EPIGRAM (FROM THE ITALIAN)
On a Father who would not allow his Son to marry until he had arrived at years of discretion.
Poor Strephon is young, and lacks wisdom 'tis said,
And therefore still longer must tarry;
If he waits tho', methinks, till he's sense in his head,
I'll be sworn that he never will marry.
THE REV. MR. WATERHOUSE.
The following is the inscription on a stone designed to perpetuate the memory of the late singular and unfortunate rector of Little Stukely, and is now exhibited in the mason's yard at Huntingdon. According to immemorial usage a copy of verses is appended to the inscription, which, in point of style, taste, and orthography, are on a par with the "uncouth rhymes" alluded to by Gray. The poetry is said to be the production of a Cambridge graduate.
"Sacred to the memory of the Rev, Joshua Waterhouse, B.D., nearly forty years Fellow of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, Chaplain to his Majesty, Rector of this parish, and of Coton, near Cambridge, who was inhumanly murdered in this Parsonage House, about ten o'clock on the morning of July 3rd, 1827. Aged eighty-one.