Shropshire.
SHREWSBURY.
On an Old Maid.
Here lies the body of Martha Dias,
Who was always uneasy, and not over pious;
She lived to the age of threescore and ten,
And gave that to the worms she refused to the men.
Thy movements, Isaac, kept in play,
Thy wheels of life felt no decay
For fifty years at least;
Till, by some sudden, secret stroke,
The balance or the mainspring broke,
And all the movements ceas’d.
SHIFFNALL.
August 7th, 1714, Mary, the wife of Joseph Yates, of Lizard Common, within the parish, was buried, aged 127 years. She walked to London just after the Fire, in 1666; was hearty and strong at 120 years; and married a third husband at 92.
CEUN.
Charles Dike.
Joyous his birth, wealth o’er his cradle shone,
Gen’rous he prov’d, far was his bounty known;
Men, horses, hounds were feasted at his hall,
There strangers found a welcome bed and stall;
Quick distant idlers answered to his horn,
And all was gladness in the sportsman’s morn.But evening came, and colder blew the gale,
Means, overdone, had now begun to fail;
His wine was finished, and he ceas’d to brew,
And fickle friends now hid them from his view.
Unknown, neglected, pin’d the man of worth,
Death his best friend, his resting-place the Earth.
The following is copied from a head-stone, set up in the churchyard of High Ercall. Those who are fond of the sublime, will certainly rejoice over this precious poetical morsel:—
Salop, Oct. 1797.
Elizabeth the Wife Of Richard Baarlamb,
passed to Eternity on Sunday, the 21st of May,
1797, in the 71st year of her age.When terrestrial all in Chaos shall Exhibit effervescence,
Then Celestial virtues in their most Refulgent Brilliant essence,
Shall with beaming Beauteous Radiance, thro’ the ebullition Shine;
Transcending to Glorious Regions Beatifical, Sublime.
CHURCH STRETTON.
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.