Minor Notes.

Inscription on a Grave-stone in Whittlebury Churchyard, Northamptonshire.—

"In Memory of John Heath, he dy'd Dec^br y^e 17^th,

1767. Aged 27 years.

While Time doth run from Sin depart;

Let none e'er shun Death's piercing dart;

For read and look, and you will see

A wondrous change was wrought on me.

For while I lived in joy and mirth

Grim Death came in and stop't my breath:

For I was single in the morning light,

By noon was marri'd, and was dead at night."

H. T. Wake.

Epitaph on Sir Henry St. George, Garter Principal King of Englishmen [sic in MS.], from a MS. in the Office of Arms, London (see Ballard MSS., vol. xxix.):

"Here lie a knight, a king, a saint,

Who lived by tilt and tournament.

His namesake, George, the dragon slew,

But, give the herald king his due,

He could disarm ten thousand men,

And give them arms and shields again.

But now the mighty sire is dead,

Reposing here his hoary head;

Let this be sacred to the mem'ry

Of knight St. George and of King Henry"

Balliolensis.

Newton and Milton.—Has it been observed that Sir Isaac Newton's dying words, so often quoted,—

"I am but as a child gathering pebbles on the seashore, while the great ocean of truth still lies undiscovered before me."

are merely an adaptation of a passage in Paradise Regained, book iv.:

"Deep versed in books and shallow in himself, Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge, As children gathering pebbles on the shore."

Anon.

Eternal Life.—In the Mishna (Berachoth, ch. ix. s. 5) the doctrine of a future eternal state is clearly set forth in a passage which is rendered by De Sola and Raphall:

"But since the Epicureans perversely taught, there is but one state of existence, it was directed that men should close their benedictions with the form [Blessed be the Lord God of Israel] from eternity to eternity."

A like explicit declaration of such future state occurs again in the Mishna (Sanhedrin, ch. xi. s. l.).

T. J. Buckton.

Birmingham.

Inscriptions in Books.—The following are taken literatim from the margins of an old black-letter

Bible. From the numerous errors we may suppose they were copied from dictation by a person unacquainted with Latin.

"Quanto doctiores tanto te gesas submiseias."

"Forasmuch as y^u art y^e better learned,

By so much y^u must carry thy self more lowly."

———

"Si deus est animus nobis ut carmina dicunt,

Sic tibi pricipus (bus?) sit pura mente colendus."

"Seing y^t God is, as y^e poets say,

A liveing soul, lets worship him alway."

———

"Tempora (e?) felici multa (i?) numerantur amici,

Cum fortuna perit nulus amicus erit."

"In time of prosperity friends will be plenty,

In time of adversity not one among twenty."

On the title-page, "John Threlkeld's Book:"

"Hujus in dominum cupius (as?) cognescere libri,

Supra prospiscias, nomen habebis ibi."

"Whose booke I am if you would know,

I will to you in letters show."

On the other side:

"Thomas Threlkeld is my name, and for to write ... ing ashame,

And if my pen had bene any better, I would have mended it every letter."

This last example closely resembles some others given in a late Number of "N. & Q."

J. R. G.

Dublin.

Churchill's Grave.—It is not perhaps generally known, that the author of The Rosciad was buried in the churchyard of St. Mary, Dover. On a small moss-covered head-stone is the following inscription:

"1764.

Here lie the remains of the celebrated

C. Churchill."

"Life to the last enjoy'd,

Here Churchill lies.

Candidate."

The notice is sufficiently brief; no date, except the year, nor age being recorded. The biographers inform us, that he died at Boulogne of a fever, while on a visit to Wilkes.

The cemetery where his remains are deposited is in the centre almost of Dover; and has recently been closed for the purposes of sepulture, with the exception of family vaults. Adjoining it is a small retired burial-place, containing at the most but two or three graves, and originally belonging to the Tavenors. Here is the tomb of Captain Samuel Tavenor, an officer of Cromwell, and, during his ascendancy, one of the governors of Deal Castle. Tavenor was a man distinguished for his courage, integrity, and piety.

J. Brent.