The Aston Family as Decoyman 60 Years.
“Here lies the Decoyman who liv’d like an otter,
Dividing his time betwixt land and water!
His hide he oft soak’d in the waters of Perry, {39}
Whilst Aston old beer his spirits kept cheery;
Amphibious his trim, Death was puzzle’d they say,
How to dust to reduce such well-moisten’d clay.
So Death turned Decoyman and decoy’d him to land,
Where he fix’d his abode ’till quite dried to the hand;
He then found him fitting for crumbling to dust,
And here he lies mouldering as you and I must.”
“He retired to Whittington upon a freehold he had purchased with the
perquisites of his place for a few years before his death.”
1783.
“A severe winter,—the frost set in the day before Christmas-day, and
continued to introduce the new year.”
“And I may here add, as there is a vacancy, that the frost continued
till March, 1784.”
“I sore forebode these frosty times
Will nip my nob; and then my rhymes
In puff complete, in richness big,
And full and flowery as my wig,
Will future bards and priests explore,
Till Taste and Talent are no more.
While dull, tho’ disembodied I
Jump up a Gnome ’twixt earth and sky;
Perch on the pen of rhyming elf,
And squat a squabby rhyme myself.
A brat I boast, hight Pudding Billy,
Whom tho’ the witless world calls silly,
And tho’ but lame in hie hæc hoe
Is a right chip of the old block.”
_W. Roberts_, _Rector_.
N.B. Mr. Roberts died a few months after writing this epitaph on
himself.
The Registers are quite complete from the year 1591, to the present time,
with the exception of that of marriages, from the 1654, to 1659.
The following is a copy of the Terrier of 1630, mentioned by Mr. Pennant,
excepting the part of it which relates to the glebe lands:
“We find all the tythes falling within the forest of Bafin’s Wood are
* * * * * * * * {40} _Itm_ an English bible, a Welsh bible, a
communion silver patara, a prayer-book in English, and a prayer-book
in Welsh, a homely {41} book in English, and a homely book in Welsh,
_Itm_ a linen cloth and napkin, two surplices, two chests, a velvet
cushion and hangings for the pulpit, three pair of armour, two pikes
and two head pieces, a flagon, a pewter plate, and a stone font.”
(Signed)
_Edward Williams_, _Rector_.
_Edward Edwards_,
_John Rogers_,
_Edward ap Thomas_,
_Hugh ap John Lewis_,
_John Benion_,
_Richard ap Edd_.
* * * * *