This craggy stone a covering is for an architector’s bed;
That lofty buildings raisèd high, yet now lyes low his head;
His line and rule, so death concludes, are lockèd up in store;
Build they who list, or they who wist, for he can build no more.
His house of clay could hold no longer
May Heaven’s joys build him a stronger.
John Abel.
Vive ut vivas in vitam æternam.

In the churchyard of Walcott, Norfolk, the following cynical epitaph may be seen:—

In memory of
William Wiseman,
who died 5th of August, 1834, aged 72 years.
Under this marble, or under this sill,
Or under this turf, or e’en what you will,
Whatever an heir, or a friend in his stead,
Or any good creature, shall lay o’er my head,
Lies one who ne’er cared, and still cares not a pin
What they said, or may say, of the mortal within,
But who, living and dying, serene, still, and free,
Trusts in God that as well as he was he shall be.

From Gilling churchyard, Richmondshire, is the following:—

Unto the mournful fate of young John Moore,
Who fell a victim to some villain’s power;
In Richmond Lane, near to Ask Hall, ’tis said,
There was his life most cruelly betray’d.
Shot with a gun, by some abandon’d rake,
Then knock’d o’ th’ head with a hedging stake,
His soul, I trust, is with the blest above,
There to enjoy eternal rest and love;
Then let us pray his murderer to discover,
That he to justice may be brought over.

The crime occurred in 1750, and the murderer was never discovered.

From a gravestone in Patcham was copied the following inscription:—

Sacred to the memory of
Daniel Scales,
who was unfortunately shot on Tuesday evening,
Nov. 7, 1796.
Alas! swift flew the fated lead,
Which pierced through the young man’s head,
He instant fell, resigned his breath,
And closed his languid eyes on death.
And you who to this stone draw near,
Oh! pray let fall the pitying tear,
From this sad instance may we all
Prepare to meet Jehovah’s call.

The real story of Scales’ death is given in Chambers’s “Book of Days,” and is as follows: Daniel Scales was a desperate smuggler, and one night he, with many more, was coming from Brighton heavily laden, when the Excise officers and soldiers fell in with them. The smugglers fled in all directions; a riding officer, as such persons were called, met this man, and called upon him to surrender his booty, which he refused to do. The officer knew that “he was too good a man for him, for they had tried it out before; so he shot Daniel through the head.”

The following inscription copied from a monument at Darfield, near Barnsley, records a murder which occurred on the spot where the stone is placed:—