These lines, however, have undergone variations out of number, a not infrequent device being to adapt them to circumstances by such changes as—
"Affliction sore short time I bore," etc.
The same idea has an extended application at the grave of Joseph Crate, who died in 1805, aged 42 years, and is buried at Hendon Churchyard:
"Affliction sore long time I bore,
Physicians were in vain:
My children dear and wife, whose care
Assuaged my every pain,
Are left behind to mourn my fate:
Then Christians let them find
That pity which their case excites