X. EPITAPH AND EPIGRAM.
Sir John Davies had a son who became, if he were not born, an idiot. Anthony-a-Wood states "The son dying, Sir John made an epitaph of four verses on him, beginning
Hic in visceribus terræ &c."
It is much to be wished that these 'four verses' were recovered. Further, he had a daughter named 'Lucy'; and of her the same authority writes: "So that the said Lucy being sole heiress to her father, Ferdinando, Lord Hastings, (afterwards Earl of Huntingdon) became a suitor to her for marriage; whereupon the father made this Epigram:
Lucida vis oculos teneri perstrinxit amantis
Nec tamen erravit nam Via Dulcis erat."
On this Watts remarks: "This is a remarkable anagram of Lucy Davies. See as remarkable ones on the mother Eleanor Davies, Reveal O Daniel, by herself, the other made on her by Dr. Lamb,—Dame Eleanor Davies, Never so mad a Lady. Heylin's Life of Laud p. 266." Wood's Athenæ, (edn. by Bliss) Vol. II. p. 404. G.