Sixteen years a Maiden,
One twelve Months a Wife,
One half hour a Mother,
And then I lost my Life.
ROCHESTER.
Though young she was,
Her youth could not withstand,
Nor her protect from Death’s
Impartial hand.
Like a cobweb, be we e’er so gay,
And death a broom,
That sweeps us all away.
MAIDSTONE.
“Stop ringers all and cast an eye,
You in your glory, so once was I,
What I have been, as you may see,
Which now is in the belfree.”
“God takes the good too good on earth to stay,
And leaves the bad too bad to take away.”
The person was very aged on whose tomb-stone the above was written!
LEE.
In the village churchyard, near the Castle, is a rather singular inscription upon a gravestone, which was put up by the deceased during his life-time; and when first placed there, had blanks, for inserting his age and the time of his death. These blanks have long since been filled up, and the whole now reads as follows:—
“In memory of James Barham, of this parish, who departed this life Jan. 14, 1818, aged 93 years; and who from the year 1774, to the year 1804, rung, in Kent and elsewhere, 112 peals, not less than 5,040 changes in each peal, & called bobs, &c. for most of the peals; & April 7th & 8th, 1761, assisted in ringing 40,320 bob-majors on Leeds-bells, in 27 hours.”