Bradley, the most wonderful and surprising Yorkshire Giant, 7 feet 9
inches high, weighs 27 stones; who has had the honour of being
introduced to their Majesties & Royal Family at Windsor, where he was
most graciously received. A more surprising instance of gigantic
stature has never been beheld, or exhibited in any other kingdom;
being proportionate in all respects, the sight of him never fails to
give universal gratification, & will fill the beholder's eyes with
wonder & astonishment. He is allowed by the greatest judges to surpass
all men ever yet seen. Admittance one shilling.
In "Celebrities of the Yorkshire Wolds," by Frederick Ross, an interesting
sketch of Bradley is given. Mr. Ross states that he was a man of temperate
habits, and never drank anything stronger than water, milk, or tea, and
was a very moderate eater.
In Hampsthwaite churchyard was interred a "Yorkshire Dwarf." Her
gravestone states:--
In memory of JANE RIDSDALE, daughter of George and Isabella Ridsdale,
of Hampsthwaite, who died at Swinton Hall, in the parish of Masham, on
the 2nd day of January, 1828, in the 59th year of her age. Being in
stature only 31-1/2 inches high.
Blest be the hand divine which gently laid
My head at rest beneath the humble shade;
Then be the ties of friendship dear;
Let no rude hand disturb my body here.
In the burial-ground of St. Martin's, Stamford, is a gravestone to
Lambert, a man of surprising corpulency:--
In remembrance of that prodigy in nature,
DANIEL LAMBERT,
a native of Leicester,
who was possessed of an excellent and convivial mind, and
in personal greatness had no competitor.
He measured three feet one inch round the leg, nine feet four
inches round the body, and weighed 52 stones 11 lbs.
(14 lb. to the stone).
He departed this life on the 21st of June, 1809, aged 39 years.
As a testimony of respect, this stone was erected by his
friends in Leicester.
Respecting the burial of Lambert we gather from a sketch of his life the
following particulars: "His coffin, in which there was a great difficulty
to place him, was six feet four inches long, four feet four inches wide,
and two feet four inches deep; the immense substance of his legs made it
necessarily a square case. This coffin, which consisted of 112 superficial
feet of elm, was built on two axle-trees, and four cog-wheels. Upon these
his remains were rolled into his grave, which was in the new burial-ground
at the back of St. Martin's Church. A regular descent was made by sloping
it for some distance. It was found necessary to take down the window and
wall of the room in which he lay to allow of his being taken away."
In St. Peter's churchyard, Isle of Thanet, a gravestone bears the
following inscription:--
In memory of Mr. RICHARD JOY called the
Kentish Samson
Died May 18th 1742 aged 67
Hercules Hero Famed for Strength
At last Lies here his Breadth and Length
See how the mighty man is fallen
To Death ye strong and weak are all one
And the same Judgment doth Befall
Goliath Great or David small.
Joy was invited to Court to exhibit his remarkable feats of strength. In
1699 his portrait was published, and appended to it was an account of his
prodigious physical power.
The next epitaph is from St. James's Cemetery, Liverpool:--
Reader pause. Deposited beneath are the remains of
SARAH BIFFIN,
who was born without arms or hands, at Quantox Head, County of
Somerset, 25th of October, 1784, died at Liverpool, 2nd October,
1850. Few have passed through the vale of life so much the child of
hapless fortune as the deceased: and yet possessor of mental
endowments of no ordinary kind. Gifted with singular talents as an
Artist, thousands have been gratified with the able productions of her
pencil! whilst versatile conversation and agreeable manners elicited
the admiration of all. This tribute to one so universally admired is
paid by those who were best acquainted with the character it so
briefly portrays. Do any inquire otherwise--the answer is supplied in
the solemn admonition of the Apostle--
Now no longer the subject of tears,
Her conflict and trials are o'er
In the presence of God she appears
* * * * *
Our correspondent, Mrs. Charlotte Jobling, from whom we received the
above, says: "The remainder is buried. It stands against the wall, and
does not appear to now mark the grave of Miss Biffin." Mr. Henry Morley,
in his "Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair," writing about the fair of 1799,
mentions Miss Biffin. "She was found," says Mr. Morley, "in the Fair, and
assisted by the Earl of Morton, who sat for his likeness to her, always
taking the unfinished picture away with him when he left, that he might
prove it to be all the work of her own shoulder. When it was done he laid
it before George III., in the year 1808; he obtained the King's favour
for Miss Biffin; and caused her to receive, at his own expense, further
instruction in her art from Mr. Craig. For the last twelve years of his
life he maintained a correspondence with her; and, after having enjoyed
favour from two King Georges, she received from William IV. a small
pension, with which, at the Earl's request, she retired from a life among
caravans. But fourteen years later, having been married in the interval,
she found it necessary to resume, as Mrs. Wright, late Miss Biffin, her
business as a skilful miniature painter, in one or two of our chief
provincial towns."
The following on Butler, the author of "Hudibras," merits a place in our
pages. The first inscription is from St. Paul's, Covent Garden:--
BUTLER, the celebrated author of "Hudibras," was buried in this
church. Some of the inhabitants, understanding that so famous a man
was there buried, and regretting that neither stone nor inscription
recorded the event, raised a subscription for the purpose of erecting
something to his memory. Accordingly, an elegant tablet has been put
up in the portico of the church, bearing a medallion of that great
man, which was taken from his monument in Westminster Abbey.
The following lines were contributed by Mr. O'Brien, and are engraved
beneath the medallion:--
A few plain men, to pomp and pride unknown,
O'er a poor bard have rais'd this humble stone,
Whose wants alone his genius could surpass,
Victim of zeal! the matchless "Hudibras."
What, tho' fair freedom suffer'd in his page,
Reader, forgive the author--for the age.
How few, alas! disdain to cringe and cant,
When 'tis the mode to play the sycophant,
But oh! let all be taught, from BUTLER'S fate,
Who hope to make their fortunes by the great;
That wit and pride are always dangerous things,
And little faith is due to courts or kings.
The erection of the above monument was the occasion of this very good
epigram by Mr. S. Wesley:--
Whilst BUTLER (needy wretch!) was yet alive,
No gen'rous patron would a dinner give;
See him, when starv'd to death, and turn'd to dust,
Presented with a monumental bust!
The poet's fate is here in emblem shown,
He ask'd for bread, and he received a stone.
It is worth remarking that the poet was starving, while his prince,
Charles II., always carried a "Hudibras" in his pocket.
The inscription on his monument in Westminster Abbey is as follows:--
Sacred to the Memory of
SAMUEL BUTLER,
Who was born at Strensham, in Worcestershire, 1612, and died at
London, 1680; a man of uncommon learning, wit, and probity: as
admirable for the product of his genius, as unhappy in the rewards of
them. His satire, exposing the hypocrisy and wickedness of the rebels,
is such an inimitable piece, that, as he was the first, he may be said
to be the last writer in his peculiar manner. That he, who, when
living, wanted almost everything, might not, after death, any longer
want so much as a tomb, John Barber, citizen of London, erected this
monument 1721.
Here are a few particulars respecting an oddity, furnished by a
correspondent: "Died, at High Wycombe, Bucks, on the 24th May, 1837, Mr.
John Guy, aged 64. His remains were interred in Hughenden churchyard, near
Wycombe. On a marble slab, on the lid of his coffin, is the following
inscription:--
Here, without nail or shroud, doth lie
Or covered by a pall, JOHN GUY.
Born May 17th, 1773.
Died ---- 24th, 1837.
On his gravestone these lines are inscribed:--
In coffin made without a nail,
Without a shroud his limbs to hide;
For what can pomp or show avail,
Or velvet pall, to swell the pride.
Here lies JOHN GUY beneath this sod,
Who lov'd his friends, and fear'd his God.
This eccentric gentleman was possessed of considerable property, and was a
native of Gloucestershire. His grave and coffin were made under his
directions more than a twelvemonth before his death; the inscription on
the tablet on his coffin, and the lines placed upon his gravestone, were
his own composition. He gave all necessary orders for the conducting of
his funeral, and five shillings were wrapped in separate pieces of paper
for each of the bearers. The coffin was of singular beauty and neatness in
workmanship, and looked more like a piece of tasteful cabinet-work
intended for a drawing-room, than a receptacle for the dead."
Near the great door of the Abbey of St. Peter, Gloucester, says Mr. Henry
Calvert Appleby, at the bottom of the body of the building, is a marble
monument to John Jones, dressed in the robes of an alderman, painted in
different colours. Underneath the effigy, on a tablet of black marble, are
the following words:--
JOHN JONES, alderman, thrice mayor of the city, burgess of the
Parliament at the time of the gunpowder treason; registrar to eight
several Bishops of this diocese.
He died in the sixth year of the reign of King Charles I., on the first of
June, 1630. He gave orders for his monument to be raised in his lifetime.
When the workmen had fixed it up, he found fault with it, remarking that
the _nose was too red_. While they were altering it, he walked up and down
the body of the church. He then said that he had himself almost finished,
so he paid off the men, and died the next morning.
The next epitaph from Newark, Nottinghamshire, furnishes a chapter of
local history:--
Sacred to the memory
Of HERCULES CLAY, Alderman of Newark,
Who died in the year of his Mayoralty,
Jan. 1, 1644.
On the 5th of March, 1643,
He and his family were preserved
By the Divine Providence
From the thunderbolt of a terrible cannon
Which had been levelled against his house
By the Besiegers,
And entirely destroyed the same.
Out of gratitude for this deliverance,
He has taken care
To perpetuate the remembrance thereof
By an alms to the poor and a sermon;
By this means
Raising to himself a Monument
More durable than Brass.
The thund'ring Cannon sent forth from its mouth the devouring Flames
Against my Household Gods, and yours, O Newark.
The Ball, thus thrown, Involved the House in Ruin;
But by a Divine Admonition from Heaven I was saved,
Being thus delivered by a strength Greater than that of Hercules,
And having been drawn out of the deep Clay,
I now inhabit the stars on high.
Now, Rebel, direct thy unavailing Fires at Heaven,
Art thou afraid to fight against God--thou
Who hast been a Murderer of His People?
Thou durst not, Coward, scatter thy Flames
Whilst Charles is lord of earth and skies.
Also of his beloved wife
MARY (by the gift of God)
Partaker of the same felicity.
Wee too made one by his decree
That is but one in Trinity,
Did live as one till death came in
And made us two of one agen;
Death was much blamed for our divorce,
But striving how he might doe worse
By killing th' one as well as th' other,
He fairely brought us both togeather,
Our soules together where death dare not come,
Our bodyes lye interred beneath this tomb,
Wayting the resurrection of the just,
O knowe thyself (O man), thou art but dust.[2]
It is stated that Charles II., in a gay moment, asked Rochester to write
his epitaph. Rochester immediately wrote:--
Here lies our mutton-eating king,
Whose word no man relied on;
Who never said a foolish thing,
Nor ever did a wise one.
On which the King wrote the following comment:--
If death could speak, the king would say,
In justice to his crown,
His _acts_ they were the ministers's,
His words they were his own.
Mr. Thomas Broadbent Trowsdale tells us: "In the fine old church of
Chepstow, Monmouthshire, nearly opposite the reading-desk, is a memorial
stone with the following curious acrostic inscription, in capital
letters:--
HERE SEPT. 9th, 1680,
WAS BURIED
A TRUE BORN ENGLISHMAN,
Who, in Berkshire, was well known
To love his country's freedom 'bove his own:
But being immured full twenty years
Had time to write, as doth appears--
HIS EPITAPH.
H ere or elsewhere (all's one to you or me)
E arth, Air, or Water gripes my ghostly dust,
N one knows how soon to be by fire set free;
R eader, if you an old try'd rule will trust,
Y ou'll gladly do and suffer what you must.
M y time was spent in serving you and you,
A nd death's my pay, it seems, and welcome too;
R evenge destroying but itself, while I
T o birds of prey leave my old cage and fly;
E xamples preach to the eye--care then (mine says),
N ot how you end, but how you spend your days.
"This singular epitaph points out the last resting-place of Henry Marten,
one of the judges who condemned King Charles I. to the scaffold. On the
Restoration, Marten was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment, Chepstow
Castle being selected as the place of his incarceration. There he died in
1680, in the twenty-eighth year of his captivity, and seventy-eighth of
his age. He was originally interred in the chancel of the church; but a
subsequent vicar of Chepstow, Chest by name, who carried his petty party
animosities even beyond the grave, had the dead man's dust removed,
averring that he would not allow the body of a regicide to lie so near the
altar. And so it was that Marten's memorial came to occupy its present
position in the passage leading from the nave to the north aisle. We are
told that one Mr. Downton, a son-in-law of this pusillanimous parson,
touched to the quick by his relative's harsh treatment of poor Marten's
inanimate remains, retorted by writing this satirical epitaph for the Rev.
Mr. Chest's tombstone:--
Here lies at rest, I do protest,
One CHEST within another!
The chest of wood was very good,--
Who says so of the other?
"Some doubt has been thrown on the probability of a man of Marten's
culture having written, as is implied in the inscription, the epitaph
which has a place on his memorial.
"The regicide was a son of Sir Henry Marten, a favourite of the first
James, and by him appointed Principal Judge of the Admiralty and Dean of
Arches. Young Henry was himself a prominent person during the period of
the disastrous Civil War, and was elected Member of Parliament for
Berkshire in 1640. He was, in politics, a decided Republican, and threw in
his lot with the Roundhead followers of sturdy Oliver. When the tide of
popular favour turned in Charles II.'s direction, and Royalty was
reinstated, Marten and the rest of the regicides were brought to judgment
for signing the death warrant of their monarch. The consequence, in
Marten's case, was life-long imprisonment, as we have seen, in Chepstow
Castle."
Next is a copy of an acrostic epitaph from Tewkesbury Abbey.
Here lyeth the body of THOMAS MERRETT, of Tewkesbury,
Barber-chirurgeon, who departed this life the 22nd day of October,
1699.
T hough only Stone Salutes the reader's eye,
H ere (in deep silence) precious dust doth lye,
O bscurely Sleeping in Death's mighty store,
M ingled with common earth till time's no more,
A gainst Death's Stubborne laws, who dares repine,
S ince So much Merrett did his life resigne.
M urmurs and Teares are useless in the grave,
E lse hee whole Vollies at his Tomb might have.
R est in Peace; who like a faithful steward,
R epair'd the Church, the Poore and needy cur'd;
E ternall mansions do attend the Just,
T o clothe with Immortality their dust,
T ainted (whilst under ground) with wormes and rust.
In the churchyard of Irongray a table stone, reared by Sir Walter Scott,
commemorates Helen Walker, the prototype of Jeanie Deans, whose integrity
and tenderness are, in his "Heart of Midlothian," so admirably portrayed
by that great novelist. The following is the inscription:--
This stone was erected
by the author of Waverley
to the memory of
HELEN WALKER,
who died in the year of God 1791.
This humble individual practised in real
life the virtues
with which fiction has invested
the imaginary character of
Jeanie Deans;
refusing the slightest departure
from veracity,
even to save the life of a sister,
she nevertheless showed her
kindness and fortitude,
in rescuing her from the severity of the
law at the expense of personal
exertions which the time
rendered as difficult as the motive was
laudable.
Respect the grave of poverty
when combined with love of truth
and dear affection.
Erected October 1831.
Robert Paterson, better known as "Old Mortality," rests in the churchyard
of Caerlaverock, Dumfriesshire. We learn from Dr. Charles Rogers's
"Monuments and Monumental Inscriptions in Scotland" (1871) that Paterson
was born in 1715, and was the youngest son of Walter Paterson and Margaret
Scott, who rented the farm of Haggista, parish of Hawick. He some time
served an elder brother who had a farm in Comcockle-muir, near Lochmaben.
He married Elizabeth Gray, who, having been cook in the family of Sir
Thomas Kirkpatrick, of Closeburn, procured for him an advantageous lease
of a freestone quarry at Morton. Here he resided many years, labouring
with exemplary diligence. From his youth attached to the sect of the
Cameronians, he evinced a deep interest in the memory of those who had
suffered in the cause of Presbytery. Occasionally he restored their
tombstones. At length his zeal in the restoration of these stony memorials
acquired the force of a passion. In 1758 he began to travel from parish to
parish, ever working with hammer and chisel in renewing the epitaphs of
the martyrs. His self-imposed task no entreaties of wife or children could
induce him to abandon. Though reduced to the verge of poverty, he
persisted in his labours till the last day of his existence. He died at
Banpend village, near Lockerbie, on the 29th January, 1801, aged
eighty-six. At his death he was found possessed of twenty-seven shillings
and sixpence, which were applied to the expenses of his funeral. Sir
Walter Scott, who has made "Old Mortality" the subject of a novel,
intended to rear a tombstone to his memory, but was unable to discover his
place of sepulture. Since the discovery has been made, Messrs. Black, of
Edinburgh, who possess the copyright of the Waverley novels, have reared
at the grave of the old enthusiast a suitable memorial stone. It is thus
inscribed:--
Erected to the memory of ROBERT PATERSON,
the "Old Mortality" of Sir Walter Scott,
who was buried here February, 1801.
"Why seeks he with unwearied toil
Through death's dim walk to urge his way
Reclaim his long asserted spoil,
And lead oblivion into day."
Here is a picture of the stone placed over the grave of William
Shakespeare, at Stratford-on-Avon, with its well-known and frequently
quoted inscription:--
[Illustration:
GOOD FREND FOR IESVS SAKE FORBEARE,
TO DICC THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE,
BLESTE BE Y{E} MAN Y{T} SPARES THES STONES,
AND CVRST BE HE Y{T} MOVES MY BONES.]
At Loddon, in Norfolk, is buried one who, like the bard of Avon, had a
great horror of his bones being removed. The epitaph is as follows:--
When on this spot affection's downcast eye,
The lucid tribute shall no more bestow;
When friendship's breast no more shall heave a sigh,
In kind remembrance of the dust below;
Should the rude sexton digging near this tomb,
A place of rest for others to prepare,
The vault beneath to violate presume;
May some opposing Christian cry "Forbear"--
Forbear! rash mortal, as thou hop'st to rest
When death shall lodge thee in thy destined bed,
With ruthless spade, unkindly to molest
The peaceful slumbers of the kindred dead.
In Tideswell churchyard, among several other singular gravestone
inscriptions, the following occurs, and is worth reprinting:--
In memory of
BRIAN, son of JOHN and MARTHA HAIGH,
who died 22nd December, 1795,
Aged 17 years.
Come, honest sexton, with thy spade,
And let my grave be quickly made;
Make my cold bed secure and deep,
That, undisturbed, my bones may sleep.
Until that great tremendous day,
When from above a voice shall say,--
"Awake, ye dead, lift up your eyes,
Your great Creator bids you rise!"
Then, free from this polluted dust,
I hope to be amongst the just.
Under the shadow of the ancient church of Bakewell, Derbyshire, is a stone
containing a long inscription to the memory of John Dale, barber-surgeon,
and his two wives, Elizabeth Foljambe and Sarah Bloodworth. It ends
thus:--
Know posterity, that on the 8th of April, in the year of grace 1757,
the rambling remains of the above JOHN DALE were, in the 86th yeare
of his pilgrimage, laid upon his two wives.
This thing in life might raise some jealousy,
Here all three lie together lovingly,
But from embraces here no pleasure flows,
Alike are here all human-joys and woes;
Here Sarah's chiding John no longer hears,
And old John's rambling Sarah no more fears;
A period's come to all their toylsome lives,
The good man's quiet; still are both his wives.
On a slab affixed to the east wall of St. Mary's Church, Whitby, is an
inscription containing some remarkable coincidences:--
Here lie the bodies of FRANCIS HUNTRODDS and MARY his wife, who were
both born on the same day of the week month and year (viz.) Sepr ye
19th 1600 marry'd on the day of their birth and after having had 12
children born to them died aged 80 years on the same day of the year
they were born September ye 19th 1680, the one not one above five
hours before ye other.
Husband and wife that did twelve children bear,
Dy'd the same day; alike both aged were
'Bout eighty years they liv'd, five hours did part
(Ev'n on the marriage day) each tender heart
So fit a match, surely could never be,
Both in their lives, and in their deaths agree.
The following is from St. Julian's Church, Shrewsbury:--
The remains of HENRY CORSER of this parish, Chirurgeon, who Deceased
April 11, 1691, and ANNIE his wife, who followed him the next day
after:--
We man and wife,
Conjoined for Life,
Fetched our last breath
So near that Death,
Who part us would,
Yet hardly could.
Wedded againe,
In bed of dust,
Here we remaine,
Till rise we must.
A double prize this grave doth finde,
If you are wise keep it in minde.
In the church of Little Driffield, East Yorkshire, were placed in modern
times two inscriptions to the memory of Alfred, King of Northumbria. The
first states:--
In the chancel of this church lie the remains of ALFRED, King of
Northumbria, who departed this life in the year 705.
The present one reads as follows:--
WITHIN THIS CHANCEL
LIES INTERRED THE BODY OF
ALFRED
KING OF NORTHUMBRIA
DEPARTED THIS LIFE
JANUARY 19TH A.D. 705
IN THE 20TH YEAR OF HIS REIGN
STATUTUM EST OMNIBUS SEMIL MORI.
In St. Anne's churchyard, Soho, erected by the Earl of Orford (Walpole),
in 1758, these lines were (or are) to be read:--
Near this place is interred
THEODORE, King of Corsica,
Who died in this Parish
December XI., MDCCLVI.,
Immediately after leaving
The _Kings Bench Prison_,
By the benefit of the _Act of Insolvency_;
In consequence of which
He _registered his Kingdom of Corsica
For the use of his Creditors_!
The grave--great teacher--to a level brings
Heroes and beggars, galley-slaves and kings!
But THEODORE this moral learned, ere dead;
Fate pour'd its lessons on his living head,
Bestow'd a kingdom, and denied him bread.
In the burial-ground of the Island of Juan Fernandez, a monument states:--
In Memory of
ALEXANDER SELKIRK,
Mariner,
A native of Largo, in the county of Fife, Scotland,
Who lived on this island, in complete
solitude, for four years and four months.
He was landed from the Cinque Ports galley, 96 tons,
18 guns, A.D. 1704, and was taken off in the
Duke, privateer, 12th February, 1709.
He died Lieutenant of H.M.S. Weymouth,
A.D. 1723, aged 47 years.
This Tablet is erected near Selkirk's look out,
By Commodore Powell and the Officers
of H.M.S. Topaze, A.D. 1868.