Formosæ, cultæ, ingeniosæ, piæ ;
Uxoris, primis nuptiis, HENRICI Porter,

secundis, SAMUELIS JOHNSON,
Qui multum amatam, diuque defletam,

Hoc lapide contexit.
Obijt Londini, mense Mart.

A. D. MDCCLIII.

IN WATFORD CHURCH.

In the vault below are deposited the remains of
JANE Bell", wife of John Bell, esq.

who, in the fifty-third year of her age,

surrounded with many worldly blessings, heard, with fortitude and composure truly great, the horrible malady, which had, for some time, begun to

afflict her, pronounced incurable ;

and for more than three years, endured with patience, and concealed with decency,

the daily tortures of gradual death; continued to divide the hours not allotted to devotion, between the cares of her family, and the converse of

her friends;
rewarded the attendance of duty,

and acknowledged the offices of affection ; and, while she endeavoured to alleviate by cheerfulness

her husband's sufferings and sorrows, increased them by her gratitude for his care,

and her solicitude for his quiet.

To the testimony of these virtues, more highly honoured, as more familiarly known,

IN STRETHAM CHURCH.

JUXTA sepulta est HESTERA MARIA, Thomæ Cotton de Combermere, baronetti Cestriensis,

filia,
Johannis Salusbury, armigeri Flintiensis, uxor,

Forma felix, felix ingenio;
Omnibus jucunda, suorum amantissima.

Linguis artibusque ita exculta,

Ut loquenti nunquam deessent
Sermonis nitor, sententiarum flosculi,
Sapientiæ gravitas, leporum gratia :

Modum servandi adeo perita,
Ut domestica inter negotia literis oblectaretur;
Literarum inter delicias, rem familiarem sedulo curaret.

Multis illi multos annos precantibus
diri carcinomatis veneno contabuit,
nexibusque vitæ paulatim resolutis,

e terris, meliora sperans, emigravit.
Nata 1707. Nupta 1739. Obijt 1779.

IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY..

OLIVARII GOLDSMITH,

Poetæ, Physici, Historici,
Qui nullum fere scribendi genus

Non tetigit,
Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit:
Sive risus essent movendi,

Sive lacrimæ,
Affectuum potens, at lenis, dominator :
Ingenio sublimis, vividus, versatilis,
Oratione grandis, nitidus, venustus:
Hoe monumento memoriam coluit

Sodalium amor,

Amicorum fides,
Lectorum veneratio.

Elfiniæ, in Hibernia, natus MDCCXXIX.

Eblanæ literis institutus :
Londini obijt MDCCLXXIV.

IN STRETHAM CHURCH.

Hic conditur quod reliquum est

HENRICI THRALE,
Qui res seu civiles, seu domesticas, ita egit,

Ut vitam illi longiorem multi optarent;

Ita sacras,

Ut quam brevem esset habiturus præscire videretur ;

Simplex, apertus, sibique semper similis,
Nihil ostentavit aut arte fictum, aut cura

elaboratum.
In senatu, regi patriæque

Fideliter studuit,
Vulgi obstrepentis contemptor animosus;

Domi, inter mille mercaturæ negotia,
Literarum elegantiam minime neglexit.
Amicis, quocunque modo laborantibus,

€ This is the epitaph, that drew from Gibbon, sir J. Reynolds, Sheridan, Joseph Warton, &c. the celebrated Round Robin, composed by Burke, intreating Jolinson to write an English epitaph on an English author. His reply was, in the genuine spirit of an old scholar, “ he would never consent to disgrace the walls of Westminster abbey with an English inscription.” One of his arguments, in favour of a common learned language, was ludicrously cogent: “Consider, sir, how you should feel, were you to find, at Rotterdam, an epitaph, upon Erasmus, in Dutch !" Boswell, iii. He would, however, undoubtedly have written a better epitaph in English, than in Latin. His compositions in that language are not of first rate excellence, either in prose or verse. The epitaph, in Stretham church, on Mr. Thrale, abounds with inaccuracies; and those who are fond of detecting little blunders in great men, may be amply gratified in the perusal of a review of Thrale's epitaph in the Classical Journal, xii. 6. His Greek epitaph on Goldsmith, is not remarkable in itself, but we will subjoin it, in this place, as a literary curiosity.

Τον τάφον εισoράας τον ΘΛΙΒΑΡΟΙΟ, κονίην

'Αφρoσι μή σεμνήν, Ξείνε, πόδεσσι πάτει.
Οίσι μέμηλε φύσις, μέτρων χάρις, έργα παλαιών,
Κλαίετε ποιητής, ιστορίκον, φυσικόν,

Ep.

Consiliis, auctoritate, muneribus, adfuit.
Inter familiares, comites, convivas, hospites,

Tam facili fuit morum suavitate
Ut omnium animos ad se alliceret;

Tam felici sermonis libertate,
Ut nulli adulatus, omnibus placeret.

Natus 1724. Obijt 1781.
Consortes tumuli habet Rodolphum, patrem, strenuum
fortemque virum, et Henricum, filium unicum, quem
spei parentum mors inopina decennem proripuit.

Ita
Domus felix et opulenta quam erexit
Avus, auxitque pater, cum nepote decidit.

Abi, Viator,
Et, vicibus rerum humanarum perspectis,

Æternitatem cogita !

Ρ Ο Ε Μ Α Τ Α.

MESSIA

Scalig. Poet.

Ex alieno ingenio poeta, ex suo tantum versificator.
TOLLITE concentum, Solymææ tollite nymphæ,
Nil mortale loquor; coelum mihi carminis alta
Materies ; poscunt gravius coelestia plectrum.
Muscosi fontes, sylvestria tecta, valete,
Aonidesque deæ, et mendacis somnia Pindi :
Tu, mihi, qui flamma movisti pectora sancti
Siderea Isaiæ, dignos accende furores !

Immatura calens rapitur per secula vates
Sic orsus-Qualis rerum mihi nascitur ordo !
Virgo! virgo parit! Felix radicibus arbor
Jessæis surgit, mulcentesque æthera flores
Cælestes lambunt animæ, ramisque columba,
Nuncia sacra Dei, plaudentibus insidet alis.
Nectareos rores, alimentaque mitia coelum
Præbeat, et tacite foecundos irriget imbres.
Huc, fædat quos lepra, urit quos febris, adeste,
Dia salutares spirant medicamina rami;
Hic requies fessis : non sacra sævit in umbra
Vis boreæ gelida, aut rapidi violentia solis.
Irrita vanescent priscæ vestigia fraudis,
Justitiæque manus, pretio intemerata, bilancem
Attollet reducis ; bellis prætendet olivas

• This translation has been severely criticised by Dr. Warton, in his edition of Pope, vol. i. p. 105, 8vo. 1797. It certainly contains some expressions that are not classical. Let it be remembered, however, that it was a college exercise, performed with great rapidity, and was, at first, praised, beyond all suspicion of defect.—This translation was first published in a Miscellany of Poems by several hands. Published by J. Husbands, A. M. fellow of Pembroke college, Oxon. 8vo. Oxford, 1731. Of Johnson's production, Mr. Husbands says, in his preface, “ The translation of Mr. Pope's Messiah was delivered to his tutor as a college exercise, by Mr. Johnson, a commoner of Pembroke college in Oxford, and 'tis hoped will be no discredit to the excellent original.” Mr. Husbands died in the following year.