieform script, one of the earliest forms of writing, in which the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh was recorded.

The tablet in the courtyard reads:

Shalmaneser Mighty King, King of the World,

King of Assyria, Son of Ashurnasirpal

 

Mighty King, King of the World, King of

Assyria, Son of Tukulti-Ninurta who was also

King of the World, King of Assyria, The facing

of the Ziggurat of the City of Kalhu.

It was commonplace for kings to claim that they were greater than all others, and to substantiate their claims by referring to the great buildings they had erected. Compare Gilgamesh:

Climb Uruk's wall and walk back and forth!

Survey its foundations, examine the brickwork!

Were its bricks not fired in an oven?

 

Who is there can rival his kingly standing,

And say like Gilgamesh, "It is I am the king?"

 

Gilgamesh the tall, magnificent and terrible,

Who opened passes in the mountains,

Who dug wells on the slopes of the uplands,

And crossed the ocean, the wide sea to the sunrise...