EPITAPHS AND INSCRIPTIONS.

ON THE REV. MR. PENROSE.

Thirty-two years Vicar of St. Gluvias, Cornwall.

IF social manners, if the gentlest mind,
If zeal for God, and love for human kind,
If all the charities which life endear,
May claim affection, or demand a tear,
Then o'er PENROSE'S venerable urn
Domestic love may weep, and friendship mourn,
The path of duty still, untired, he trod,
He walk'd in safety, for he walk'd with God!
When past the pow'r of precept and of pray'r,
Yet still his flock remain'd the shepherd's care;
Their wants still kindly watchful to supply,
He taught his best, last lesson, how to die!

ON MRS. BLANDFORD.

MEEK shade, farewell! go seek that quiet shore
Where sin shall vex, and sorrow wound no more;
Thy lowly worth obtains that final bliss,
Which pride disdains to seek, and wit
may miss.
That path thou'st found which science cannot teach,
But faith and goodness never fail to reach :
Then share the joy the words of life impart,
The Vision promised to the "pure in heart."

ON MRS. LITTLE,

In Redcliffe Church, Bristol.

O COULD this verse her fair example spread,
And teach the living while it prais'd the dead!
Then, reader, should it speak her hope divine,
Not to record her faith, but strengthen thine;
Then should her every virtue stand confest,
Till every virtue kindled in thy breast.
But if thou slight the monitory strain,
And she has lived, to thee at least, in vain ;
Yet let her death an awful lesson give,
The dying Christian speaks to all that live.
Enough for her that here her ashes rest,
Till God's own plaudit shall her worth attest.

ON GENERAL LAWRENCE,

Memorable for his Conquests in India, and for his Clemency to the vanquished.*

On a Monument erected by Sir Robert Palk.

BORN to command, to conquer, and to spare,
As mercy mild, yet terrible as war,

Here LAWRENCE rests in death; while living fame
From Thames to Ganges wafts his honour'd name.
To him this frail memorial Friendship rears,
Whose noblest monument's a nation's tears;
Whose deeds on fairer columns stand engrav'd
In Provinces preserv'd, and Cities sav'd.

*Major-General Stringer Lawrence died in 1775, at Haldonhouse, the seat of his friend Sir Robert Palk, in Devonshire. The India company erected a monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey; and Sir Robert another, still more elegant, in the parish church of Dunchideock, in Devonshire, on which last, this epitaph is incribed.

ON THE REV. MR. HUNTER

Who, in 1771, received a degree from the University of Oxford for his work against Lord Bolingbroke's philosophy.

Go, happy spirit, seek that blissful land

Where zealous Michael leads the glorious band
Of those who fought for truth; blest spirit, go,
And perfect all the good begun below:
Go, hear applauding saints, delighted, tell
How vanquished falsehood, at thy bidding, fell!
Blest in that heaven, whose paths,thy virtues sought;
Blest in that God whose cause thou well hast fought;
O let thy honour'd shade his care approve,
Who this memorial rears of filial love :

A son, whose father, living, was his pride;
A son who mourns that such a father died.

The Rev. Thomas Hunter, M. A. vicar of Weaverham, in Cheshire, died there in 1778. This epitaph was written at the request of his son; and Dr. Stonhouse says, the composition took the author only a few minutes. Two volumes of Mr. Hunter's sermons were published after his death, by subscription. Besides his answer to Bolinbroke, he wrote an excellent tract on the corrupt principles of Chesterfield.-ED.

TO THE MEMORY OF

MRS. ELIZABETH IVES,

Aged 91, of Northampton.

HER pious and useful life was extended to an honourable old age, and closed by an exemplary death. Her Charity had its source in Religion: Her love of her neighbour was the genuine effect of her love of God: Her Resignation

was the Fruit of her Faith;

and she died in Hope,

because she had lived

A CHRISTIAN.

ON CLUER DICEY, ESQ.

In Claybrook Church, Leicestershire.

O THOU, or friend or stranger, who shalt tread
These solemn mansions of the silent dead!
Think, when this record to inquiring eyes,
No more shall tell the spot where DICEY lies;
When this frail marble, faithless to its trust,
Mould'ring itself, resigns its moulder'd dust;
When time shall fail, and nature's self decay,
And earth, and sun, and skies dissolve away;
Thy soul this consummation shall survive,
Defy the wreck, and but begin to live.

This truth, long slighted, let these ashes teach, Though cold, instruct you, and though silent preach:

O pause! reflect, repent, resolve, amend!
Life has no length, Eternity no end!

ON A YOUNG LADY.

Go, peaceful shade! exchange for sin and care
The glorious palm which patient sufferers wear!
Go, take the meed victorious meekness gams,
Go, wear the crown triumphant faith obtains.

Those silent graces which the good conceal,
The day of dread disclosure shall reveal;
Then shall thy mild, retiring virtues rise,
And God, both judge and witness, give the prize

INSCRIPTION ON A CENOTAPH

IN A GARDEN,

Erected to a deceased Friend.

YE liberal souls who rev'rence Friendship's name, Who boast her blessings, and who feel her flame; O! if from early youth one friend you've lov'd, Whom warm affection chose, and taste approv'd; If you have known what anguish rends the heart, When such, so known, so lov'd, for ever part; Approach!-For

you the mourner rears this stone, To sooth your sorrows, and record his own.

ON THE REV. MR. LOVE,*

In the Cathedral at Bristol.

WHEN worthless grandeur fills the embellish'd urn,
No poignant grief attends the sable bier;
But when distinguish'd excellence we mourn,
Deep is the sorrow, genuine is the tear.

Stranger! shouldst thou approach this awful shrine
The merits of the honour'd dead to seek ;
The friend, the son, the christian, the divine,
Let those who knew him, those who lov'd him
speak.

O let them in some pause of anguish say,

What zeal inflam'd, what faith enlarg'd his breast¡ How glad th' unfetter'd spirit wing'd its way

From earth to heaven, from blessing to be blest!

Samuel Love, M. A. Fellow of Baliol college, Oxford, and one of the minor canons of Bristol cathedral, died at the early age of twenty-nine, in 1773. In such estimation was he held for his piety and eloquence, that a subscription was entered into for the erection of a monument to his memory.