grow old,
The dew falls thick—my blood grows cold:—
Draw, draw the closed curtains, and make room,
My dear, my dearest dust, I come, I come.

EDWORTH.

Here lies father, and mother, and sister, and I,
We all died within the space of one year,
They be all buried at Whimble except I,
And I be buried here.

LUTON.

In the “Wenlock Chapel” in the above church, on an embattled altar-tomb is a recumbent figure of a priest—representing William Wenlock, who died 1392.  Round the verge of the tomb is inscribed, in ancient characters,—

. . . .  Ilemus hic tumulatus de Wenlock natus; in ordine presbiteratus; alter hujus ille: dominus meus fuit ville: hic jacet indignus: anime Deus esto benignus!

On the side of the tomb,—

In Wenlock brad I: in this town lordshcippes had I! here am I now lady: Christes moder help me lady.  Under these stones: for a tym shal I rest my bones; deyn mot I ned ones.  Myghtful God gra’t me thy woues.  Ame’.

Formerly in a window of this chapel was a portrait of Wenlock, with the following inscription:—

Jesu Christ, most of might,
Have mercy on John de Wenlock, knight,
And of his wife Elizabeth,
Which out of this world is passed by death,
Which founded this chapel here,
Help thou them with your hearty prayer,
That they may come unto that place,
Where ever is joy and solace.

On an altar-tomb in the tower is the following:—

Thomas Gilbert here doth stai
Waiting for God’s judgment day,
Who died August 25, 1566.

A slab on the floor of the south aisle bears this inscription,—

Here lyeth the body of Daniel Knight,
Who all my lifetime lived in spite.

Base flatterers sought me to undoe,
And made me sign what was not true.
Reader take care, whene’er you venture
To trust a canting false dessenter,
Who died June 11th, in the 61st year of his age,
      1756.

A friend of Daniel Knight (at whose instigation the above epitaph was engraved during his lifetime, and the future tombstone used as a cupboard door) prepared an inscription for his own tomb,—

“Here lies the body of Thomas Proctor
Who lived and died without a doctor.”

But fate, jealous of the reputation of the faculty, broke his leg, and compelled him to sacrifice to Æsculapius.

Berkshire.

BUCKLEBURY.

Here lyeth the body of Samuel Wightwicke, Esqre. 1662.

   Heaven only knowes the Blisse his soul inioyes,
   Whil’s wee on earth seeke after fading toyes,
And doe not mind how saints and angells singe
To see him thron’d with his eternall king.

WEST WOODHAY.

In the old church near Newbury, is the following epitaph to the memory of Sir Ben Rudyerd:—

John Grant, in memory of his deare and honoured Master Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, knight, hath affixed this stone over his grave with this epitaph made by Sir Benjamin in his younger years:—

Fond world, leave off this foolish trick
Of making epitaphs upon the dead;
Rather go write them on the quick,
Whose soules in earthly flesh lye buried.
For in this grave lyes nought of me
But my soules grave, two graves well turned to one.
Thus do I live, from death made free;
Trust me, good friend, I am not dead, but gone
To God and Christ, my Saviour alone.
      1656.

OLD WINDSOR.

When this you see remember me
As I lay under ground,
The world say what it will of me,
Speak of me as you have found.

ALDWORTH.

There is a vulgar tradition that in this place four Johns were buried, and they are described as follows:—John Long, John Strong, John Ever-afraid, and John Never-afraid.  They say that John Ever-afraid was afraid to be buried either in the church or out of it, and was consequently buried under the wall, where the arch appears on the outside, by the south church door.

The following is a copy of an epitaph, now almost obliterated, in Speen Churchyard, and which, admired for its simple pathos, has been handed to us for insertion:—

In memory of John Matthews, of Donnington, Berks,
1779.

When Heaven with equal eyes our quick’ning dust
Shall view, and judge the bad and praise the just,
His humble merits may perhaps find room
Where kings shall wish, but wish in vain to come.

In Sunning Hill Churchyard is the following epitaph on the late Right Hon. Colonel Richard Fitzpatrick, written by himself:—

Whose turn is next?  This monitory stone
Replies, vain passenger perhaps thine own;
If idly curious, thou wilt seek to know
Whose relicks mingle with the dust below,
Enough to tell thee, that his destin’d span,
On earth he dwelt, and like thyself a man.
Nor distant far th’ inevitable day
When thou, poor mortal, shalt like him be clay;
Through life he walk’d un-emulous of fame,
Nor wish’d beyond it to preserve a name.
Content, if friendship, o’er his humble bier
Dropt but the heart-felt tribute of a tear;
Though countless ages should unconscious glide,
Nor learn that even he had lived and died.

NEWBURY.

On Eliz^th Daughter of James Bond, 1659.

Low, here she is, deprived of lyfe,
Which was a verteous and a loving wife;
Until the graves again restore
Their dead, and Time shall be no more;
She was brought a-bed, but spous above,
And dyed to pay the living pledge of love.

On Mr. Hugh Shepley, sometime Rector of Newbvrye, 1596.

Full eight and twenty years he was your pastor,
As hee was taught to feede by Christ, his Master;
By preaching God’s Word, good life, good example,
(Food for your soules, fitt for God’s house or temple)

Hee loved peace, abandoned all strife,
Was kinde to strangers, neighbours, children, wife;
A lambe-like man, borne on an Easter daye,
So liv’d, so dide, so liv’s again for aye;
As one Spring brought him to this world of sinne,
Another Spring the Heavens received him in.

In the Parish Church of Aldermaston is the following:—

To the precious memorie of four Virtuous Sisters,
daughters of Sir H. Forster, 1623.

Like borne, like new-borne, here like dead they lye,
Four virgin sisters, decked with pietie;
Beavtie and other graces, which commend
And make them all like blessed in their end.

CHADDLEWORTH.

To the memory of Mary, wife of Thomas Nelson, of this parish, who died 1618, beinge of the age of 30 years, and had issue 7