Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/22

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and every vestige of it removed, in the year 1776. Many of the former possessors of the manor of Keynsham, after it had passed into the Bridges' family, have been buried in the noble Gothic church placed in the centre of the town; a most immaculate race, were we to believe their epitaphs, each individual exhibiting a pattern of every human excellence! But sepulchral adulation is so common, that I will not tire you with any examples of what every tomb-stone may afford you; the following epitaph has another claim to your attention, that of singular quaintness and conceit. It is only to be regretted, that the tomb does not cover the remains of a butcher, as the wit would then be compleat:

     "Grim Death the eater meate doth give;
     "By that which did me kill, I live.
     "The grave devours me, but I shall
     "Live to see its funeral;
     "After some ages more are spent,
     "The gluttonous grave shall keep a Lent."

To that striking feature in the natural history of Keynsham, mentioned above, the profusion of Cornua Ammonis which it produces, may be added two other curious circumstances attached to it; the quantities of that precious dying plant the woad, produced round the town, and a luxury which its inhabitants occasionally enjoy in the