Here lyes the Body of CaptainGervase Scrope, of the Family of Scropes, of Bolton, in the County of York, who departed this life the 26th day of August, Anno Domini, 1705.An Epitaph Written by Himself in the Agony andDolorous Paines of the Gout, and dyed soonafter.Here lies an Old Toss’d Tennis Ball,Was Racketted from Spring to FallWith so much heat, and so much hast,Time’s arm (for shame) grew tyr’d at last,Four Kings in Camps he truly seru’d,And from his Loyalty ne’r sweru’d.Father ruin’d, the Son slighted,And from the Crown ne’r requited,Loss of Estate, Relations, Blood,Was too well Known, but did no good,With long Campaigns and paines of th’ Govt,He cou’d no longer hold it out:Always a restless life he led,Never at quiet till quite dead,He marry’d in his latter dayes,One who exceeds the com’on praise,But wanting breath still to make KnownHer true Affection and his Own,Death kindly came, all wants supply’dBy giuing Rest which life deny’d.
Here lyes the Body of CaptainGervase Scrope, of the Family of Scropes, of Bolton, in the County of York, who departed this life the 26th day of August, Anno Domini, 1705.
An Epitaph Written by Himself in the Agony andDolorous Paines of the Gout, and dyed soonafter.
We conclude this class of epitaphs with a couple of piscatorial examples. The first is from the churchyard of Hythe:—
In the churchyard of Great Yarmouth, under date of 1769, an epitaph runs thus:—
Somesingular epitaphs are to be found over the remains of men who either manufactured, dispensed, or loved the social glass. In the churchyard of Newhaven, Sussex, the following may be seen on the grave of a brewer:—
The next, on John Scott, a Liverpool brewer, is rather rich in puns:—
On a butler in Ollerton churchyard is the following curious epitaph:—
We will next give a few epitaphs on publicans. Our first is from Pannal churchyard; it is on Joseph Thackerey, who died on the 26th of November, 1791:—
The following is from the graveyard ofUpton-on-Severn, and placed to the memory of a publican. The lines, it will be seen, are a dexterous weaving of the spiritual with the temporal:—
In 1789 passed away the landlady of the “Pig and Whistle,” Greenwich, and the following lines were inscribed to her memory:—
On an innkeeper in Stockbridge, the next may be seen:—
From the “Sportive Wit; the Muses’ Merriment,” issued in 1656, we extract the following lines on John Taylor, “the Water Poet,” who was a native of Gloucester, and died in Phœnix Alley, London, in the 75th year of his age. You may find him, if the worms have not devoured him, in Covent Garden churchyard:—
Robert Burns wrote the following epitaph on John Dove, innkeeper, Mauchline:—
We extract, from a collection of epitaphs, the following on a publican:—
It is stated in Mr. J. Potter Briscoe’s entertaining volume, “Nottinghamshire Facts and Fictions,” that in the churchyard of Edwalton is a gravestone to the memory of Mrs. Freland, a considerable landowner, who died in 1741; but who, it would appear from the inscription, was a very free liver, for her memorial says:—
A gravestone in Darenth churchyard, near Dartford, bears the following epitaph:—
At Chatham, on a drunkard, good advice is given:—
From Tonbridge churchyard we glean the following:—
Hail!This stone marks the spotWhere a notorious sotDoth lie;Whether at rest or notIt matters notTo you or I.Oft to the “Lion” he went to fill his horn,Now to the “Grave” he’s gone to get it warm.Beered by public subscription by his hale and stout companions, who deeply lament his absence.
Beered by public subscription by his hale and stout companions, who deeply lament his absence.
From St. Peter’s Mancroft, Norwich, are the following lines on Sarah Byfield, who died in 1719, comparing life to a market:—
On a gravestone in the churchyard of Eton, placed to the memory of an innkeeper, it is stated:—
Similar epitaphs to the foregoing may be found in many graveyards in this country. In Micklehurst churchyard, an inscription runs thus:—
In the old burial-ground in Castle Street, Hull, on the gravestone of a boy, a slightly different version of the rhyme appears:—
The churchyard of Melton Mowbray furnishes another rendering of the lines:—
The foregoing inscriptions, comparing life to a house, remind us of a curious inscription in Folkestone churchyard:—
In “Chronicles of the Tombs,” by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, published in 1857, it is stated respecting the foregoing epitaph: “Smoke money or chimney money is now collected at Battle, in Sussex, each householder paying one penny to the Lord of the Manor. It is also levied upon the inhabitants of the New Forest, in Hants, for the right of cutting peat and turf for fuel. And from ‘Audley’s Companion to the Almanac,’ page 76, we learn that ‘anciently, even in England, Whitsun farthings, or smoke farthings, were a composition for offerings made in the Whitsun week, by every man who occupied a house with a chimney, to the cathedral of the diocese in which he lived.’ The late Mr. E. B. Price has observed, inNotes and Queries(Vol. ii., p. 379), that there is a church at Northampton, upon which is an inscription recording that theexpense of repairing it was defrayed by a grant of chimney money for, I believe, seven years, temp. Charles II.”
SIGN OF THE BOAR’S HEAD.
In bygone times the “Boar’s Head” was a common tavern sign, and this is not surprising for the animal figures in English history, poetry, romance and popular pastimes. The most famous inn bearing the title of the “Boar’s Head” wasthat in Eastcheap, London. The earliest mention of this tavern occurs in the testament of William Warden in the days of Richard II., who gave “all that tenement called the Boar’s Head in Eastcheap to a college of priests, or chaplain, founded by Sir William Walworth, the Lord Mayor, in the adjoining church of St. Michael, Crooked Lane.” It was here that Prince Hal and “honest Jack Falstaff” played their pranks. At the door of the house until the Great Fire were carved figures of the two worthies. In the works of Goldsmith will be found a charming chapter called “Reflections in the Boar’s Head Tavern, Eastcheap”; anyone interested in this old place should not fail to read it. In his pleasant day-dreams he forgets the important fact that the original house perished in the Great Fire. In the Guildhall Library is preserved the stone sign from the old house, which was pulled down in 1831 to make way for the streets leading to the new London Bridge. We give a picture of this old-time sign on the opposite page.
A famous waiter of this tavern was buried in the graveyard of St. Michael’s Church, hard by, and a monument of Purbeck stone was placed to his memory bearing an interesting inscription. Wegive a picture of the gravestone, which has been removed to the yard of St. Magnus the Martyr.
PRESTON’S TOMBSTONE AT ST. MAGNUS THE MARTYR.
The next example from Abesford, on an exciseman, is entitled to a place among Bacchanalian epitaphs:—
In the churchyard of North Wingfield, Derbyshire, a gravestone bears the following inscription:
In memory ofThomas, son of John and Mary Clay, who departed this life December 16th, 1724, in the 40th year of his age.What though no mournful kindred standAround the solemn bier,No parents wring the trembling hand,Or drop the silent tear.No costly oak adorned with artMy weary limbs inclose;No friends impart a winding sheetTo deck my last repose.
In memory ofThomas, son of John and Mary Clay, who departed this life December 16th, 1724, in the 40th year of his age.
The cause of the foregoing curious epitaph is thus explained. Thomas Clay was a man of intemperate habits, and at the time of his death was indebted to the village innkeeper, named Adlington, to the amount of twenty pounds. The publican resolved to seize the body; but the parents of the deceased carefully kept the door locked until the day appointed for the funeral. As soon as the door was opened, Adlington rushed into the house, seized the corpse, and placed it on a form in the open street in front of the residence of the parents of the departed. Clay’s friends refused to discharge the publican’saccount. After the body had been exposed for several days, Adlington committed it to the ground in abacon chest.
We conclude this class of epitaphs with the following from Winchester Cathedral yard:—
In memory ofThomas Thetcher,a Grenadier in the North Regiment of Hants Militia,who died of a violent fever contracted by drinking smallbeer when hotthe 12th of May, 1764, aged 26 years.In grateful remembrance of whose universal goodwilltowards his comrades this stone is placed here at their expense, asa small testimony of their regard and concern.Here sleeps in peace a Hampshire Grenadier,Who caught his death by drinking cold small beer;Soldiers, be wise from his untimely fall,And when ye’re hot drink strong, or none at all.This memorial, being decayed, was restored by the officers of the garrison,A.D.1781:—An honest soldier never is forgot,Whether he die by musket or by pot.This stone was placed by the North Hants Militia, when disembodied at Winchester, on 26th April, 1802, in consequence of the original stone being destroyed.
This memorial, being decayed, was restored by the officers of the garrison,A.D.1781:—
This stone was placed by the North Hants Militia, when disembodied at Winchester, on 26th April, 1802, in consequence of the original stone being destroyed.
THETCHER’S TOMBSTONE, WINCHESTER.
From a Photo by F. A. Grant.
Nota few of our old parish clerks and sextons were eccentric characters, and it is not therefore surprising that their epitaphs are amongst the most curious of the many strange examples to be found in the quiet resting-places of the departed.
In the churchyard of Crayford is a gravestone bearing the following inscription:—
Here lieth the bodyofPeter Isnell,Thirty years clerk of this Parish.He lived respected as a pious and mirthful man, and died on hisway to church to assist at a wedding,On the 31st day of March, 1811,Aged 70 years.The inhabitants of Crayford have raised this stone to his cheerful memory, and as a tribute to his long and faithful services.The life of this clerk, just three score and ten,Nearly half of which time he had sung out “Amen;”In youth he was married, like other young men,But his wife died one day, so he chanted “Amen.”A second he took, she departed—what then?He married and buried a third with “Amen.”Thus his joys and his sorrows were treble, but thenHis voice was deep bass, as he sung out “Amen.”On the horn he could blow as well as most men;So his horn was exalted to blowing “Amen.”But he lost all his wind after three score and ten,And here, with three wives, he awaits till againThe trumpet shall rouse him to sing out “Amen.”
Here lieth the bodyofPeter Isnell,Thirty years clerk of this Parish.He lived respected as a pious and mirthful man, and died on hisway to church to assist at a wedding,On the 31st day of March, 1811,Aged 70 years.
The inhabitants of Crayford have raised this stone to his cheerful memory, and as a tribute to his long and faithful services.
In addition to being parish clerk, Frank Raw, of Selby, Yorkshire, was a gravestone cutter, for we are told:—
The next epitaph, placed to the memory of a parish clerk and bellows-maker, was formerly in the old church of All Saints’, Newcastle-on-Tyne:—
On a slate headstone, near the south porch of Bingham Church, Nottinghamshire, is inscribed:—
From the churchyard of Ratcliffe-on-Soar, we have a curious epitaph to the memory of Robert Smith, who died in 1782, aged 82 years:—
In a note by Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt,F.S.A., we are told that with the clerkship of Bakewell Church, the “vocal powers” of its holders appear to have been to some extent hereditary, if we may judge by the inscriptions recording the deaths and the abilities of two members of the family of Roe, which are found on gravestones in the churchyard there. The first of these, recording the death of Samuel Roe, is as under:—
He had three wives, Millicent, who died in 1745, aged 22; Dorothy, who died 1754, aged 28; and Sarah, who survived him and died in 1811, at the age of 77. A gravestone records the death of his first two wives as follows, and the third is commemorated in the above inscription.
Millicent,Wife of Saml Roe,She died Sepr 16th, 1745, aged 22.Dorothy,Wife of Saml Roe,She died Novr 13th, 1754, aged 28.
Respecting the above-mentioned Samuel Roe,a contributor to theGentleman’s Magazinewrote, on February 13th, 1794:—
“Mr. Urban,
“It was with much concern that I read the epitaph upon Mr. Roe, in your last volume, p. 1192. Upon a little tour which I made in Derbyshire, in 1789, I met with that worthy and very intelligent man at Bakewell, and, in the course of my antiquarian researches there, derived no inconsiderable assistance from his zeal and civility. If he did not possess the learning of his namesake, your old and valuable correspondent, I will venture to declare that he was not less influenced by a love and veneration for antiquity, many proofs of which he had given by his care and attention to the monuments in the church, which were committed to his charge; for he united the characters of sexton, clerk, singing-master, will-maker, and school-master. Finding that I was quite alone, he requested permission to wait upon me at the inn in the evening, urging, as a reason for this request, that he must be exceedingly gratified by the conversation of a gentleman who could read the characters upon the monument of Vernon, the founder of Haddon House, a treat he had not met with for manyyears. After a very pleasant gossip we parted, but not till my honest friend had, after some apparent struggle, begged of me to indulge him with my name.”
To his careful attention is to be attributed the preservation of the curious Vernon and other monuments in the church, over which, in some instances, he placed wooden framework to keep off the rough hands and rougher knives of the boys and young men of the congregation. He also watched with special care over the Wendesley tomb, and even took careful rubbings of the inscriptions.
While speaking of this Mr. Roe, it may be well to put the readers of this work in possession of an interesting fact in connection with the name of Roe, or Row. The writer above, in his letter to Mr. Urban, says, “If he did not possess the learning of his namesake, your old and valued correspondent,” etc. By this he means “T. Row,” whose contributions to theGent.’s Mag.were very numerous and interesting. The writer under this signature was the Rev. Samuel Pegge, rector of Whittington, and the letters forming this pseudonym were the initials of the words, T[he] R[ector] O[f] W[hittington].
Philip Roe, who succeeded his father (Samuel Roe) as parish clerk of Bakewell, was his son by his third wife. He was born in 1763, and succeeded his father in full parochial honours in 1792, having, we believe, for some time previously acted as his deputy. He died in 1815, aged 52 years, and was buried with the other members of the family. The following curious inscription appears on his gravestone:—
Cuthbert Bede,B.A., says, “As a boy I oftenattended the service at Belbroughton Church, Worcestershire, where the parish clerk was Mr. Osborne, tailor. His family had there been parish clerks and tailors since the time of Henry the Eighth, and were lineally descended from William FitzOsborne, who, in the twelfth century, had been deprived by Ralph FitzHerbert of his right to the manor of Bellem, in the parish of Belbroughton. Often have I stood in the picturesque churchyard of Wolverley, Worcestershire, by the grave of its old parish clerk, whom I well remember, old Thomas Worrall, the inscription on whose monument is as follows:—
Sacred to the Memory ofThomas Worrall,Parish Clerk of Wolverley for a period of forty-seven years.DiedA.D.1854, February 23rd.Aged 76 years.He served with faithfulness in humble sphere,As one who could his talent well employ.Hope that when Christ his Lord shall re-appear,He may be bidden to His Master’s joy.This tombstone was erected to the memory of the deceased by a few of the parishioners in testimony of his worth.April, 1855.Charles R. Somers Cocks, vicar.
This tombstone was erected to the memory of the deceased by a few of the parishioners in testimony of his worth.
April, 1855.Charles R. Somers Cocks, vicar.
It may be noted of this worthy parish clerk that, with the exception of a week or two beforehis death, he was never once absent from his Sunday and week-day duties in the forty-seven years during which he held office. He succeeded his father, James Worrall, who died in 1806, aged seventy-nine, after being parish clerk of Wolverley for thirty years. His tombstone, near to that of his son, was erected ‘to record his worth both in his public and private character, and as a mark of personal esteem—h.l.F.H.& W.C.p.c.’ I am told that these initials stand for F. Hurtle and the Rev. William Callow, and that the latter was the author of the following lines inscribed on the monument, which are well worth quoting:—
A memorial record on the church of Holy Trinity, Hull, is as follows:—
In memory ofJohn StoneParish Clerk 41 yearsExcellent in his wayBuried here 26 May 1727Aged 78.
First amongst notable sextons is the name of Old Scarlett, who died July 2, 1591, at the good old age of ninety-eight, and occupied for a long time the position of sexton of Peterborough Cathedral. He buried two generations of his fellow-creatures. A portrait of him, placed at the west end of that noble church, has perpetuated his fame, and caused him to be introduced in effigy in various publications. Says a writer in the “Book of Days”: “And what a lively effigy—short, stout, hardy, and self-complacent, perfectly satisfied, and perhaps even proud, of his profession, and content to be exhibited with all its insignia about him! Two queens had passed through his hands into that bed which gives a lasting rest to queens and to peasants alike. An officer of Death, who had so long defied his principal, could not but have made some impression on the minds of bishop, dean, prebends, and other magnates of the Cathedral, and hence, as we may suppose, the erection of this lively portraiture of the old man, which is believed to have been onlyonce renewed since it was first put up. Dr. Dibdin, who last copied it, tells us that ‘Old Scarlett’s jacket and trunkhose are of a brownish red, his stockings blue, his shoes black, tied with blue ribbons, and the soles of his feet red. The cap upon his head is red, and so also is the ground of the coat armour.’”
OLD SCARLETT, THE PETERBOROUGH SEXTON.
The following lines below his portrait are characteristic of his age:—
The first of the queens interred by Scarlett was Catherine, the divorced wife of Henry VIII., who died in 1535, at Kimbolton Castle, in Huntingdonshire. The second was Mary, Queen of Scots, who was beheaded at Fotheringay in 1587, and first interred here, though subsequently transported to Westminster Abbey.
Our next example is from Bingley, Yorkshire:—
In memory ofHezekiah Briggs, who died August 5th, 1844, inthe 80th year of his age. He was sexton at this church43 years, and interred upwards of 7000 corpses.
[Here the names of his wife and several children are given.]
An upright stone in the burial-ground at Hartwith Chapel, in Nidderdale, Yorkshire, bears the following inscription:—
An examination of Pateley Bridge Church registers proves that Darnbrough was one hundred and two years of age.
An epitaph from Saddleworth, Yorkshire, tells us:—
Here was interred the body ofJohn Broadbent, Sexton, who departed this life, August 3rd, 1769, in the 73rd year of his age.Forty-eight years, strange to tell,He bore the bier and toll’d the bell,And faithfully discharged his trust,In “earth to earth” and “dust to dust.”Cease to lament,His life is spent,The grave is still his element;His old friend Death knew ’twas his sphere,So kindly laid the sexton here.
Here was interred the body ofJohn Broadbent, Sexton, who departed this life, August 3rd, 1769, in the 73rd year of his age.
At Rothwell, near Leeds, an old sexton is buried in the church porch. A monumental inscription runs thus:—
In memory ofThomas Flockton, Sexton 59 years, buried23rd day of February, 1783, aged 78 years.
At Darlington, there is a Latin epitaph over the remains of Richard Preston, which has been freely translated as follows:—
The gravestone bears the date of 1765.
Further examples might be included, but we have given sufficient to show the varied and curious epitaphs placed to the memory of parish clerks and sextons.
Punsin epitaphs have been very common, and may be found in Greek and Latin, and still more plentifully in our English compositions. In the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and other languages, examples occur. Empedocles wrote an epitaph containing the paronomasia, or pun, on a physician named Pausanias, and it has by Merivale been happily translated:—
In Holy Trinity Church, Hull, is an example of a punning epitaph. It is on a slab in the floor of the north aisle of the nave, to the memory of “The Worshipful Joseph Field, twice Mayor of this town, and Merchant Adventurer.” He died in 1627, aged 63 years:—
On Bishop Theophilus Field, in Hereford Cathedral, ob. 1636, is another specimen:—
He was successively Bishop of Llandaff, St. Davids, and Hereford.
The following rather singular epitaph, with a play upon the name, occurs in the chancel of Checkley Church, Staffordshire:—