HENRY JENKINS,
Aged 169.
In the church, on a mural tablet of black marble, is inscribed the
following epitaph, composed by Dr. Thomas Chapman, Master of Magdalen
College, Cambridge:--
Blush not, marble,
to rescue from oblivion
the memory of
HENRY JENKINS:
a person obscure in birth,
but of a life truly memorable;
for
he was enriched
with the goods of nature,
if not of fortune,
and happy
in the duration,
if not variety,
of his enjoyments:
and,
tho' the partial world
despised and disregarded
his low and humble state,
the equal eye of Providence
beheld, and blessed it
with a patriarch's health and length of days:
to teach mistaken man,
these blessings were entailed on temperance,
or, a life of labour and a mind at ease.
He lived to the amazing age of 169;
was interred here, Dec. 6, (or 9,) 1670,
and had this justice done to his memory 1743.
This inscription is a proof that learned men, and masters of colleges, are
not always exempt from the infirmity of writing nonsense. Passing over the
modest request to the _black_ marble not to blush, because it may _feel_
itself degraded by bearing the name of the plebeian Jenkins, when it ought
only to have been appropriated to kings and nobles, we find but
questionable philosophy in this inappropriate composition.
The multitude of great events which took place during the lifetime of this
man are truly wonderful and astonishing. He lived under the rule of nine
sovereigns of England--Henry VII.; Henry VIII.; Edward VI.; Mary;
Elizabeth; James I.; Charles I.; Oliver Cromwell; and Charles II. He was
born when the Roman Catholic religion was established by law. He saw the
dissolution of the monasteries, and the faith of the nation
changed--Popery established a second time by Queen Mary--Protestantism
restored by Elizabeth--the Civil War between Charles and the Parliament
begun and ended--Monarchy abolished--the young Republic of England,
arbiter of the destinies of Europe--and the restoration of Monarchy under
the libertine Charles II. During his time, England was invaded by the
Scots; a Scottish King was slain, and a Scottish Queen beheaded in
England; a King of Spain and a King of Scotland were Kings in England;
three Queens and one King were beheaded in England in his days; and fire
and plague alike desolated London. His lifetime appears like that of a
nation, more than an individual, so long was it extended and so crowded
was it with such great events."
The foregoing many incidents remind us of the well-known Scottish epitaph
on Marjory Scott, who died February 26th, 1728, at Dunkeld, at the extreme
age of one hundred years. According to Chambers's "Domestic Annals of
Scotland," the following epitaph was composed for her by Alexander
Pennecuik, but never inscribed, and it has been preserved by the reverend
statist of the parish, as a whimsical statement of historical facts
comprehended within the life of an individual:--
Stop, passenger, until my life you read,
The living may get knowledge from the dead.
Five times five years I led a virgin life,
Five times five years I was a virtuous wife;
Ten times five years I lived a widow chaste,
Now tired of this mortal life I rest.
Betwixt my cradle and my grave hath been
Eight mighty kings of Scotland and a queen.
Full twice five years the Commonwealth I saw.
Ten times the subjects rise against the law;
And, which is worse than any civil war,
A king arraigned before the subject's bar.
Swarms of sectarians, hot with hellish rage,
Cut off his royal head upon the stage.
Twice did I see old prelacy pulled down,
And twice the cloak did sink beneath the gown.
I saw the Stuart race thrust out; nay, more,
I saw our country sold for English ore;
Our numerous nobles, who have famous been,
Sunk to the lowly number of sixteen.
Such desolation in my days have been,
I have an end of all perfection seen!
A foot-note states: "The minister's version is here corrected from one of
the _Gentleman's Magazines_ for January 1733; but both are incorrect,
there having been during 1728 and the one hundred preceding years no more
than six kings of Scotland."
In Scott's "Tales of a Grandfather," there is an account of the Battle of
Lillyard's Edge, which was fought in 1545. The spot on which the battle
occurred is so called from an Amazonian Scottish woman, who is reported,
by tradition, to have distinguished herself in the fight. An inscription
which was placed on her tombstone was legible within the present century,
and is said to have run thus:--
Fair Maiden Lillyard lies under this stane,
Little was her stature, but great was her fame;
Upon the English louns she laid many thumps,
And when her legs were cutted off, she fought upon her stumps.
The tradition says that a beautiful young lady, called Lillyard, followed
her lover from the little village of Maxton, and when she saw him fall in
battle, rushed herself into the heat of the fight, and was killed, after
slaying several of the English.
On one of the buttresses on the south side of St. Mary's Church, at
Beverley, is an oval tablet, to commemorate the fate of two Danish
soldiers, who, during their voyage to Hull, to join the service of the
Prince of Orange, in 1689, quarrelled, and having been marched with the
troops to Beverley, during their short stay there sought a private meeting
to settle their differences by the sword. Their melancholy end is recorded
in a doggerel epitaph, of which we give an illustration.