82 The Will of Thomas Polton, Bishop of Worcester, A.D. 1342. 
Perhaps some of the readers of the Magazine may be able to tell us 
more about the family. 
Of the inscription to Thomas and Edith Poulton, in Wanborough 
Church, above-mentioned, there are three copies in print, viz., in 
Kite’s Wilts Brasses, p. 27; in Jackson’s Aubrey, p. 200 (in which 
the contractions, &c., are expanded) ; and in a paper by Mr. C, E. 
Ponting, Wilts Archeological Magazine, xxiii.; p. 243. Mr. Ponting 
has shown me the MS. of his paper, and begs me to correct some 
printer’s errors which occur in the inscription as given in the 
Magazine:— 
Line 2, for “ vocavat” read “ vocabat.” 
Line 7, insert “ natarum ” between “natorum” and “ totque.’ 
Line, 9 for “ obieu” read “ obitu.” 
Line 10, for “tenedit” read “ tenebit.” 
2 
The inscription, expanded, is as follows :— 
** Marmoreo lapide Thomas jacet hic et Editha 
Quem Polton vita quisque vocabat ita 
Quos mors expulit hinc milleno virginis anno 
Quadringenteno decimo quibus adimus octo 
Undena luce Septembris hunc, duodena 
Hane Februi. Gradiens fundas precamina plena 
Octoque natorum natarum totque suarum 
Collegium carum circumeundo Sarum 
Ex Obitu quorum Wanberg curatus habebit 
Quatuor atque decem nummos quem rite tenebit 
Post ortum Matris Domini Dominica die sequente 
Ellermis de et Halle plase Wanberg retinente.” 
Everyone admits that the meaning is somewhat obscure. I ven- 
ture, however, with the assistance of a friend, to give the following 
version :— 
“Under a marble slab Thomas lies here and Edith, 
Whom in life everyone used to call thus, ‘ Polton,’ 
Death drove them hence in the year of the Virgin one thousand 
Four hundred and ten, to which we add eight, 
On the 11th September him, on the 12th of February her. 
