Let fall a tear
For one true man of honour;
No courtly lord,
Who breaks his word,
Will ever be a mourner.
In freedom's cause
He stretched his jaws,
Exhausted all his spirit,
Then fell down dead.
It must be said
He was a man of merit.
Let Freemen be
As brave as he,
And vote without a guinea;
VIN EYRE is hurled
To t'other world,
And ne'er took bribe or penny.
True to his friend, to helpless parent kind,
He died in honour's cause, to interest blind.
Why should we grieve life's but an airy toy?
We vainly weep for him who died of joy.
The following lines to the memory of Thomas Stokes are from his gravestone
in Burton churchyard, upon which a profile of his head is cut. He for many
years swept the roads in Burton:--
This stone
was raised by Subscription
to the memory of
THOMAS STOKES,
an eccentric, but much respected,
Deaf and Dumb man,
better known by the name of
"DUMB TOM,"
who departed this life Feb. 25th, 1837,
aged 54 years.
What man can pause and charge this senseless dust
With fraud, or subtilty, or aught unjust?
How few can conscientiously declare
Their acts have been as honourably fair?
No gilded bait, no heart ensnaring need
Could bribe poor STOKES to one dishonest deed.
Firm in attachment to his friends most true--
Though Deaf and Dumb, he was excell'd by few.
Go ye, by nature form'd without defect,
And copy Tom, and gain as much respect.
Next we deal with an instance of pure affection. The churchyard of the
Yorkshire village of Bowes contains the grave of two lovers, whose
touching fate suggested Mallet's beautiful ballad of "Edwin and Emma."
The real names of the couple were Rodger Wrightson and Martha Railton. The
story is rendered with no less accuracy than pathos by the poet:--
Far in the windings of the vale,
Fast by a sheltering wood,
The safe retreat of health and peace,
A humble cottage stood.
There beauteous Emma flourished fair,
Beneath a mother's eye;
Whose only wish on earth was now
To see her blest and die.
Long had she filled each youth with love,
Each maiden with despair,
And though by all a wonder owned,
Yet knew not she was fair.
Till Edwin came, the pride of swains,
A soul devoid of art;
And from whose eyes, serenely mild,
Shone forth the feeling heart.
We are told that Edwin's father and sister were bitterly opposed to their
love. The poor youth pined away. When he was dying Emma was permitted to
see him, but the cruel sister would scarcely allow her to bid him a word
of farewell. Returning home, she heard the passing bell toll for the death
of her lover--
Just then she reached, with trembling step,
Her aged mother's door--
"He's gone!" she cried, "and I shall see
That angel face no more!"
"I feel, I feel this breaking heart
Beat high against my side"--
From her white arm down sunk her head;
She, shivering, sighed, and died.
The lovers were buried the same day and in the same grave. In the year
1848, Dr. F. Dinsdale, F.S.A., editor of the "Ballads and Songs of David
Mallet," etc., erected a simple but tasteful monument to the memory of the
lovers, bearing the following inscription:--
RODGER WRIGHTSON, junr., and MARTHA RAILTON, both of Bowes; buried in
one grave. He died in a fever, and upon tolling of his passing bell,
she cry'd out My heart is broken and in a few hours expired, purely
thro' love, March 15, 1714-15. Such is the brief and touching record
contained in the parish register of burials. It has been handed down
by unvarying tradition that the grave was at the west end of the
church, directly beneath the bells. The sad history of these true and
faithful lovers forms the subject of Mallet's pathetic ballad of
"Edwin and Emma."[5]
In Middleton Tyas Church, near Richmond, is the following:--
This Monument rescues from Oblivion
the Remains of the Reverend JOHN MAWER, D.D.,
Late vicar of this Parish, who died Nov. 18, 1763, aged 60.
As also of HANNAH MAWER, his wife, who died
Dec. 20th, 1766, aged 72.
Buried in this Chancel.
They were persons of eminent worth.
The Doctor was descended from the Royal Family
of Mawer, and was inferior to none of his illustrious
ancestors in personal merit, being the greatest
Linguist this Nation ever produced.
He was able to speak & write twenty-two Languages,
and particularly excelled in the Eastern Tongues,
in which he proposed to His Royal Highness
Frederick Prince of Wales, to whom he was firmly
attached, to propagate the Christian Religion
in the Abyssinian Empire; a great and noble
Design, which was frustrated by the
Death of that amiable Prince; to the great mortification of
this excellent Person, whose merit meeting with
no reward in this world, will, it's to be hoped, receive
it in the next, from that Being which Justice
only can influence.
Miscellaneous Epitaphs.
We bring together under this heading a number of specimens that we could
not include in the foregoing chapters of classified epitaphs.
An epitaph on a brass in the south aisle of Barton Church, in Norfolk, is
notable as being one of the oldest in existence in English, such memorials
being usually in Latin at the period from which it dates. The inscription
is as follows:--
Here are laid under this stone in the cley
THOMAS AMYS and his wyffe MARGERY.
Sometime we were, as you now be,
And as we be, after this so shall ye.
Of the good as God had, the said Thomas lent,
Did make this chapel of a good intent.
Wherefore they desire of you that be
To pray for them to the last eternity.
I beseach all people far and ner
To pray for me THOMAS AMYS heartily,
Which gave a mesbooke and made this chapel here,
And a suit of blew damask also gave I.
Of God 1511 and 5 yere
I the said Thomas deceased verily,
And the 4th day of August was buried here,
On whose soul God have mercy.
In the churchyard of Stanton Harcourt is a gravestone bearing the
following inscription:--
Near this place lie the bodies of
JOHN HEWET and MARY DREW,
an industrious young Man
and virtuous Maiden of this Parish;
Who, being at Harvest Work
(with several others)
were in one instant killed by Lightning
the last day of July 1718.
Think not, by rig'rous Judgment seiz'd,
A Pair so faithful could expire;
Victims so pure Heav'n saw well pleas'd,
And snatch'd them in celestial fire.
Live well, and fear no sudden fate;
When God calls Virtue to the grave,
Alike 'tis Justice soon or late,
Mercy alike to kill or save.
Virtue unmov'd can hear the call,
And face the flash that melts the ball.
According to a letter from Gay, the poet, to Fenton, relating the death of
the pair, who were lovers, this epitaph was written by Pope, and the
memorial erected at the cost of Lord Harcourt on the condition that Gay or
Pope should write the epitaph. Gay gives the following as the joint
production of the two poets:--
When Eastern lovers feed the fun'ral fire,
On the same pile the faithful pair expire:
Here pitying Heav'n that virtue mutual found,
And blasted both, that it might neither wound.
Hearts so sincere th' Almighty saw well pleas'd,
Sent his own lightning, and the victims seiz'd.
"But," wrote Gay, "my Lord is apprehensive the country people will not
understand this; and Mr. Pope says he'll make one with something of
Scripture in it, and with as little of poetry as Hopkins and Sternhold."
Hence the lines which appear on the tomb of the lovers.
Our next example is from Bury St. Edmunds churchyard:--
Here lies interred the Body of
MARY HASELTON,
A young maiden of this town,
Born of Roman Catholic parents,
And virtuously brought up,
Who, being in the act of prayer
Repeating her vespers,
Was instantaneously killed by a
flash of Lightning, August 16th,
1785. Aged 9 years.
Not Siloam's ruinous tower the victims slew,
Because above the many sinn'd the few,
Nor here the fated lightning wreaked its rage
By vengeance sent for crimes matur'd by age.
For whilst the thunder's awful voice was heard,
The little suppliant with its hands uprear'd.
Addressed her God in prayers the priest had taught,
His mercy craved, and His protection sought;
Learn reader hence that wisdom to adore,
Thou canst not scan and fear His boundless power;
Safe shalt thou be if thou perform'st His will,
Blest if he spares, and more blest should He kill.
From Bury St. Edmunds is the following inscription which tells a sad story
of the low value placed on human life at the close of the eighteenth
century:--
Reader,
Pause at this humble stone it records
The fall of unguarded youth by the allurements of
vice and treacherous snares of seduction.
SARAH LLOYD
On the 23rd April, 1800, in the 22nd year of her age,
Suffered a just and ignominious death.
For admitting her abandoned seducer in the
dwelling-house of her mistress, on the 3rd of
October, 1799, and becoming the instrument in
his hands of the crime of robbery and
housebreaking.
These were her last words:
"May my example be a warning to thousands."
A lover at York inscribed the following lines to his sweetheart, who was
accidentally drowned, December 24th, 1796:--
Nigh to the river Ouse, in York's fair city,
Unto this pretty maid death shew'd no pity;
As soon as she'd her pail with water fill'd
Came sudden death, and life like water spill'd.
In Holy Trinity Church, Hull, is an elegant marble monument by Earle, with
figures of a mother and two children. The inscription tells a painful
story, and is as follows:--
OUR JOHN WILLIAM,
In the sixteenth year of his age, on the night of January 19th, 1858,
was swept by the fury of a storm, from the pierhead, into the sea. We
never found him--he was not, for God took him; the waves bore him to
the hollow of the Father's hand. With hope and joy we cherished our
last surviving flower, but the wind passed over it, and it was gone.
An infant brother had gone before, October 15th, 1841. In heaven their
angel does always behold the face of our Father.
To the memory of these
We, their parents, John and Louisa Gray erect this monument of human
sorrow and Christian hope. "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in
thy sight!"
The record of the death of the parents follows.
An accidental death is recorded on a tombstone in Burton Joyce churchyard,
placed to the memory of Elizabeth Cliff, who died in 1835:--
This monumental stone records the name
Of her who perished in the night by flame
Sudden and awful, for her hoary head;
She was brought here to sleep amongst the dead.
Her loving husband strove to damp the flame
Till he was nearly sacrificed the same,
Her sleeping dust, tho' by thee rudely trod,
Proclaims aloud, prepare to meet thy God.
A tombstone in Creton churchyard states:--
On a Thursday she was born,
On a Thursday made a bride,
On a Thursday put to bed,
On a Thursday broke her leg, and
On a Thursday died.
From Kingsbridge, Devonshire, we have the following:--
Here I lie, at the chancel door,
Here I lie, because I'm poor:
The farther in, the more you pay,
Here I lie as warm as they.
In the churchyard of Kirk Hallam, Derbyshire, a good specimen of a true
Englishman is buried, named Samuel Cleater, who died May 1st, 1811, aged
65 years. The two-lined epitaph has such a genuine, sturdy ring about it,
that it deserves to be rescued from oblivion:--
True to his King, his country was his glory,
When Bony won, he said it was a story.
A monument in Bakewell Church, Derbyshire, is a curiosity, blending as it
does in a remarkable manner business, loyalty, and religion:--
To the memory of MATTHEW STRUTT, of this town, farrier, long famed in
these parts for veterinary skill. A good neighbour, and a staunch
friend to Church and King. Being Churchwarden at the time the present
peal of bells were hung, through zeal for the house of God, and
unremitting attention to the airy business of the belfry, he caught a
cold, which terminated his existence, May 25, 1798, in the 68th year
of his age.
[Illustration: SHORTHAND EPITAPH IN OLD ST. MARY'S CHURCH, SCULCOATES.
_From a Photo by Wellsted & Son, Hull._]
The old church of St. Mary's, Sculcoates, Hull, contains several
interesting monuments, and we give a picture from a specially taken
photograph for this volume of a quaint-looking mural memorial, having on
it an inscription in shorthand. In Sheahan's "History of Hull," the
following translation is given:--
In the vault beneath this stone lies the body of Mrs. JANE DELAMOTH,
who departed this life, 10th January, 1761. She was a poor sinner, but
not wicked without holiness, departing from good works, and departed
in the faith of the Catholic Church, in full assurance of eternal
happiness, by the agony and bloody sweat, by the cross and passion, by
the precious death and burial, by the glorious resurrection and
ascension of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
We believe that the foregoing is a unique epitaph, at all events we have
not heard of or seen any other monumental inscription in shorthand.
The following curious epitaph is from Wirksworth, Derbyshire:--
Near this place lies the body of
PHILIP SHULLCROSS,
Once an eminent Quill-driver to the attorneys in this Town. He died
the 17th of Nov., 1787, aged 67.
Viewing Philip in a moral light, the most prominent and remarkable
features in his character were his zeal and invincible attachment to
dogs and cats, and his unbounded benevolence towards them, as well as
towards his fellow-creatures.
TO THE CRITIC.
Seek not to show the devious paths Phil trode,
Nor tear his frailties from their dread abode,
In modest sculpture let this tombstone tell,
That much esteem'd he lived, and much regretted fell.
At Castleton, in the Peak of Derbyshire, is another curious epitaph,
partly in English and partly in Latin, to the memory of an attorney-at-law
named Micah Hall, who died in 1804. It is said to have been penned by
himself, and is more epigrammatic than reverent. It is as follows:--
To
The memory of
MICAH HALL, Gentleman,
Attorney-at-Law,
Who died on the 14th of May, 1804,
Aged 79 years.
Quid eram, nescitis;
Quid sum, nescitis;
Ubi abii, nescitis;
Valete.
This verse has been rendered thus:--
What I was you know not--
What I am you know not--
Whither I am gone you know not--
Go about your business.
In Sarnesfield churchyard, near Weobley, is the tombstone of John Abel,
the celebrated architect of the market-houses of Hereford, Leominster,
Knighton, and Brecknock, who died in the year 1694, having attained the
ripe old age of ninety-seven. The memorial stone is adorned with three
statues in kneeling posture, representing Abel and his two wives; and also
displayed are the emblems of his profession--the rule, the compass, and
the square--the whole being designed and sculptured by himself. The
epitaph, a very quaint one, was also of his own writing, and runs thus:--
This craggy stone a covering is for an architector's bed;
That lofty buildings raised high, yet now lyes low his head;
His line and rule, so death concludes, are locked up in store;
Build they who list, or they who wist, for he can build no more.
His house of clay could hold no longer
May Heaven's joys build him a stronger.
JOHN ABEL.
Vive ut vivas in vitam aeternam.
In the churchyard of Walcott, Norfolk, the following cynical epitaph may
be seen:--
In memory of
WILLIAM WISEMAN,
who died 5th of August, 1834, aged 72 years.
Under this marble, or under this sill,
Or under this turf, or e'en what you will,
Whatever an heir, or a friend in his stead,
Or any good creature, shall lay o'er my head,
Lies one who ne'er cared, and still cares not a pin
What they said, or may say, of the mortal within,
But who, living and dying, serene, still, and free,
Trusts in God that as well as he was he shall be.
From Gilling churchyard, Richmondshire, is the following:--
Unto the mournful fate of young JOHN MOORE,
Who fell a victim to some villain's power;
In Richmond Lane, near to Ask Hall, 'tis said,
There was his life most cruelly betray'd.
Shot with a gun, by some abandon'd rake,
Then knock'd o' th' head with a hedging stake,
His soul, I trust, is with the blest above,
There to enjoy eternal rest and love;
Then let us pray his murderer to discover,
That he to justice may be brought over.
The crime occurred in 1750, and the murderer was never discovered.
From a gravestone in Patcham was copied the following inscription:--
Sacred to the memory of
DANIEL SCALES,
who was unfortunately shot on Tuesday evening,
Nov. 7, 1796.
Alas! swift flew the fated lead,
Which pierced through the young man's head,
He instant fell, resigned his breath,
And closed his languid eyes on death.
And you who to this stone draw near,
Oh! pray let fall the pitying tear,
From this sad instance may we all
Prepare to meet Jehovah's call.
The real story of Scales' death is given in Chambers's "Book of Days," and
is as follows: Daniel Scales was a desperate smuggler, and one night he,
with many more, was coming from Brighton heavily laden, when the Excise
officers and soldiers fell in with them. The smugglers fled in all
directions; a riding officer, as such persons were called, met this man,
and called upon him to surrender his booty, which he refused to do. The
officer knew that "he was too good a man for him, for they had tried it
out before; so he shot Daniel through the head."
The following inscription copied from a monument at Darfield, near
Barnsley, records a murder which occurred on the spot where the stone is
placed:--
Sacred
To the memory of
THOMAS DEPLEDGE,
Who was murdered at Darfield,
On the 11th of October, 1841.
At midnight drear by this wayside
A murdered man poor DEPLEDGE died,
The guiltless victim of a blow
Aimed to have brought another low,
From men whom he had never harmed
By hate and drunken passions warmed.
Now learn to shun in youth's fresh spring
The courses which to ruin bring.
A stone dated 1853, the Minster graveyard, Beverley, is placed to the
memory of the victim of a railway carriage tragedy, and bears the
following extraordinary inscription:--
Mysterious was my cause of Death
In the Prime of Life I Fell;
For days I Lived yet ne'er had breath
The secret of my fate to tell.
Farewell my child and husband dear
By cruel hands I leave you,
Now that I'm dead, and sleeping here,
My Murderer may deceive you,
Though I am dead, yet I shall live,
I must my Murderer meet,
And then Evidence, shall give
My cause of death complete.
Forgive my child and husband dear,
That cruel Man of blood;
He soon for murder must appear
Before the Son of God.
Near the west end of Holy Trinity Church, Stalham, Norfolk, may be seen a
gravestone bearing the following inscription:--
JAMES AMIES, 1831.
Here lies an honest independent man,
Boast more ye great ones if ye can;
I have been kicked by a bull and ram,
Now let me lay contented as I am.
The following singular verse occurs upon a tombstone contiguous to the
chancel door in Grindon churchyard, near Leek, Staffordshire:--
Farewell, dear friends; to follow me prepare;
Also our loss we'd have you to beware,
And your own business mind. Let us alone,
For you have faults great plenty of your own.
Judge not of us, now We are in our Graves
Lest ye be Judg'd and awfull Sentence have;
For Backbiters, railers, thieves, and liars,
Must torment have in Everlasting Fires.
On a stone in the north aisle of the church of St. Peter of Mancroft,
Norwich, is the following pathetic inscription:--
SUSAN BROWNE, the last deceased of eleven children (the first ten
interr'd before the northern porch) from their surviving parents, John
and Susan his wife. She sought a city to come, and upon the 30th of
August departed hence and found it.
A{o} AEt. 19. Dm. 1686.
Here lies a single Flower scarcely blowne,
Ten more, before the Northern Door are strowne,
Pluckt from the self-same Stalke, only to be
Transplanted to a better Nursery.
From Hedon, in Holderness, East Yorkshire, is the following:--
Here lyeth the body of
WILLIAM STRUTTON, of Patrington,
Buried the 18{th} of May 1734
Aged 97.
Who had, by his first wife, twenty-eight children,
And by a second seventeen;
Own father to forty-five
Grand-father to eighty-six,
Great Grand-father to ninety-seven,
And Great, Great-Grand-father to twenty-three;
In all two hundred and fifty-one.
In Laurence Lideard churchyard, says Pettigrew, is a similar one:--
The man that rests in this grave has had 8 wives,
by whom he had 45 children, and 20 grand-
children. He was born rich, lived and
died poor, aged 94 years,
July 30th, 1774.
Born at Bewdley in Worcestershire in 1650.
According to the epitaph of Ann Jennings at Wolstanton:--
Some have children--some have none--
Here lies the mother of twenty-one.
The following quaint epitaph in Dalry Cemetery commemorates John
Robertson, a native of the United States, who died 29th September, 1860,
aged 22:--
Oh, stranger! pause, and give one sigh
For the sake of him who here doth lie
Beneath this little mound of earth,
Two thousand miles from land of birth.
The Rev. William Mason, the Hull poet, married in 1765 Mary Sherman, of
Hull. Two years later she died of consumption at Bristol. In the Cathedral
of that city is a monument containing the following lines by her
husband:--
Take, holy earth! all that my soul holds dear:
Take that best gift which heaven so lately gave:
To Bristol's fount I bore with trembling care
Her faded form; she bow'd to taste the wave,
And died. Does youth, does beauty, read the line?
Does sympathetic fear their breasts alarm?
Speak, dead Maria! breathe a strain divine;
Ev'n from the grave thou shalt have power to charm.
Bid them be chaste, be innocent, like thee;
Bid them in duty's sphere as meekly move;
And if so fair, from vanity as free;
As firm in friendship, and as fond in love--
Tell them, though 'tis an awful thing to die,
('Twas e'en to thee) yet the dread path once trod,
Heav'n lifts its everlasting portals high,
And bids "the pure in heart behold their God."
How different is the sentiment of the foregoing to the following, said by
Pettigrew and other compilers of collections of epitaphs to be inscribed
on a monument in a Cumberland church, but as a matter of fact it does not
exist on a memorial:--
Here lies the bodies
Of THOMAS BOND and MARY his wife.
She was temperate, chaste, and charitable;
BUT
She was proud, peevish, and passionate.
She was an affectionate wife, and a tender mother:
BUT
Her husband and child, whom she loved,
Seldom saw her countenance without a disgusting frown,
Whilst she received visitors, whom she despised, with an
endearing smile.
Her behaviour was discreet towards strangers;
BUT
Independent in her family.
Abroad, her conduct was influenced by good breeding;
BUT
At home, by ill temper.
She was a professed enemy to flattery,
And was seldom known to praise or commend;
BUT
The talents in which she principally excelled,
Were difference of opinion, and discovering flaws and
imperfections.
She was an admirable economist,
And, without prodigality,
Dispensed plenty to every person in her family;
BUT
Would sacrifice their eyes to a farthing candle.
She sometimes made her husband happy with her good
qualities;
BUT
Much more frequently miserable--with her many failings:
Insomuch that in thirty years cohabitation he often
lamented
That maugre of all her virtues,
He had not, in the whole, enjoyed two years of matrimonial
comfort.
AT LENGTH
Finding that she had lost the affections of her husband,
As well as the regard of her neighbours,
Family disputes having been divulged by servants,
She died of vexation, July 20, 1768,
Aged 48 years.
Her worn out husband survived her four months and two days,
And departed this life, Nov. 28, 1768,
In the 54th year of his age.
WILLIAM BOND, brother to the deceased, erected this stone,
As a _weekly monitor_, to the surviving wives of this parish,
That they may avoid the infamy
Of having their memories handed to posterity
With a PATCH WORK character.
In St. Peter's churchyard, Barton-on-Humber, there is a tombstone with the
following strange inscription:--
Doom'd to receive half my soul held dear,
The other half with grief, she left me here.
Ask not her name, for she was true and just;
Once a fine woman, but now a heap of dust.