HOUSE INSCRIPTIONS.
On the Town-house Wittenberg:—
Ist’s Gottes Werk, so wird’s bestehen;
Ist’s Menschens, so wird’s untergehen.
(If God’s work, it will aye endure;
If man’s, ’tis not a moment sure.)
Over the gate of a Casino, near Maddaloni:—
AMICIS—
Et ne paucis pateat,
Etiam fictis.
(My gate stands open for my friends;
But lest of these too few appear,
Let him who to the name pretends
Approach and find a welcome here.)
On a west-of-England mansion:—
Welcome to all through this wide-opening gate;
None come too early, none depart too late.
Fuller (Holy and Profane State) and Walton (Life of George Herbert) notice a verse engraved upon a mantelpiece in the Parsonage House built by George Herbert at his own expense. The faithful minister thus counsels his successor:—
If thou dost find
A house built to thy mind,
Without thy cost,
Serve thou the more
God and the poor:
My labor is not lost.
The following is emblazoned around the banqueting hall of Bulwer’s ancestral home, Knebworth:—
Read the Rede of the Old Roof Tree.
Here be trust fast. Opinion free.
Knightly Right Hand. Christian knee.
Worth in all. Wit in some.
Laughter open. Slander dumb.
Hearth where rooted Friendships grow,
Safe as Altar even to Foe.
And the sparks that upwards go
When the hearth flame dies below,
If thy sap in them may be,
Fear no winter, Old Roof Tree.
On a pane of glass in an old window in the coffee-room of the White Lion, Chester, England:—
Right fit a place is window glass
To write the name of bonny lass;
And if the reason you should speir,
Why both alike are brittle geir,
A wee thing dings a lozen lame—
A wee thing spoils a maiden’s fame.
Tourist’s wit on a window pane at Lodore:—
When I see a man’s name
Scratched upon the glass,
I know he owns a diamond,
And his father owns an ass.
On a pane of the Hotel des Pays-Bas, Spa, Belgium:—
1793.
I love but one, and only one;
Oh, Damon, thou art he.
Love thou but one and only one,
And let that one be me.