Curious Epitaphs, Collected from the Graveyards of Great Britain and Ireland.Andrews, William
General
Curious Epitaphs, Collected from the Graveyards of Great Britain and Ireland.
Andrews, William
Epitaphs -- Great Britain
Blest be the hand divine which gently laid
My head at rest beneath the humble shade;
Then be the ties of friendship dear;
Let no rude hand disturb my body here.
In the burial-ground of St. Martin's, Stamford, Lincolnshire, is a
gravestone to Lambert of surprising corpulency:--
In remembrance of that prodigy in nature,
DANIEL LAMBERT,
a native of Leicester,
who was possessed of an excellent and convivial mind, and
in personal greatness had no competitor.
He measured three feet one inch round the leg, nine feet four
inches round the body, and weighed 52 stones 11lbs.
(14lb. to the stone).
He departed this life on the 21st of June, 1809, aged 39 years.
As a testimony of respect, this stone was erected by his
friends in Leicester.
Respecting the burial of Lambert we gather from a sketch of his life the
following particulars: "His coffin, in which there was a great difficulty
to place him, was six feet four inches long, four feet four inches wide,
and two feet four inches deep; the immense substance of his legs made it
necessarily a square case. This coffin, which consisted of 112 superficial
feet of elm, was built on two axle-trees, and four cog-wheels. Upon these
his remains were rolled into his grave, which was in the new burial ground
at the back of St. Martin's Church. A regular descent was made by sloping
it for some distance. It was found necessary to take down the window and
wall of the room in which he lay to allow of his being taken away."
In St. Peter's churchyard, Isle of Thanet, a gravestone bears the
following inscription:--
In memory of Mr. RICHARD JOY called the
Kentish Samson
Died May 18th 1742 aged 67
Hercules Hero Famed for Strength
At last Lies here his Breadth and Length
See how the mighty man is fallen
To Death ye strong and weak are all one
And the same Judgment doth Befall
Goliath Great or David small.
Joy was invited to Court to exhibit his remarkable feats of strength. In
1699 his portrait was published, and appended to it was an account of his
prodigious physical power.
The next epitaph is from St. James's cemetery, Liverpool:--
Reader pause. Deposited beneath are the remains of
SARAH BIFFIN,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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