"After thy death, I'll raise dissension sharp,
Loud strife among the herd of little minds:
Envy shall seek to dim thy wondrous page,
But all the clearer will thy glory shine."
Ceridwen.
Minor Notes.
Falsified Gravestone in Stratford Churchyard.—The following instance of a recent forgery having been extensively circulated, may lead to more careful examination by those who take notes of things extraordinary.
The church at Stratford-upon-Avon was repaired about the year 1839; and some of the workmen having their attention directed to the fact, that many persons who had attained to the full age of man were buried in the churchyard; and, wishing "for the honour of the place," to improve the note-books of visitors, set about manufacturing an extraordinary instance of longevity. A gravestone was chosen in an out-of-the-way place, in which there happened to be a space before the age (72). A figure 1 was cut in this space, and the age at death then stood 172. The sexton was either deceived, or assented to the deception; as the late vicar, the Rev. J. Clayton, learned that it had become a practice with him (the sexton) to show strangers this gravestone, so falsified, as a proof of the extraordinary age to which people lived in the parish. The vicar had the fraudulent figure erased at once, and lectured the sexton for his dishonesty.
These facts were related to me a few weeks since by a son of the late vicar. And as many strangers visiting the tomb of Shakspeare "made a note" of this falsified age, "N. & Q." may now correct the forgery.