Somersetshire.

BARWICK.

Sarah Higmore, æt. 6.

Ye modern fair, who’er you be,
This Truth we can aver:
A lesson of humility
You all may learn from her.
She had what none of you can boast,
With all your Wit and Sense—
She had what you, alas! have lost,
And that was—Innocence.

TAUNTON.

James Waters.

Death, traversing the western road,
And asking where true merit lay,
Made in this town a short abode,
And took this worthy man away.

YEOVIL.

John Webb,

Son of John and Mary Webb, Clothiers, who died of the
measles, May 3d, 1646, aged 3 years.

How still he lies!
And clos’d his eyes,
That shone as bright as day!
The cruel measles,
Like clothier’s teasels,
Have scratched his life away.

Cochineal red,
His lips have fled,
Which now are blue and black.
Dear pretty wretch,
How thy limbs stretch,
Like cloth upon the rack.

Repress thy sighs,
The husband cries,
My dear, and not repine,
For ten to one,
When God’s work’s done,
He’ll come off superfine.

Staffordshire.

YOXHALL.

On Anthony Cooke, who died on Easter Monday.

At the due sacrifice of the Paschall Lambe,
April had 8 days wept in showers, then came
Leane, hungry death, who never pitty tooke,
And cause the feast was ended, slew this Cooke.
On Easter Monday, he lyves then noe day more,
But sunk to rise with him that rose before;
He’s here intomb’d; a man of virtue’s line
Out reacht his yeares, yet they were seventy-nine.
He left on earth ten children of eleven
To keep his name, whilst himself went to heaven.

BILSTON.

In Mem. of Mary Maria, wife of W^m Dodd, who died Dec^r 12th, A.D. 1847, aged 27. Also of their children, Louisa, who died Dec^r 12th, 1847, aged 9 months; and Alfred, who died Jan^y 3rd, A. D. 1848, aged 2 years and 9 months.

All victims to the neglect of sanitary regulation, and specially referred to in a recent lecture on Health in this town.

And the Lord said to the angel that destroyed, it is enough, stay now thine hand.—1 Chron. xx. 17.

In Mem. of Joseph, son of Joseph and Mary Meek, who was accidentally drowned in the cistern of the day school adjoining this church, April 30th, 1845, aged 8 years. This distressing event is recorded by the minister, as an expression of sympathy with the parents, and caution to the children of the school—a reproof to the proprietors of the open wells, pits and landslips; the want of fencing about which is the frequent cause of similar disaster in these districts; and as a memento to all of the uncertainty of life, and the consequent necessity of immediate and continued preparation for death.

“And if any man ask you, Why do you loose him? Then shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.” [90]—Luke xix. 31.

BUTTERTON.

Near to this stone John Barnett lies,
There’s no man frets, nor no man cries,
Where he’s gone, or how he fares,
There’s no man knows, nor no man cares.

STAFFORD.

Here Leah’s fruitfulness,
Here Rachael’s beauty;
Here lyeth Rebecca’s faith,
Here Sarah’s duty.

WOLSTANSTON.

Ann Jennings.

Some have children, some have none;
Here lies the mother of twenty-one.

LICHFIELD.

Live well—die never;
Die well—live for ever.

Suffolk.

BURY ST. EDMUNDS.

The following whimsical epitaph appears upon a white marble slab, in a conspicuous part of the church of St. Mary:—

Near this place are deposited the remains of Gedge, Printer, who established the first newspaper that has been published in this town. Like a worn out type, he is returned to the founder, in the hope of being recast in a better and more perfect mould.

HADLEIGH.

The charnel mounted on this w )
Sits to be seen in funer )
A matron plain, domestic )
In housewifery a princip )
In care and pains continu )
Not slow, nor gay, nor prodig ) all.
Yet neighbourly and hospitab )
Her children seven yet living )
Her 67th year hence did c )
To rest her body natur )
In hope to rise spiritu )

On little Stephen, a noted fiddler.

Stephen and Time
Are now both even;
Stephen beat Time,
Now Time beats Stephen.

Life is only pain below,
When Christ appears, then up we go.

IPSWICH.

John Warner.

I Warner once was to myself,
Now Warning am to thee,
Both living, dying, dead I was,
See then thou warned be.

On ---- More, of Norwich.

More had I once, More would I have;
More is not to be had.
The first I . . . the next is vaine;
The third is too too bad.
If I had us’d with more regard
The More that I did give,
I might have made More use and fruit
Of More while he did live.

THURLOW.

Here she lies, a pretty bud,
Lately made of flesh and blood;
Who as soon fell fast asleep
As her little eyes did peep.
Give her strewings, but not stir
The earth that lightly covers her.

LAVENHAM.

Quod fuit esse quod est, quod non fuit esse quod esse.
Esse quod est non esse, quod est non erit esse.

Translation.

What John Giles has been,
Is what he is (a batchelor);
What he has not been,
Is what he is (a corpse);
To be what he is
Is not to be (a living creature).
He will not have to be
What he is not (dust).

BURY.

Here lies Jane Kitchen, who, when her glass was spent,
Kickt up her heels, and away she went.