The following is the inscription on a stone designed to perpetuate the
memory of the late singular and unfortunate rector of Little Stukely,
and is now exhibited in the mason's yard at Huntingdon. According to
immemorial usage a copy of verses is appended to the inscription, which,
in point of style, taste, and orthography, are on a par with the
"uncouth rhymes" alluded to by Gray. The _poetry_ is said to be the
production of a Cambridge graduate.
"Sacred to the memory of the Rev, Joshua Waterhouse, B.D., nearly forty
years Fellow of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, Chaplain to his Majesty,
Rector of this parish, and of Coton, near Cambridge, who was inhumanly
murdered _in this Parsonage House_, about ten o'clock on the
morning of July 3rd, 1827. Aged eighty-one.
Beneath this tomb his mangled body's laid,
Cut, stabb'd, and murdered by Joshua Slade;
His ghastly wounds a horrid sight to see,
And hurl'd at once into eternity.
What faults you've seen in him take care to shun,
And look at home, enough there's to be done;
Death does not always warning give,
Therefore be careful how you live."
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