Mr. Bowles, the vicar of Bremhill, Wilts, is accustomed occasionally to
write epitaphs for the young and aged dead among his own parishioners.
An epitaph of his, on an aged father and mother, written in the
character of a most exemplary son--the father living to eighty-seven
years--ran thus:--
"My father--my poor mother--both are gone,
And o'er your cold remains I place this stone,
In memory of your virtues. May it tell
How _long one_ parent lived, and _both_ how well,"
&c.
When this was shown to the stone-mason critic, (and Mr. Bowles
acknowledges he has heard worse public critics in his time,) he
observed, that the lines _might_ do with a _little_ alteration--thus:--
"My father, and my mother too, are dead,
And here I _put_ this grave-stone at their head;
My father lived to eighty-seven, my mother
No quite _so long_--and _one_ died after _t'other_."
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