A QUAINT EPITAPH.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR, —I think the epitaph a copy of which I enclose, and to which some friends of mine drew my attention in Edwinstowe Churchyard, on the edge of Sherwood Forest, will amuse your readers. Time had permitted the venerable stone to sink too low to leave the last words visible :—
" Attend
This awful Monitor to Man's Security.
RICHARD NEIL,
Who after having brar'd The boisterous Billows of the Biscan Shore, The gaping Terrors of the rude Atlantic, And fulminating Wrath of haughty France In Fights victorious, At 39, in Vital Plenitude, And the meridian of well-earned friendship, By some disastrous, unforseen Event, Yielded his Social Life To the minutia of his Element, In Thoresby Lake.
As did the Partner of his fleeting Breath,
JOHN BIRDSALL,
Of youthful 28 ; but just immersed In Joys hymenial, Anxious to meet his lov'd, expecting Bride, Was too arrested by the liquid Wave. Alike deserving and alike beloved, Fell two lamented youths Together, in one unpropitious Night, The 29 of Jan., 1800; And this earth -Them shall retain . . .
—I am, Sir, &c., A LATE SOJOURNER NEAR THE FOREST.
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