To the memory of Matthew Strutt, of this town, farrier, long famed in these parts for veterinary skill. A good neighbour, and a staunch friend to Church and King. Being Churchwarden at the time the present peal of bells were hung, through zeal for the house of God, and unremitting attention to the airy business of the belfry, he caught a cold, which terminated his existence May 25, 1798, in the 68th year of his age.
In Tideswell churchyard, among several other singular gravestone inscriptions, the following occurs, and is worth reprinting:—
In Memory of
Brian, Son of John and Martha Haigh,
who died 22nd December, 1795,
Aged 17 years.
Come honest sexton, with thy spade,
And let my grave be quickly made;
Make my cold bed secure and deep,
That, undisturbed, my bones may sleep,
Until that great tremendous day,
When from above a voice shall say,—
“Awake, ye dead, lift up your eyes,
Your great Creator bids you rise!”
Then, free from this polluted dust,
I hope to be amongst the just.
The old church of St. Mary’s, Sculcoates, Hull, contains several interesting monuments, and we give a sketch of one, a quaint-looking mural memorial, having on it an inscription in short-hand. In Sheahan’s “History of Hull,” the following translation is given:—
In the vault beneath this stone lies the body of Mrs. Jane Delamoth, who departed this life, 10th January, 1761. She was a poor sinner, but not wicked without holiness, departing from good works, and departed in the Faith of the Catholic Church, in full assurance of eternal happiness, by the agony and bloody sweat, by the cross and passion, by the precious death and burial, by the glorious resurrection and ascension of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.
We believe that the foregoing is a unique epitaph, at all events we have not heard of or seen any other monumental inscription in short-hand.
The following curious epitaph is from Wirksworth, Derbyshire:—
Near this place lies the body of
Philip Shullcross,