"LET'S TALK' OF EPITAPHS."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 722, 22 January 1910, Page 9

"LET'S TALK' OF EPITAPHS."

■ We. nia-10, reference,..yesterday, -'.(says the "Westminster Gazette" of November 23) to Mr. .Ernest E. Suffling'a' "Epitaphia" CUpcotf : :Gill): • Among the, tairteen hundred : epitaphs-giveu are many quaint and curious specimens. GrimaJdi off the stage' was; said to: bo from melancholia. It lnllbe remembered that, going to : a physician on one -6ccasion, he described his .case, when the 'worthy/doctor briskly tuld him to "Shake off -tho., feeling. " Go and sea Grimaldi; and',if ho docs not euro you, your, case is, indeed, hopeless." "Alas!" said tlio poor sufferer,' "I ani .Grihialdi!" His epitaph reads: "Here Am I." A prize of i'lOOis , said to. have been offered by ono Thorpe, who was desirous of being perpefuateii/, but briefly, oh his . tombstone; Uric cbnipqtitor sent .in. "Here' lies Thorpe's. Corpse." -: This : was certainly brief euoagh,,.bnt. finni'y ■• it was cut "Thorpo's Corpse." '; -:: ■ ■ •'. ' Many of our i-eaders'know the Douglas Jerrold imd Charles' Knight story. They wore. dinLn; together on 'one "occasion when the conversation turned upon epitaplis. Knight, yhnlf in, jest, ■ suggested that /Jerrold should Write his (Knighfs) opitiiph'.-. , ; Tlie" subject, dropped .at' the time; but, wajkiug.home tpKcthcr;,in : .thp ovenihg, : they cauiiiHo •a-'spot -Vhere- , each had; to tal;e a- ; «epai"nto road.'' Jerrold,: extending Ids hand'. to -his friend, ro-' marKed, "live thought-of a capital epitaph for you." /"What-.is it?" said his rnond, . much interested. "Oh!, :.vcry brief and , very, simplo, 'Good Nighf !"• ihore are many curious ' epitaphs on wives. ..Hero is ouo from Ulvcrston,' Lancashire:. " . . .' . • • , Horj>lies m.v wife, .' ■', -\ ■■ ", :..,.,/.. Here .lies she; : - ■'■■■'■' .'. .. : ; J K;''-,Hallelajah!■■:"" '■ ':-."' : ■ "'" ■■,'-. ■iHnllol-ijea[,•;•- '.'y. y '^v../^ An, inscription placed.over tho graveof a missionary- who- :was- accidcritally' shot in India, read thus i.: '..':.: .. Hero -lips ,the.liev. A—— 'B~ ;':■■ ■ ■'■"'. For many, years: missionary 'in B—■';'district. .-.:■■'■' '■ ' "..■ ■'■'■:■■■ ... ■ He: was-accidentally, by his native ■ .servant, ..• . ■ "•■':,- '' -~. '..• ;■■■• "Well: dono .tliou good arid faithful ser- ;. vant. ■' ■■'.■.. . . .'■■ ■.. y ' ■; .■■'■■'■' : At Chelmsford, Bssex, on a stone to the memory/of "Mary Bleivitt, of tho Swan" it is stated, that;she "was tho wife of nme'.husbands. siiccpssivcl.v, 1 but the ninth outlived her.", It/is''added:.;"Jhe 'Text to her Funeral Sermon, was:' 'Last ot all ■ ■died-'also:'--"'! Eiidbfs ihter- ?, st ™.: ln , epitaphs will'find much" in"Mr. buttling s book which -will, appeal to them.- •'•• ...'.: : ■■'■' . -;•■/". ; ■

The recent affixing of a tablet t'o tho wall-of No. 61 Greek Street, Soho, to' commemorate tho association of tho houso with Thomas dc Quincey, will recall to loyors of. another, and ,a 1 contemporary essayist, ..William ' Hazlitt, that it is in Soho. whero. ono must look' to find what is, we. believe, the only memorial in London, to' that .brilliant, if wayward writer, and that his tomb. The: memory of, Hazlitt has'. indeed ' been sadly neglected/, but it is perhaps' rather in •Winterslow, in Wiltshire, than in London that one would expect to find some commemorative record of his plpce. of abode. For; there, in tKc ' lonely- wayside inn— Winterslow Eutt—on tho Great Western coach road, Hazlitt, during a considerable portion of his life, spent'several months of each.year, ana there ho wrote many of his'essays. : But one may look in vain at tho inn for : any recognition of tho fact, and tho only result of a . literary pilgrimage which the present .writer paid, to the place a-_few years 'back was to learn from the innkeeper that,the room where : Hazlitt'wiote was now a:* mere lumber-room, . arid ■'■■■ not' to' be"V seen.— "Westminster Gazette."' '.--■':.'■■-■.} r:'■'■■"■,■