| John Gilpin was a citizen Of credit and renown, A trainband captain eke was he Of famous London town. John Gilpin’s spouse said to her dear, Though wedded we have been These twice ten tedious years, yet we No holiday have seen. To-morrow is our wedding day, And we will then repair Unto “the Bell” at Edmonton, All in a chaise and pair, etc. |
(Along base of design.)
This monument to commemorate the visit of the London and Middlesex Archæological Association/ to Edmonton church and parish on the 26th July 1888/ was erected by the President of the Meeting Joshua W. Butterworth, F.S.A.
For some years we have been interested in the life and poetry of Mary Pyper, “A Poet of the Poor,” and in our “Literary Byways” have told at length the story of her career. We there state, through the exertions of Dr. Rogers in May, 1885, a handsome cross was erected over her remains in Greyfriars’ churchyard, Edinburgh, simply bearing her name, “Mary Pyper.” Such was the information we received from a friend whom we induced to see the memorial and give us particulars of it, and to our surprise when we visited her grave in April, 1899, we found on the cross the following inscription, which we presume has been added since its erection:—
By admiring
Friends
Erected
in memory of
Mary Pyper,
who amidst
untoward
surroundings
cherished
her gift as a writer of
sacred verse.
Born 25th May,
1795.
She died at
Edinburgh,
25th May, 1870.
Let me go! The day is breaking;
Morning bursts upon the eye;
Death this mortal frame is shaking,
But the soul can never die!
The lines are from her poem entitled “The Christian’s View of Death,” which finds a place in several standard works of poetry. Her best known production is an “Epitaph: A Life,” and often attributed incorrectly to German sources. It is as follows:—
| “I came at morn—’twas Spring, and smiled, The fields with green were clad; I walked abroad at noon, and lo! ’Twas Summer—I was glad. I sate me down—’twas Autumn eve, And I with sadness wept; I laid me down at night—and then ’Twas Winter—and I slept.” |
Among self-taught poets Mary Pyper is entitled to an honourable place.
Mr. John T. Page furnishes us with the following inscriptions copied from Hogarth’s monument in Chiswick churchyard. It was erected, says Mr. Page, in 1771, seven years after his death, and is a tall piece of masonry crowned with a funeral urn. Beneath this, on the side facing the church, are carved in low relief a mask, maul-stick, palette and brushes, a laurel wreath and an open book bearing the title of his famous “Analysis of Beauty.” On the same side, on a small block of Aberdeen granite at the foot of the memorial, is recorded the fact that it was