30 AUGUST 1884, Page 16

RARE EPITAPHS.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]

So.,—Your correspondent, " F. S. L.," has given the first two lines of an epitaph in a Staffordshire churchyard ; but has un- accountably omitted the six subsequent ones. Allow me to supply this hiatus, as " Valde deflendus ":—

" This turf has drank a widow's tear :

Three of her husbands slumber here. . That precious tear by 3 divide, And let each spouse be satisfied, To have upon his clay conferred, Impartially her sorrow's third.

Their threefold widow (honest soul) Shall thus discharge her debts of dole ; And, if so called while lingering here, Marry again without a tear."