Lincolnshire.
The following quaint memorials of the unhonoured dead, are by the minister of the small and retired village of Waddingham. They have, at all events, the charm of originality, and were long ago inscribed in that quiet nook, where “many a holy text around is strewn, teaching the rustic moralist to die.”
In love we liv’d, in peace did part,
All tho it cot us to the heart.
O dear—what thoughts whe two had
To get for our 12 Children Bread;
Lord! send her health them to maintain:—
I hope to meet my love again.
O angry death yt would not be deny’d,
But break ye bonds of love so firmly ty’d!
She was a loving wife, a tender nurse,
And a faithful friend in every case.
SLEAFORD.
On Henry Fox, a weaver.
Of tender threads this mortal web is made,
The woof and warf, and colours early fade;
When pow’r divine awakes the sleeping dust,
He gives immortal garments to the just.
On the south side of the Sleaford Church, sculptured in the cornice of the water-table, is the following inscription:—
Here lyeth William Harebeter, and Elizabeth, his wife.
Cryest ihu graunte yem everlastyng lyfe.
It is noticed in Gough’s great work on Sepulchral Monuments, where, speaking of inscriptions cut on the ledges of stones, or raising them in high relief, he says, “Of this kind on public buildings, I know not a finer sample than in the water-table, on the south side of Sleaford Church.”
On William Gibson.
Who lies here?—Who do you think?
’Tis poor Will Gibson,—give him some drink;
Give him some drink, I’ll tell you why,
When he was living, he always was dry.
WAINFLEET.
Peck has given from the Palmer MS. the following Epitaph, than which nothing can be more pompous or ridiculous:—
On a monument erected in 1735.
Near this place,
lye the remains
of Edward Barkham, Esq.
Who in his life time at his own expense
Erected the stately altar piece in this church;
Furnished the communion table
With a very rich crimson velvet carpet,
a cushion of the same, and a beautiful Common Prayer
book;
Likewise with two large flagons,
a chalice with a cover, together with a paten,
All of silver plate.
But above all (& what may very justly
preserve his name to latest posterity)
he gave and devised by will
To the curate of Wainfleet St. Mary’s and his successor
for ever
The sum of 35£. per ann. (over and above his former
salary)
with this clause, viz.
‘provided the said curate and his successors
do and shall read prayers and preach
once every Sunday in the year for ever.’
So extraordinary an instance of securing a veneration
for the most awful part of our religion,
And so rare and uncommon a zeal
For promoting God’s worship every Lord’s Day.
RAUCEBY.
Near this place are interred the wives of Richard Jessap; viz.—Alice, on Sept. 27, 1716, aged 25, and Joanna, on Aug. 31, 1720, aged 29.
How soon ye objects of my love
By death were snatcht from me;
Two loving matrons they did prove,
No better could there be.
One child the first left to my care,
The other left me three.
Joanna was beyond compare,
A phœnix rare was she;
Heaven thought her sure too good to stay
A longer time on earth,
In childbed therefore as she lay,
To God resign’d her breath.
LINCOLN.
Here lyeth the body of
Michael Honeywood, D.D.
Who was grandchild, and one of the
Three hundred and sixty-seven persons,
That Mary the wife of Robert Honeywood, Esq.
Did see before she died,
Lawfully descended from her,
viz.
Sixteen of her own body, 114 grand children,
288 of the third generation, and 9 of the fourth.
Mrs. Honeywood
Died in the year 1605,
And in the 78th year of her age.
GRANTHAM.
John Palfreyman, who is buried here,
Was aged four & twenty year;
And near this place his mother lies;
Likewise his father, when he dies.
ISELTON CUM FENBY.
Here Lies the body of Old Will Loveland,
He’s put to bed with a shovel, and
Eased of expenses for raiment and food,
Which all his life-time he would fain have eschewed.
He grudged his housekeeping his children’s support,
And laid in his meat of the cagge-mag sort.
No fyshe or fowle touched he when t’was dearly Bought,
But a Green taile or herrings a score for a groate.
No friend to the needy
His wealth gather’d speedy,
And he never did naught but evil,
He liv’d like a hogg,
He died like a dogg,
And now he rides post to the devil.
STAMFORD.
In remembrance of that prodigy of nature, Daniel Lambert, a native of Leicester, who was possessed of an excellent and convivial mind, and in personal greatness he had no competitor. He measured three feet one inch round the leg; nine feet four inches round the body, and weighed 52 stone 11 lb. (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 is erected by his friends in Leicester.