In 1906, as George Bernard Shaw and his wife were looking for a house in rural Hertfordshire, they came upon a tombstone in Ayot St Lawrence:

Mary Ann South
Born 1825, Died 1895
Her Time Was Short

When asked why he chose the village as his home, Shaw said that if the biblically allotted threescore years and ten was considered a short life in Ayot, it must be a good place to live.