WILLIAM BLAKE'S WONDERS

FANS MARK LOST grave of Poet William Blake. Luis and Carol Garrido researched for two years, using coordinates and tape measures.

The lost resting place of British poet and artist William Blake was finally marked with a gravestone on Sunday, almost 200 years after he died.

Despite his influence today, Blake died in obscurity in 1827 and was buried in an unmarked common grave in Bunhill Fields, a London cemetery.

Only a  plain memorial stone recorded that he was buried nearby, much to the dismay of two devotees  who visited, and who decided to find his exact resting place.

Luis and Carol Garrido had as their guide the original coordinates of his burial, which were based on grid of graves but became confused when parts of the cemetery were converted into gardens.

After two years of research and some painstaking work with a tape measure, they found it, and the Blake Society - of which they were  members - began fundraising  for a new memorial to mark the spot.

The society raised Pound 30,000 through donations from around the world, as well as  benefit gala.

The engraved slab of  Portland stone  unveiled on Sunday reads, ''Here lies William Blake, 1757-1827'', followed by two lines of his verse.

''It matters that we recognise those who have contributed to our cultural heritage, and no creative genius has influenced people to the extraordinary extent as William Blake,''  Nick Duncan, a trustee of the Blake Society, said in a press release.

''Yet, almost two centuries after his death, Blake's grave is unmarked. People walk unknowingly over it, dropping litter and thinking of other things.''

He added, ''At last, lovers of Blake from all over the world will have a point of pilgrimage.''  AFP