Also, from lich is derived the name of the city of Lichfield, so called because of a massacre on that spot.
A thousand other saints whom Amphibal had taught,
Flying the pagan foe, their lives that strictly sought,
Were slain where Litchfield is, whose name doth rightly sound
There, of those Christians slain, dead field, or burying ground.
Drayton.
For the Table Book.
THE TWO GRAVES.
In yonder cowslip’s sprinkled mead
A church’s tapering spire doth rise,
As if it were directing us
Unto a fairer paradise;
Within the yard, so fair and green,
Full many a grave is to be seen.
Often upon a summer’s eve
The church-yard’s smooth, green sward I’ve trod!
Reading the rugged epitaphs
Of those who lie beneath the sod;
But in one spot two graves were seen,
Which always stopp’d my wandering.
Upon one stone’s expansive front
Was writ, in language stiff and cold,
That he, who lay beneath that slab,
Had died when he was very old;
And at its close a simple line
Said, that his age was ninety-nine.