poor “Virginea _optima vita_ El. 21,” whose Covent Garden grave had on its surface the same curse “for he that moves my bones”? Did her people fear that some after-scandal might occur to show that she was no better than Ann Hathway or Jane Shore, and her ashes be scattered in the swollen flood of the Fleet stream! or that an unknown princess or poetess unrecognised, cared not for a niche in Poet’s Corner or a sepulchre amongst the great ones of the land, should her real self and character ever be found out! In searching for epitaphs of a similar style I found the following, which I give as illustrative of what I have mentioned above. They are extracted from an ancient folio, 1736 A.D., The History of London, by William Maitland, F.R.S., which gives an account of the several parishes and churches. SARAH WILLIAMS, ob. September, 1680. Reader, stand still and spend a tear Upon the dust that slumbers here; And when thou readest, instead of me, Think on the Glass that runs for thee. _St. Paul’s_, _Shadwell_. JOHN JORDAN, 14th March, 1700. Stand, Reader, and spend a tear, And think on me who now lye here; And whilest you read the state of me, Think on the glass that runs for thee. _St. Mary_, _Whitechapel_. MARY PERKINS, Died A.D. 1703. Reader, stand still and spend a tear Upon the dust that slumbers here; And when thou readest, instead of me, Think on the glass that runs for thee. _St. Giles-in-the-Fields_. Another similar. No Name. _St. Martins-in-the-Fields_. MRS. MARY MORLEY. Another similar. _Ratcliff_, 1700 A.D. Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear, To dig the dust enclosed here; Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones. Virginea Optima Vita El., aged 21, ob. 1700 A.D. _St. Paul’s_, _Covent Garden_. When God was pleased (the world unwilling yet), Helias James, to nature paid his debt; And here reposes; as he lived he died, The saying strongly in him verified— Such life, such death, then a known truth to tell, He lived a godly life, and died as well. _St. Andrew Wardrobe_—_St. Anne’s_, _Blackfriers_, annexed thereto after the fire. JOYCE RICH, 1679, E. daughter of — We two within this grave do lye, Where we do rest together, Until the Lord doth us awake, And from the goats us sever. _Ratcliff Hamlet_. Here lyes the body of WILLIAM WHEATLEY, ob. 10th Nov. 1683.