CURIOUS EPITAPHS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 44, 6 January 1862, Page 1 (Supplement)

CURIOUS EPITAPHS.

(From Gleanings m Graveyards.) The following is in a churchyard at Acton, i:i Cornwall:— Here lie the bones of Richard Law ton. Whose death. alas! was strangely brought on. Trying one day his corns to mow off, The razor slipped and cut Ms toe off; His toe, or rather what it grew too, An inflammation quickly flew too, Which, took, alas, to mortifying, And was the cause of Richard's dying. Here is a specimen of Devonshire d'alect; i:\ an epitaph which, according to the editor, is extant at Tavistock :— Here lies Betsy Crudeu; She wood a leat-d but she cooden. 'Twas na grief na sorrow as made she decay, But this bad leg as carr'd ,she away. The following is still to be seen in the churchyard near Hastings, aud the spelling of which agrees with the Sussex pronunciation : — Here lyeth the body of Joseph Dam, who died May26 ; i7sl. Good peppell al'. as you pass by, I pray on me cast an I; For as you are so wounce wous I, And as I am so must you be; Therefore prepare to follow roe. The following is from a tablet in the chancel of Sidbury Church, Devonshire, to the memory of John Stone, a ireemason, who died Ist January 1617. We quote it as a specimen of that puiinii g so commonly found in epitaphs of the eventeenth century :— On our great Corner-stone this Stone relied For blessing, in his building loving most' To build God's temples, in whose works he died And lived the Temple of the Holy Ghost, In whose hard life is proved an honest frame, God can of Stones raise seed to Abraham. One of the strangest epitaphs in the whole collection is that at Gateshead, on Robert Trollope, architect of the Exchange and Town Court of Newcastle :— Here lies Robert Trollop, who made yon Stones roll up, when death took his soul up, His body filled this hole up. Earl Stanhope tells us that at Chevening there is still extant a marble tablet, brought from Tarragora by Earl Stahope, on which C. Ctecilius praises his wife for being " obsequientissima," most obsequious. Had Mrs. Pritchard of Chelmsford survived she might probably have said as much for her husband. Her" lies the man Richard, Aud Mary his wife ; Tlieir surname was Pritclmrd, They lived without strife ; And .lie reason was plain— They abounded in riches, They bad no care Oi pain, Aud Ida wii'e wore the breeches.