Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/604

498 NOTES AND QUERIES. "HONEST" EPITAPHS (12 8. viii. 413). i toxicated. | Religious without Hypocrisy, Grave In the parish church of St. Mary, Chelten- i without Austirity (sic), of a Chearful | Conversa- i^a r.<f Q 7* f>.o -mil* f V^ov^ i fVio folisvnri'nr* ' tlon without Levity, A kind Husband & tender ham, near the pulpit theie is the iollowing , Father> , Tall? erect robust> & Active, From memorial notice to Captain H. Skilli- corne :- In Memory of Captain Henry Skillicorne de- treated Wound while a Prisoner, | after an Engagement at Sea, He became a strict Vale- tudenarian. | He lived and dyed an honest Man. ir ' he Isle f - M ^ n I wtn When I visited Ayr I remember seeing in Auld Kirkyard near the river a grave- v-ctiitru. me g-n_Hj. JJIOXX^M JJL vcbv JLOMBUU* TV an n _ . . .. .| young he went to Sea, and was many Years | in stone bearing an inscription to an honest the employ of and concern'd with Jacob Elton, ! man, whose burial took place in 177-. I Esqr, Merchant in Bristol, | whose Relation | have not the wording of it with me which Sarah Goldsmith of that City he married. She ! j wrote down at the time< Robert Burns dying in Childbed | with two Children He in 1731 married Elizabeth Mason, then of Bristol, was born at Alloway, two miles from Ayr, I Daughter of Willm Mason of Cheltenham and was a frequent visitor to that town. Oentleman by Margaret Surman | Daughter of I Since I saw the gravestone just mentioned John Surman of Tredington in this County j it occurred to me that the words recorded Service, they resided together some Years | at j u -, ,-, -, trr* Bristol, and in 17 38 came to live upon their Estate": and suggested to him the lines in in this Town | where he gave his Mind to in- ! O Shanter ' : crease the knowledge & extend the Use | of Auld Ayr, whom ne'er a town surpasses Cheltenham Spa, which became his Property. For honest men and bonny lassies. He found the Old Spring open | and exposed to | TT PC .t arrPflr tn Vm^P KPPTI the Weather. He made the Well there as it' appears to have bee now is, made the | Walks, and planted the favourite word of Burns, for he uses it 71 times in his poems and songs, among which may be mentioned : " An honest man here lies at rest" ('Epist. on a Friend'); " Honest Will's to Heaven gane " (* On W. Cruickshanks " Here lies J- Trees, of the Upper & lower Parades, | and by Conduct ingenuous & manners attentive, | He with the Aid of Many worthy Persons of the Town & Neighbourhood, | brought this most salutary Water, to just estimation, & extensive Use, 1 and ever presiding with esteem in the Walks saw it visited with Benefit, by the greatest Persons of the Age, and so established its Re- putation | that his Present Most Gracious Ma- jesty King George The Third, | with His most i t: amiable Queen Charlotte, & the Princesses i Saturday Royal | Augusta & Elizabeth their Daughters, It is interesting to note that Shakespeare visited it drinking the Water, | & residing From uses the word " honest " 265 times, and the the 12th day of July, to the 1 6th day of August | term "honest man" on no fewer than 51 both inclusive 1788m the Lodge House built by | ,,.<.,:-. Willm Skillicorne | the Proprietor thereof, and c ns - of the Spa, Son of Captain Skillicorne, | on his Cheltenham. Bays hill, near thereto for & then now in Lease, | B y, honest man" ('Epist. on J n B y, Writer ') ; and " An honest man's the f Prr1 " << M ). WM. WALE. to the Right | Honourable Earl Fauconberg, Who receiving Benefit from this Water, | for many Years spread its good Name. Miller Esqr, The Tenant of the 1 Spa, & others of the Town, erected new Buildings, paved, cleansed, | & lighted the Street, encouraged by the Gen- tlemen of the Neighbourhood, | making new Roads. The King discovered the new Spring like the Old, | which his Majesty steaned & secured, and built 17 Rooms at the Lodge 1- House, at his own Expence, and graciously gave to Mr Skilli- corne, | in whose Ground near the House it was, THE GREEN MAN, ASHBOUBNE (12 S. viii. 29, 77, 113, 157, 176, 278). Mr. Eden Phill- potts tells us, in the little monthly paper Fellowship, of the existence of yet another Green Man inn. It is situate on, or close to, Dartmoor. CECIL CLARKE." Junior Athenaeum Club. G. A. COOKE AND HIS COUNTY ITINER- UU111C, ill w n<_oc VJI.AJ ic J--HJLIQC; ij woo, / i ft O " OrkO /1O/2 AK TV> 1" i*, at the Instance of Earl Fauconberg. | Captain j ARIES (12 S. vm. 393, 436, 456). The replies to the original query have thrown no light on the personality of George Alexander Cooke, but it seems probable that he was a Skillicorne was buried the 18th of October, 1763, with his Son | Henry, by His last Wife, at the West Door on the Inside of this Church, | Aged , 84 Years. He was an excellent Sea Man, of i , , f .-. tryed Courage. | He visited most of the great | r ^ t P ! On D ?* tn PVirlA ( irage Trading Ports of the Mediterranean, up the | Archipelago, Morea & Turkey, Spain, Portugal, & Venice, and several of the | North American Ports, Philadelphia, and Boston, and Holland, I and could do Business in seven Tongues. He , f r was of great Regularity | & Probity, & so tern- house and estate l u T lte t f pr A P M i porate (sic), as never to have been once in- i to its importance. He died there April Ib, of 17, Paternoster Row. Charles Cooke built Belle Vue House, Walthamstow, and the volume on Essex contains (p. 147) a description of the