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Minor Notes.
_Falsified Gravestone in Stratford Churchyard._--The following instance of
a recent forgery having been extensively circulated, may lead to more
careful examination by those who take notes of things extraordinary.
The church at Stratford-upon-Avon was repaired about the year 1839; and
some of the workmen having their attention directed to the fact, that many
persons who had attained to the full age of man were buried in the
churchyard; and, wishing "for the honour of the place," to improve the
note-books of visitors, set about manufacturing an extraordinary instance
of longevity. A gravestone was chosen in an out-of-the-way place, in which
there happened to be a space before the age (72). A figure 1 was cut in
this space, and the age at death then stood 172. The sexton was either
deceived, or assented to the deception; as the late vicar, the Rev. J.
Clayton, learned that it had become a practice with him (the sexton) to
show strangers this gravestone, so falsified, as a proof of the
extraordinary age to which people lived in the parish. The vicar had the
fraudulent figure erased at once, and lectured the sexton for his
dishonesty.
These facts were related to me a few weeks since by a son of the late
vicar. And as many strangers visiting the tomb of Shakspeare "made a note"
of this falsified age, "N. & Q." may now correct the forgery.