Читать книгу Gleanings in Graveyards: A Collection of Curious Epitaphs - Horatio Edward Norfolk - Страница 13

There is a vulgar tradition that in this place four Johns were buried, and they are described as follows:—John Long, John Strong, John Ever-afraid, and John Never-afraid. They say that John Ever-afraid was afraid to be buried either in the church or out of it, and was consequently buried under the wall, where the arch appears on the outside, by the south church door.

The following is a copy of an epitaph, now almost obliterated, in Speen Churchyard, and which, admired for its simple pathos, has been handed to us for insertion:—

In memory of John Matthews, of Donnington, Berks,

1779.

When Heaven with equal eyes our quick’ning dust

Shall view, and judge the bad and praise the just,

His humble merits may perhaps find room

Where kings shall wish, but wish in vain to come.

In Sunning Hill Churchyard is the following epitaph on the late Right Hon. Colonel Richard Fitzpatrick, written by himself:—

Whose turn is next? This monitory stone

Replies, vain passenger perhaps thine own;

If idly curious, thou wilt seek to know

Whose relicks mingle with the dust below,

Enough to tell thee, that his destin’d span,

On earth he dwelt, and like thyself a man.

Nor distant far th’ inevitable day

When thou, poor mortal, shalt like him be clay;

Through life he walk’d un-emulous of fame,

Nor wish’d beyond it to preserve a name.

Content, if friendship, o’er his humble bier

Dropt but the heart-felt tribute of a tear;

Though countless ages should unconscious glide,

Nor learn that even he had lived and died.