From Witton Cemetery:
"O earth, O earth! observe this well—
That earth to earth shall come to dwell;
Then earth in earth shall close remain,
Till earth from earth shall rise again."
From St. Philip's:
"Oh, cruel death, how could you be so unkind
To take him before, and leave me behind?
You should have taken both of us, if either,
Which would have been more pleasing to the survivor."
The next, upon an infant, is superior to the general run of this class of inscription. It was copied from a slab intended to be placed in Old Edgbaston Churchyard:
"Beneath this stone, in sweet repose,
Is laid a mother's dearest pride;
A flower that scarce had waked to life,
And light and beauty, ere it died.
God and His wisdom has recalled
The precious boon His love has given;
And though the casket moulders here,
The gem is sparkling now in heaven."
Ramblers may find many quaint epitaphs in neighbouring village churchyards. In Shustoke churchyard, or rather on a tablet placed against the wall of the church over the tomb of a person named Hautbach, the date on which is 1712, there is an inscription, remarkable not only for lines almost identical with those over Shakespeare's grave, but for combining several other favourite specimens of graveological literature, as here bracketed:
"When Death shall cut the thread of life,
Both of Mee and my living Wife,
When please God our change shall bee,
There is a Tomb for Mee and Shee,
Wee freely shall resign up all
To Him who gave, and us doth call.
{Sleep here wee must, both in the Dust,
{Till the Resurrection of the Just.
{Good friend, within these Railes forbear
{To dig the dust enclosed here.
{Blest bee the man who spares these stones
{And Curst be he that moves our bones.