Appendix

A Latin inscription was regarded as an appropriate tribute to the learning of the deceased, who, had his ghost walked o’ nights, might have needed to brush up his classics to make quitesure of what his survivors were saying about him.

In happy contrast to the frigidity of these epitaphs wherein the dead languages bury their dead, is the verse written by his son over the “HonbleColl. Digges,” who died in 1744:

“Diggs, ever to extremes untaught to bendEnjoying life, yet mindful of its endIn thee the world an happy mingling sawOf sprightly humor and religious awe.”

How it warms our hearts to find the wordhumoron a gravestone! It takes the chill out of death itself, and inspires us with the hope that this most lovable of traits may stand as good a chance of immortality as Faith, Hope, or Charity.

A brief and business-like epitaph written over Mistress Lucy Berkeley, declares that “She left behind her 5 children viz. 2 Boys and 3 Girls. I shall not pretend to give her full character; it would take too much room for a Grave-stone. Shall only say she never neglected her duty to her Creator in publick or private. She was charitable to the poor, a kind Mistress, Indulgent Mother, and Obedient Wife.”

For a parallel to this matron who neglected no duty, “publick or private,” we must seek the tombof a maiden. On the crumbling stone the tribute still survives, and tells that

One more epitaph of the Colonial Cavaliers I must quote in full, because it alone, of all I have studied, does give a picture of the man who lies under it. If it praises him too much, it is to be set down to his credit that one who knew him well believed it all; and I for one wish peace to the dust of this gallant old mariner who sailed the seas in colonial days. Here he lies, sunk at his moorings, “one who never struck his flag while he had a shot in the locker; who carried sail in chace till all was blue; in peace whose greatest glory was a staggering top-sail breeze; in war to bring his broadside to bear upon the enemy, and who, when signals of distress hove out, never stood his course, but hauled ortacked or wore to give relief, though to a foe; who steered his little bark full fifty annual cruises over life’s tempestuous ocean and moored her safe in port at last; where her timbers being crazy, and having sprung a leak in the gale, she went down with a clear hawse. If these traits excite in the breast of humanity that common tribute to the memory of the departed—a sigh—then traveller as thou passest this wreck, let thine be borne upon the breeze which bends the grassy covering of the grave ofOld Job Pray.”

This stone, like many another we find in these old brick-walled Southern burying-grounds, brings a smile which borders close upon a tear. The very spelling and lettering in these primitive inscriptions seem moss-grown with age, and tell of generations passed away, bearing their manners and customs before them, as Mary Stuart bears her head on the charger in the Abbotsford picture. Here on one crumbling stone we read of a matron who hated strife with a capital “S” and loved peace with a little “p.” Here we read the touching little life-history of the young wife of John Page, who “blest her said Husband with a sonn and a Daughter and departed this life, the twelfth day of November, Anno Dom 1702, and in the 20th yeare of her age.”

The inscriptions on the oldest tombstones areundecipherable. The bluestone slab under the ruined arch at Jamestown clasped by the roots of the sycamore was so broken and defaced even when Lossing visited it that nothing remained but the shadowy date, 1608. But in the earliest inscriptions that survive, we are struck by the virile and nervous English. It smacks of “great Eliza’s golden day.” A fragment of one runs:

“O Death! all-eloquent, you only proveWhat dust we dote on when ’t is man we love.”

But finest of all is the noble dirge, sung over Bacon’s lifeless body by some one whose name will never now be surely known, since he disguised his identity, prompted by a wise dread of Berkeley’s malignant revenge, and states that after Bacon’s death “he was bemoaned in these following lines, drawn by the man that waited upon his person as it is said, and who attended his corpse to their burial place.” Whoever the writer was, and a high authority designates him as a man named Cotton, dweller at Acquia Creek, it is very sure that no serving-man composed these lines, which are like an echo of the age that gave us Lycidas:

“Who is’t must plead our cause? Nor trump nor drumNor deputations; these, alas! are dumb;And can not speak. Our arms, though ne’er so strong,Will want the aid of his commanding tongue.“Here let him rest; while we this truth reportHe’s gone from hence unto a higher courtTo plead his cause, where he by this doth know,Whether to Cæsar he was friend or foe.”

These closing words may well form the epitaph written over the Colonial Cavalier. He is gone from hence unto a higher court—gone from this world forever. His open-handed hospitality, his reckless profusion, his chivalry to women, his quick-tempered, sword-thrusting honor, are as obsolete as his lace ruffles, his doublet and jerkin, his buckles and jewels and feathers. We are fallen on a prosaic age, and it is only in our dreams of the past that we conjure up, like a gay decoration against the neutral background of modern life, the figure of “The Colonial Cavalier.”

Alden’s Collection of American Epitaphs and Inscriptions

Alsop’s Character of the Province of Maryland

Anburey’s Travels through the Interior Parts of America

Bancroft’s History of the United States

Beverley’s History and Present State of Virginia

Bozman’s History of Maryland

Browne’s Maryland

Buck’s Old Plate

Burwell Papers, The

Byrd’s Westover Manuscripts

Campbell’s History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia

Chastellux’s Travels in North America

Cooke’s Virginia

Doyle’s English Colonies in America

Fisher’s The Colonial Era

Hammond’s Leah and Rachel; or, The Two Fruitful Sisters, Virginia and Maryland

Hamor’s True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia

Hening’s Virginia Statutes at Large

Hildreth’s History of the United States

Howe’s Historical Collections of Virginia

Howell’s State Trials

Irving’s Life of Washington

Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia

Jefferson, Thomas, Life and Letters of

Jones’ True Relation of the Present State of Virginia

Lee, Richard Henry, Life and Letters of

Lossing’s Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution

McMaster’s History of the People of the United States

Madison, Mrs. Dolly, Life and Letters of

Maryland Archives

Magazine of American History

Meade’s Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia

Moore’s History of North Carolina

Purchas: His Pilgrimes

Ramsay’s History of South Carolina

Ridgely’s Annals of Annapolis

Robin, Abbé, New Travels through North America

Rowland’s Life of George Mason

Scharf’s Chronicles of Baltimore

Smith’s General History of Virginia

Smith’s True Relation of Virginia

Tyler’s Life of Patrick Henry

Tyler’s History of American Literature

Virginia Historical Register, Ed. by W. Maxwell

Virginia Magazine of History and Biography

Whitaker’s Good Newes from Virginia

William and Mary College Quarterly

Wirt’s Life of Patrick Henry

Footnote:

[1]V.Libraryof Edmund Berkeley, Esq., Member of the Council (Died 15 Dec. 1718), from an inventory taken the 18 and 19 days of June, 1719:

The whole Duty of Mann One old Bible and one old comon prayrbook The Christian Sacrifice The great Duty of frequenting the Christian Sacrifice A Brief chronicle of the Civil Wars of England and Ireland. Cavalrie the first Book The common prayer book the best companion. Janna Divoram. Contemplations on the State of Mann the first part of the English Dixtionary The Wel Spring of Sciences The Young Clerk guide A compendium of physick The Athenian Oracle A Guide to Constables Some consideration touching the Stile of the Holy Scriptures. A perfect Guide for a Studious Young Lawyer The prsent State of London. a Profitable book for those that are burnt with Gunpowder. The first part of the English Dictionary a Compleat history of England The lives of the noble Grecians and Romans. The Tragedy of Darius and Julius Cæsar A Compleat Collections of all the Laws of Virginia The new world of English words. The history of the Jews. The Countrey Justice The first part of Compleat Histrey The Expotion of the Creed The Surgeons mate An Essay concerning human understanding a Breife Treatise of Testaments The Decameron A Compendius Dictionary Lexicon Manuale. Lord Delamers Works. Sixteen sermons on several occasions ffarquhars Works. An abridgment of all the Statutes in fforce The standard of the Quakers. The Hearts Ease. A Tryal of Faith Several Discourses of the great Duties of Natural Religion The Works of Josephus in three Volumes Doctor Reads Works. Abridgment of the Statutes of King Wm. Plutarchs Morals. Bethel or a fform for ffamilys Discourses on the History of the whole world of wisdom the second and third books. Mr. John Banisters Works. The History of ffrance the first and fourth volumes of the turkish spy Sermons on several occasions resolutions and devisions of Cases of Conscience Plutarchs Morals the Second Volume and the third. A Manual Anatomy England’s General Description Shakespears Works. Second Volume of Tom Browns Works Copies of Certain Letters. Ancient and the present State of the Empire of Germany. The Shepards oracles. Physoignomie and Chiromancy The Genral View of the Holy Scriptures The practice of piety The great law of consideration Trigonometrie Of generosity and constancy in the faith The History of the Revolutions in Sweeden The Marrow of Chyrurgery Toleration discuss’d. Letters of Remarkables in Switzerland The office of Executors a Companion for a Chyrurgeon The Critick The Lively Oracles The heaven of health The history of the Conquest of China Valentine and Orson. a Discourse on the Sacraments Some Motives to the Love of God. an Introduction to the Skill of Musick. Sermons and Discourses some of which never before printed. The Nature of Truth discuss’d The Method of physick The new London Dispensatory. a Compendius Dictionary Milk for Babes an Introduction to the Eight parts of Latin speech The use of piety The European Mercury The Books of psalms. Notes on Mr. Lockes Essay of Human Understanding Britains Remembrancer An Infallible way to Contentment a view of all the religions in the world A Description of the Little world. The portraiture of his sacred Majtyin his solitudes and suferings The London Dispensatory English Examples a Short Introduction to Gramar a Short Catechisme The Esopps ffables Works of MrThosSoutherne Eight Lattin Books.

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