Gleanings in Graveyards: A Collection of Curious Epitaphs — John Shaqi
Gleanings in Graveyards: A Collection of Curious EpitaphsNorfolk, Horatio Edward
General
Gleanings in Graveyards: A Collection of Curious Epitaphs
Norfolk, Horatio Edward
Epitaphs; Epitaphs -- Great Britain
The life of this clerk was just three score and ten,
Nearly half of which time he had sung out _Amen_!
In his 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 then
His 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 in blowing _Amen_;
But he lost all his wind after three score and ten,
And now, with three wives, he waits, till again
The trumpet shall rouse him to sing out _Amen_!
SNODLAND.
Palmers al our faders were,—
I, a Palmer, lived here,
And travylled till, worne with age,
I endyd this world’s pylgrymage
On the blyst Assention-day,
In the cheerful month of May,
A thousand with foure hundryd seven,
And took my jorney hense to Heven!
SANDWICH.
To Thomas, son of Thomas Danson, late a Preacher
in this town. Born Oct. 23, 1668; died Oct. 23, 1674.
Upon October’s three and twentieth day
The world began, (as learned Annals say,)
That was this child’s birthday, on which he died,
The world’s end may in his be typified:
Oh! happy little world, whose work is done
Before the greater, and his rest begun.
WOOLWICH.
Several years since, an inhabitant of Woolwich died, leaving a
testamentary order that his tombstone should be inscribed with the
well-known lines:—
Youthful reader, passing by,
As you are now, so once was I,
As I am now, so you must be,
Therefore prepare to follow me.
The widow of the deceased, who did not honour her lord more than the
ordinary run of wives, obeyed her late husband’s injunctions, but added a
postscript of her own composition—
To follow you I am not content,
Until I know which way you went.
FRINDSBURY.
On Mrs. Lee and her son Tom.
In her life she did her best,
Now, I hope her soul’s at rest;
Also her son Tom lies at her feet,
He liv’d till he made both ends meet.
FOLKESTONE.
Sixteen years a Maiden,
One twelve Months a Wife,
One half hour a Mother,
And then I lost my Life.
ROCHESTER.
Though young she was,
Her youth could not withstand,
Nor her protect from Death’s
Impartial hand.
Like a cobweb, be we e’er so gay,
And death a broom,
That sweeps us all away.
MAIDSTONE.
“Stop ringers all and cast an eye,
You in your glory, so once was I,
What I have been, as you may see,
Which now is in the belfree.”
* * * * *
“God takes the good too good on earth to stay,
And leaves the bad too bad to take away.”
The person was very aged on whose tomb-stone the above was written!
LEE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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