LETTER ON EPITAPHS. 



171 



To 



THE EDITOE, 



Madras Journal of Literature and Science. 



Deae Sir, 



My duties leading me to various and sometimes remote 

 parts of the Presidency, and my disposition being naturally 

 gloomy, I have sought out and visited all the places within 

 my reach in which Europeans had been buried. It occurred to 

 me, previously to actual experience, that it would be interesting 

 to note down and place on record all epitaphs bearing dates of 

 the last century. I soon found that a very few pages would 

 suffice for this purpose. Either few monuments were raised to 

 the men who fell fighting with Lawrence and Clive and Dalton 

 in our southern districts in the last century, or the memorials 

 have for the most part perished. While Portuguese and Dutch 

 and Danish tombs still survive the power of the nationalities 

 they represent, and will, to all appearance, survive English rule 

 in India, English tombs have been too often flimsy in material 

 and neglected utterly after construction. Of late indeed the 

 Madras Government has shown awakened interest in the 

 subject, and old tombs are repaired after D.P.W. ideas of 

 beauty ; but the inscriptions had long before disappeared, and 

 the object of keeping in order nameless monuments, hideous 

 generally in design, is not obvious. 



To make a collection of Indian Epitaphs of any value, there- 

 fore, the scope of my original idea must be enlarged ; and 

 I propose that you should print in your Journal, from time to 

 time, (1) all epitaphs of date prior to 1800, (2) all of later date 

 which record the deaths of persons remarkable either in their 

 lives or in their deaths, and (3) all, of any date, found in remote 

 spots now rarely visited by Europeans. There must be many 

 who would gladly contribute to such a collection as I propose 

 if you invited their aid. I venture to offer a few epitaphs of 

 the third-class as a beginning.* 



" Old Mortality." 



* See Note on page 155. The Editor will be happy to receive any contri- 

 bution on this subject from " Old Mortality" and others. — G.O. 



