CURIOUS EPITAPHS.

Epitaphs on Tradesmen.

ANY interesting epitaphs have been placed

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to the memory of tradesmen. Often they are not of an elevating character, nor highly poetical, but they display the whims and oddities of men. We will first present a few relating to the watch and clock-making trade. The first specimen is from Lydford churchyard, on the borders of Dartmoor :

Here lies, in horizontal position,

the outside case of

GEORGE ROUTLEIGH, Watchmaker ;
Whose abilities in that line were an honour
to his profession.

Integrity was the Mainspring, and prudence the
Regulator,

of all the actions of his life.

Humane, generous, and liberal,

his Hand never stopped

till he had relieved distress.

So nicely regulated were all his motions,

that he never went wrong,
except when set a-going
by people

who did not know his Key;

even then he was easily
set right again.

He had the art of disposing his time so well,
that his hours glided away

in one continual round

of pleasure and delight,

until an unlucky minute put a period to
his existence.

He departed this life

Nov. 14, 1802,

aged 57:

wound up,

in hopes of being taken in hand
by his Maker;

and of being thoroughly cleaned, repaired,
and set a-going

in the world to come.

In the churchyard of Uttoxeter, a monument is placed to the memory of Joseph Slater, who died November 21st, 1822, aged 49 years :-

Here lies one who strove to equal time,

A task too hard, each power too sublime;

Time stopt his motion, o'erthrew his balance-wheel,
Wore off his pivots, tho' made of hardened steel;
Broke all his springs, the verge of life decayed,
And now he is as though he'd ne'er been made.
Such frail machine till time's no more shall rust,
And the archangel wakes our sleeping dust;

Then in assembled worlds in glory join,

And sing-" The hand that made us is divine."

Our next is from Berkeley, Gloucestershire :

Here lyeth THOMAS PEIRCE, whom no man taught,
Yet he in iron, brass, and silver wrought;

He jacks, and clocks, and watches (with art) made
And mended, too, when others' work did fade.
Of Berkeley, five times Mayor this artist was,
And yet this Mayor, this artist, was but grass.
When his own watch was down on the last day,
He that made watches had not made a key
To wind it up; but useless it must lie,
Until he rise again no more to die.

Died February 25th, 1665, aged 77.

The following is from Bolsover churchyard,

Derbyshire :

Here

lies, in a horizontal position, the outside

case of

THOMAS HINDE,

Clock and Watch-maker,

Who departed this life, wound up in hope of
being taken in hand by his Maker, and being
thoroughly cleaned, repaired, and set a-going
in the world to come,

On the 15th of August, 1836,
In the 19th year of his age.

Respecting the next example, Mr. Edward Walford, M.A., wrote to the Times as follows: Close to the south-western corner of the parish

churchyard of Hampstead there has long stood a square tomb, with a scarcely decipherable inscription, to the memory of a man of science of the last century, whose name is connected with the history of practical navigation. The tomb, having

stood there for more than a century, had become somewhat dilapidated, and has lately undergone a careful restoration at the cost and under the supervision of the Company of Clock-makers, and the fact is recorded in large characters on the upper face. The tops of the upright iron railings which surround the tomb have been gilt, and the restored inscription runs as follows:-

In memory of MR. JOHN HARRISON, late of Red Lionsquare, London, inventor of the time-keeper for ascertaining the longitude at sea. He was born at Foulby, in the county of York, and was the son of a builder of that place, who brought him up to the same profession. Before he attained the age of 21, he, without any instruction, employed himself in cleaning and repairing clocks and watches, and made a few of the former, chiefly of wood. At the age of 25 he employed his whole time in chronometrical improvements. He was the inventor of the gridiron pendulum, and the method of preventing the effects of heat and cold upon time-keepers by two bars fixed together; he introduced the secondary spring, to keep them going while winding up, and was the inventor of most (or all) the improvements in clocks and watches. during his time. In the year 1735 his first time-keeper

was sent to Lisbon, and in 1764 his then much improved fourth time-keeper having been sent to Barbadoes, the Commissioners of Longitude certified that he had determined the longitude within one-third of half a degree of a great circle, having not erred more than forty seconds in time. After sixty years' close application to the above pursuits, he departed this life on the 24th day of March, 1776, aged 83.

In an epitaph in High Wycombe churchyard, life is compared to the working of a clock. It runs thus:

Of no distemper,

Of no blast he died,

But fell,

Like Autumn's fruit,

That mellows long,

Even wondered at

Because he dropt not sooner.

Providence seemed to wind him up

For fourscore years,

Yet ran he nine winters more ;

Till, like a clock,

Worn out with repeating time,
The wheels of weary life

At last stood still.

In Memory of JOHN ABDIDGE, Alderman.

Died 1785.

We have some curious specimens of engineers' A good example is copied from the

epitaphs.

churchyard of Bridgeford-on-the-Hill, Notts :—

Sacred to the memory of JOHN WALKER, the only son of