On EDMUND, duke of Buckingham, who died A.D. 1735, in the 19th year of his age (by Pope) :
"If modest youth, with cool reflection crown'd,
And every opening virtue blooming round,
Could save a parent's justest pride from Fate,
Or add one patriot to a sinking state;
This weeping marble had not ask'd thy tear,
Or sadly told, how many hopes lie here!
The living virtue now had shone approv'd,
The Senate heard him, and his country lov'd.
Ye softer honours, and less noisy fame,
Attend the shade of gentle BUCKINGHAM:
In whom a race for courage fam'd and art,
Ends in the milder merit of the heart;
And chiefs or sages long to Britain given
Pays the last tribute of a saint to heaven."
"Is happiness thy aim or death thy fear,
Learn how the paths of glory may be trod,
From that lamented youth who slumbers here,
Who gave the flower of his day to God."
On a young man, aged 23. This young man chose the following lines for his own epitaph six weeks before he died; he had them printed up over the chimney piece in his bed-room, and would often read them with great feeling, seriousness, and gratitude :
'Farewell, but not for ever.
In youth's gay prime, for earthly joys I sought,
But heaven and my immortal soul forgot.
In riper days, affliction's smarting rod,
By Grace divine taught me to know my God.
The change I bless'd with my expiring breath,
Ascribing life to that which caused my death:
Farewell, vain world! my soul exult and sing
'Grave! where's thy victory now? Death, where's
thy sting?""
Belov'd by all, to all the good a friend :
The bad she censur'd by her life alone;
Blind to their faults, severe upon her own:
In others' joys and griefs a part she bore:
And with the needy shar'd her little store:
At distance view'd the world with pious dread,
And to God's temple for protection fled;
There sought that peace which Heaven alone can give
And learn'd to die, ere others learn to live."
On Miss ELIZA SR, aged 18, in Farnham churchyard, Surrey :
"Approach with awe the mansions of the dead,
And at the grave's drear bourn thy footsteps tread ;
Mark midst those ravages of fate and time
Where worth lies buried in its loveliest prime,
Where youth's extinguished fires no longer burn,
And beauty slumbers in the mouldering urn,
May angels guard the consecrated ground,
And flowers as lovely blow for ever round.”
In Leed's old church :
"Short was my stay in this frail world,
All's but a seeming laughter;
Therfore mark well thy words and ways,
For thou comes posting after."
On the tomb-stone of a young girl-
"How eloquent the monumental stone
Where Nowing, modest vittue prostrate
Whow pure region thom the hallow'd
Tells man, it is aut au tut thing to die
Oz EDMUNI
in the 19th ye...
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Or say to 2
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Ye softer honours
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And chief's
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On the tombste of a y
Is happiness thy an
Learn how the pati d
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On a young man, ag 1 23. This young man cli
the wine lines for his own epitaph six weeksbet a
he died. It had then printed up over the
piece in in-room, and would often read the
great feeling set. 'usness, and gratitude :—
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ld wit.
On Miss THICKNESS, placed by Mr. Thickness on the grave of his daughter, who lies buried in his garden, at St. Catherine's Hermitage, near Bath. At the lady's head is a beautiful monument with the following inscription:
"What tho' no sacred earth afford thee room,
Nor hallow'd dirge be mutter'd o'er thy tomb;
Yet shall thy grave with rising flowers be drest,
And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast:
Here shall the morn her earliest tears bestow,
Here the first roses of the year shall blow,
While angels with their silver wings o'ershade
The ground now sacred by thy relics made."
"Reader! if Youth should sparkle in thine eye—
If on thy cheek the flower of beauty blows,
Here shed the tear, and heave the pensive sigh
Where Beauty, Youth, and Innocence repose.
Doth Wit adorn thy mind :-doth science pour
Its ripen'd bounties on thy vernal year?
Behold where Death has cropp'd the plenteous store,
And heave the sigh, and shed the pensive tear.
Does Music's dulcet notes dwell on thy tongue,
And do THY fingers sweep the sounding lyre?
Behold! where low she lies who sweetly sung,
The melting strains, a cherub might inspire.
Of Youth, of Beauty-then, be vain no more—
Of Music's power- of Wit and Learning's prize,
For while you read, those charms may all be o'er,
And ask to share the grave where ANNA lies."
Lady's Magazine, 1812.
On an only son :
"Away with the sigh and the tear,
Though he's gone and for ever away;
For he ne'er caus'd a sigh to us here,
He ne'er from his God went astray."
On a young Greek, buried in Tottenham churchyard
"Far from his native Greece, the mortal part
Of CONSTANTINE SOTIRIS here was laid.
Almost ere childhood melted into youth,
Bold, wild, and free, the little Suliote came
To England's shores, a student:--and his soul
All knowledge, save of ill, with eager joy
Received. But chiefly, with a spirit's thirst
He drank the waters of immortal life.
Meek, holy, calm, the little Suliote died,
His last breath murmured, in his country's tongue,
The name of 'Mother.'-'Twas a father's death
(Sad tidings told him in this foreign land)
First bade him droop :-no hand of relative
Closed his sad eyes; yet left he here
True friends, whom his sweet gentleness had found,
And one of these inscribes this humble stone.
Obiit Aprilis 17-1827,
In Aldborough churchyard
"ROBERT HARVEY died in a decline Dec., 1823,
aged 16.
Here lies consign'd to nature dust, a youth
Of purest manners and unblemished truth;
Who knew no vice, no wayward courses run;
His friends' delight-his parents' duteous Son;
Pious, sincere, in all his works approv'd;
But, ah! too early from our hopes remov'd."
In Sudbury church, Derbyshire, is a neat mural monument, raised in commemoration of CATHERINE, daughter of the late Lord VERNON, who died at the age of 25, bearing this inscription, written by William Whitehead, poet-laureate :
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