274 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 203. 



a specimen of the following tombstone tomfoolery 

 — an initial epitaph. Green, in his History of 

 Worcester, gives the following inscription from a 

 monument under the north-west window of St. 

 Andrew's Church in that city : 



" Short of Weight 



H L T B O 



R W 



I H O A J R 



A n 1780 A 63." 



Green adds the following explanation of this 

 riddle : 



" In full measure it would have stood thus : ' Here 

 Lieth The Body Of Richard Weston, In Hopes Of A 

 Joyful Resurrection. Anno Domini 1780. Aged 63.'" 



Richard Weston was a baker, and the " Short 

 of "weight" gives the clue to the nature of his 

 dealings, and also to the right reading of the 

 epitaph. 



The following is from Ombersley Churchyard, 

 Worcestershire : 



" Sharp was her wit, 



i\Iild was her nature ; 

 A tender wife, 



A good humoured creature." 



From the churchyard of St. John, Worcester : 



" Honest John's 

 Dead and gone." 



From the churchyard of Cofton Hackett, Wor- 

 cestershire, are the two following : 



" Here lieth the body of John Galey, sen., in expect- 

 ation of the Last Day. What sort of man he was that 

 day will discover. He was clerk of this parish fifty- 

 five years. He died in 1756, aged 75." 



The next is also to a Galey. Your correspondent 

 PiCTOB (Vol. viii., p. 98.) gives the same epitaph, 

 slightly altered, as being at Wingfield, Suffolk : 



" Pope boldly asserts (some think the maxim odd), 

 An honest man's the noblest work of God. 

 If this assertion is from error clear, 

 One of the noblest works of God lies here." 



From Alvechurch, Worcestershire ; to a man 

 and wife : 



" He, an honest, good-natured, worthy man ; slie, as 

 eminent for conjugal and maternal virtues during her 

 marriage and widowhood, as she had been before for 

 amiable delicacy of person and manners." 



The following, which is probably not to be sur- 

 passed', appeared in one of the earliest numbers of 

 Household Words. It is from the churchyard of 

 Pewsey, Wiltshire : 



" Here lies the body of Lady O'Looney, great-niece 

 of Burke, commonly called the Sublime. She was 

 bland, passionate, and deeply religious : also, she 

 painted in water-colours, and sent several pictures to 



the Exhibition. She was first cousin to Lady Jones: 

 and of such is the kingdom of heaven." 



CUTHBERT BeDE, B.A. 



If epitaphs of recent date are admitted in " N. 

 & Q.," perhaps the following, upon an editor, which 

 lately appeared in the Halifax Colonist, may not 

 be out of place in your publication : 



" Here lies an editor ! 



Snooks if you will ; 

 In mercy, kind Providence, 



Let him lie still. 

 He lied for his living : so 



He lived, while he lied. 

 When he could not lie longer, 



He lied down, and died." 



w. w. 



Malta. 



" Here lies a Wife, a Friend, a Mother, 

 I believe there never was such another ; 

 She had a head to earn and a heart to give. 

 And many poor she did relieve. 

 She lived in virtue and in virtue died, 

 And now in Heaven she doth reside. 

 Yes ! it is true as tongue can tell. 

 If she had a fault, it was loving me too well. 

 And when I am lying by her side, 

 Who was in life her daily pride, 

 Tho' she's confined in coffins three, 

 She'd leave them all and come to me ! " 

 The above lines, written on a tablet in a church 

 at Exeter, were composed by Mr. Tuckett, tallow- 

 chandler, to the memory of his wife. An old sub- 

 scriber of "N. & Q." thinks this epitaph more 

 strange and curious than any which has yet ap- 

 peared in the columns of that valuable publication. 



Anon. 



PAKOCHIAL LIBBABIES. 



(Vol. vii., p. 507.) 



I copy the following from the fly-leaf of A 

 Treatise of Ecclesiastical BeJiefices and Revenues, 

 by the learned Father Paul, translated by Tobias 

 Jenkins, 8vo., Westminster, 1736 : 



" Bibliotheca de Bassingbourn in Com. Cant. Dono 

 dedit Edvardus Nightingale de Kneese worth Armiger 

 Filius et Hares Fundatoris. Feb. 1™", 1735'°." 



How the volume got out of the library I know 

 not : it was purchased some years since at a sale 

 in Oxford. Y. B. N. J. 



To the list of parochial libraries allow me to 

 add that of Denchworth, near Wantage, Berks. 

 In a small apartment over the porch, the parvise, 

 I recollect, some years since, to have seen a very 

 fair collection of old divinity, the books being, all 

 of them, confined by chains, according to the 

 ancient usage, an instance of which I never saw 

 elsewhere. 



