Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1874-12-03
Curious EpitaphS,

| Among the most remarkable Of human
| idiosyncrasies is the taste ;or quaint and
grotesque inscriptions upon tombStones.
Almost every churchyard has its specimen.
many of which have become very familiar
through the newspapers. So prevalent is
this oddity that book has been published,
| hlled with specimens of this ghastIy itera-
ture. from which we make the following
| extracts.
! In All Saints Churchyard, Newcastle:
Here lies Robert Wallace,
Clerk of All Hallows,
King of good fellows,
And maker of bellows,
lie bellows did make till the day of his death,
but ne that made bellows could never make breath
y tombstone in Iowa, (Bu rlington), has
this stanZa:
Beneath this stone our baby laws
He neither cries nor hollers;
lie lived just one and twenty days
And cost us forty dollars"
A resigned husband placed on the
tombstone of his wife, with whom he had
Eot lived happily, the following:
Here lies my wife; what better could she
FOR her reposc, and for her husbands too"
On tombstone in New York, over the
body OF child, is this couplet:
"The little hero that lies here
Was conquered by the darrhea"
In Highgate cemetery, London:
"Life's like Winters tlav;
Some only Breakfast and away;
Others To Dinner stay, and are full fed:
The oldest one but Sups and goes TO Bed
retehed Is he who fingers out the day
lie who goes soonest has the least to pay"
As an illustration of the exigencies of
rhyme an English writer cites the follow
ing eptaph from Il tombstone at Manches-
ter:
"lIere lies, alas more's the pity
All that remains of Nicholas Newcity.
y. Bills name was Newtown."
Over the remains of one Thomas Wood
cock are these lines:
Here lies the remains of Thomas woodhen,
Ihe most amiable of husbands, and excellent men
y Ellis real name Woodcock, but 1t
wouldn't come in rhyme-IIIs WIDOW"
A Mrs. Hannah Jones piously raised a
tablrt to the memory of her departed
husband, who had been hosicr. The in
scrlption after recounting the many vir-
tues of the deceased, closes with the tol-
lowing couPet.
lie LETT his hose. his Hannah, and his love,
10 20 anu sing Hosannah III the realms above"
At SaragoSsa, Spain, is the following:
"iterr lies John Quehecca precentor 10 INV ord
The King. When he is admitted 10 the choir Of an
gels, whose society he will embellsh and where h.,
VIII Distinguish himself by his powers Of song, cod
King" '
AZ Odtown, Maine over the body of
Orono. chief OF the Pcnob,cots, who died
at the age of lib, in lS0l a tombstone
bears the following:
san lodged within his blanket, here below.
Lie the hast relics of old ORUNo:
W orn down by toll and care he in 4 trice
ENrianSed his wigwIm for paradise"
Al northampton, England. a tombstone
has the StauZI:
Here lies the corpse of susan Lee
" d" dieil of heartfelt palm
Because she loved "a iaitheSs uE1
Who loved her not again"
In the churc!y ,rd at Chidwald. England,
is the Stanza:
Here lies the body Of John Smith
Burned in the cloistcrs
II he don't jump at the last trump,
Gall 'Oysters,''
One Stonchoid Oakes offered i prize for
The best cpitaph to be placed Oh his tomb
stone. Several were offered but all re-
Irctcd on the ground that they fattcrrd
hIm too much, and he tlualiv wrote thi,
coupl,t himself
Here lies the body Of Sternhold Oake.
Who lived and died like other folks
In Lyt,rd churchyard. near Dutmoor.
Here lies. in horizontal position,
the outside case OF
GEORGE ROUrLEIGu, Matchmaker.
i"'es'''! WIS the Muhsprlng and prudence the
OF all the actions OF his life
Humlne, generous, and LIBERAL
ms hand never stopped,
till he had relieved distress
80 nicely regulated were all hl- Notions
That he never went wrong
except wheE set a-going
tE people
who did not know his Key
Even then he was easily
set right agajD