Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1843-02-03
NEW ENGLAND EpITAPns,


r In the villages of New England, aImos
every graveyard bears some quaint and char
acteristic memorial of the simplicity oil th'
times. The pilgrims and their immediate
descendants inscribed, with great pains, OF
= the tomb of the deceased, every lmportan
, event in his history. If he had filled am
considerable office, it was there expressly
stated, as that he had been deacon or rep
resentative. So if the deceased had brougb
over to the new country any useful animals
as COWS, horses or sheep-the number ant
kind of which were frequently mentioned
I-his circumstance formed at the earliest
period one of the most favorlte SUBJECTS o.
eulogy In one place may be found an epl
taph mentioning the name OF the deceased
beginning thus:
He was a most capital DOCTOR
and on another person who had been re-
markably fortunate in life, we have seen this
inscription:
"The hand of Providence smiled upon him."
Frequently the grave-stone contained some
excellent advice, some warning example, as
if the monuments Of tho dead were to be the
constant study and meditation o. the living.
In the old town of Newburyport, in Massa-
chusetts, are some very ancient stones, con-
tanning inscriptions of this nature. The
following is one:
GAS you are, 80 was I,
Gud did call did die
Now children all whose name is Noyes,
Make Jesus Christ your only choice
If the death happened in any unusual man
ner, it seemed to be considered duty to
record the peculiar circumstances of it. AT
Dorchester may be seen an epitaph on a
young woman who suddenly fell down dead,
in these words:
"On the 2Ist Of March,
Gods angels made searchs;
Around the door they stood
They took maid,
IL is said,
And cut her down like wood"
In the town of birmingham is double
grave-stone, recording the death Of two per-
sons, struck dead by lightning at the same
time. The author of the epitaph, thinking,
perhaps, that if the one was killed by light
ming the other must have been by thunder,
after mentioning the death of the first, pro-
ceeds-
AMY trembling heart with grief oerflows,
While | record the death OF those
Who died by thunder sent from heaven,
In wv"
The singularity of the following lines, in
the grave yard at Peppcrell, can only be ac-
counted for by supposing that they were
written by the deceased himself, while labor
ing under the malady which occasioned his
death. The last line is particularly pathetic
In youth he was scholar bright,
In learning he took great delight;
He was Majors only son--
IL was for love he was undone."
On stone near by we have another spe-
cimen of skill at epitaph making, probably
by the same "scholar bright"
Benjamin Parker near 60,
You once respectable did see;
His grandson now lies over hun
We all must feel the effects Of sin"
AT the church yard in Cambridge, Mass.
is a tombstone containing no inscription
but only the device of a vase, and
the sun, carved on the face of the stone, the |
name of the person intended being Vassol
the word Vas in Latin meaning vase,
and Sol the sun.
As an instance of the propensity for pun
ming, which, strange as il may seem, exhibits
itself on so Craze subject, Cotton Mather's
epitaph on one of his contemporaries stands
The epitaph consists Of the
single word
"Avolavt"
Reader, the name of the deceased was
Ralph Partridge