190 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 280. 



allude, than as evincing a deeper insight into 

 futurity than might be expected from the political 

 sagacity of that philosophical writer : 



" L'Empire des Turcs est si present h, peu prbs dans le 

 meme d^gre de foiblesse oii etoit autrefois celui des 

 Grecs : Mais il subsistera longtemps : car si quelque 

 Prince que ce fut mettoit cet Empire en pdril en poursui- 

 vant ses conquetes, les trois Puissances commer9antes de 

 I'Europe connoissent trop leurs affaires pour n'en pas 

 prendre la defense sur-le-champ." — Grandeur et D6ca- 

 dence des Romains, chap, xxiii. 



William Bates. 

 Birmingham. 



(Vol. X. passim.) 



Epitaph on an Infant. — Unluckily, the excel- 

 lent advice of Captain Cuttle quoted on your 

 title-page is not only set at naught by persons 

 who lay no claim to anything pertaining to a 

 literary taste, but is also too often partially ne- 

 glected by those who religiously venerate and 

 take care of the substance of anything that pleases 

 or interests them. Thus many a fugitive piece of 

 poetry finds its way into our collections, of whose 

 parentage one is unable to find even the slightest 

 trace. Such is the condition of the following 

 beautiful " Epitaph on an Infant," of whose his- 

 tory I know no more than this, that it was given 

 to my father by a friend who had copied it, he 

 knew not whence. Probably some of your nu- 

 merous correspondents may be able to afford some 

 information as to its authorship. 



" Epitaph on an Infant. 



Bold infidelity, turn pale and die, 

 Beneath this stone an infant's ashes lie ; 



Say, is he saved or lost ? 

 If death's by sin, he sinn'd because he's here ; 

 If heaven's by works, in heaven he can't appear ; 



Keason ! O how depraved ! 

 Revere the sacred page ; in it the knot's untied ; 

 He died, because he sinn'd ; he lives, for Jesus died." 



W.B. 



Epitaph. — Can any one " spot " this epitaph ? 



" Whether he lives, or whether he dies. 

 Nobody laughs, and nobody cries ; 

 Where he's gone, and how he fares. 

 Nobody knows, and nobody cares." 



John Sobibe. 



Churchyard Literature. — 



" Ere sun could blight or sorrow fade. 

 Death came with friendly care, 

 The opening bud to heaven convey'd. 

 And bade it blossom there." 



Was the above very beautiful epitaph, *' On an 

 Infant," by Coleridge, ever executed ? and if so, 

 where ? R, W. D. 



Epitaph anticipatory. — Some years since, in 

 the village churchyard at Leeds, Kent, was a 

 stone erected with an inscription with blanks, 

 which have since been filled up : 



" In memory of James Barham of this parish, who de- 

 parted this life January 14, 1818, aged 93 ; and who from, 

 the year 1774 to the year 1804, rung in Kent and else- 

 where 112 peals, not less than 5040 changes in each peal, 

 and called bobs, &c., for most of the peals : and April 7th 

 and 8th, 1761, assisted in ringing 40,320 bob-majors on 

 Leeds bells in twenty-seven hours." 



J. Esrr. 



Bolt Court. 



Epitaphs. — The following is from the chancel 

 of Stanford Church, Nottinghamshire : 



" Here lies the body of Mr. Ffrancis, the son of Mr. 

 Ffr^vncis Thwaits, Eector of Stanford, and of Ann his 

 Wife, who dyed the 4tii of Sepf, in the 2<i Year of his Ago, 

 1700 : 



As careful nurses 



To their bed doe lay. 



Their children which too 



Long would wantons play ; 



So to prevent all my 



Ivening crimes. 



Nature my nurse laid 



Me to bed betimes." 



From Rothley churchyard, Leicestershire : 



" Depositum hie est quod Mortale habuit Tho'. Some^ 

 Juvenis, plus studiosus in hanc viciniam Literas qusesi- 

 tum concessit. Mortem invenit An" Mi&i. xix. A. d. 



MDCCXXIII." 



" On a gravestone in the churchyard (of Great Wolford)^ 

 are these lines : 



" Here old John Randal lies, 

 Who counting from his tale 

 Lived threescore years and ten, 

 Such vertue was in ale. 

 Ale was his meat. 

 Ale was his drink. 

 Ale did his heart revive, 

 And if he could have drunk his ale 

 He still had been alive. 

 He died January 5, 

 1699. 

 " This epitaph was ordered to be put here by Major 

 Thomas Keyts of this place, a younger son of the Keyts 

 of Ebrington ; who was a person well known for his good 

 humour and hospitality, and was well beloved in his 

 country." — Dugdale's Warwickshire, edit. 1730, vol. i. 

 p. 595. 



C. F. P. 



Normanton-on-Soar, Notts. 



Tim Bobbin's Grave. — It is not generally 

 known that the following Is inscribed on the stone 

 covering Tim Bobbin's grave In the parish church- 

 yard at Rochdale, Lancashire : 



" Here lies John and with him Mary, 

 Cheek by jowl and never vary ; 

 No wonder they so well agree, 

 Tim wants no punch, and Moll no tea." 



John Scribe. 



