Page 97 - Graveyard
P. 97

G r av e y ar d H u m o r  | 95

               268.  From East Grinstead, Sussex.

               The following is copied from a stone in the churchyard of East Grinstead,
               in Sussex:—

                                   In memory of Russell Hall
                                      And Mary his wife.
                                    He died March 25, 18 16,
                                        Aged 79 years.
                                   She died August 22, 1809,
                                        Aged 58 years.

                                 The ritual stone thy children lay
                                    O’er thy respected dust,
                                Only proclaims the mournful day
                                   When we our parents lost.
                                 To copy thee in life we’ll strive,
                                    And when we that resign
                              May some good-natured friend survive
                                   To lay our bones by thine.

               269.  On Virgil.

               As we have elsewhere given the epitaphs on several poets, we think the
               following may not prove uninteresting to our readers; it is upon the tomb
               of Virgil, the prince of Roman poets, and is said to have been dictated by
               himself:—

                   Mantua me genuit Calabri rapuere tenet nunc
                                                    11
                   Parthenope; cecini Pascua Rura, Duces.

               The tomb is situated near Naples.



               11
                  Editor’s Note: Translation: “Mantua was my birthplace; I died in Calabria; and now I
               rest at Parthenope. I sang of pastures, farms and leaders.”
   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102