He is covered now dead, | By one who commenced | almost from his cradle, | And continues his friend, | Even beyond the grave.
Can any correspondent throw light upon the above? W. B. H.
Haltwhistle.—In Haltwhistle Churchyard, Northumberland, is a tombstone with the following curious inscription:—
D. O. M.
post vitam breyem,
difficilem, inutilem
Hic
quiescit in Domino
Robertus Tweddell
de Hazlenton Monac.
[Monk Hesilden]
in Com. Dunelm. Gen.
Salutis 1735
Aetatis 32.
The register of burial under date gives:—
Nov. 23. Mr. Robert Tweddell of Monkhazleton in the County of Durham.
Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire.—On Samuel Turner, blacksmith:—
His sledge and hammer lie reclined,
His bellows too has lost its wind,
His coal is spent, his iron gone,
His nails are drove, his work is done,
His body here's clinched in the dust:
'Tis hoped his soul is with the just.
Berkeley Churchyard, Gloucestershire.—
Here lies the Earl of Suffolk's fool,
Men called him Dickey Pearce;
His folly served to make fools laugh
When wit and mirth were scarce.
Dickey, alas! is dead and gone;
What signifies to cry?
Dickeys enough are left behind
To laugh at by and by.
Lawrenny Churchyard, Pembrokeshire.—
Sacred to the memory of Daniel Philip Rees, who died Dec. 6th, 1847, aged 46 years.
Also of Elizabeth his wife, who died 18, aged years.
Blessed in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
Elizabeth, however, married again, so the blanks remain, to serve as an illustration of the uncertainty of human events.
Each of these epitaphs was copied by
Bradford-on-Avon.—On a tombstone in the chancel of the parish church at Bradford-on-Avon is "Nec Metuas Dies, nec Times," S. D. Clippingdale.
Chistmas in Wales in 1774.—Mrs. Thrale's account, in the recent book, 'Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale,' of the Welsh manner of celebrating Christmas morning will be read with interest at this time:—
"We saw Whitchurch, where, as at all Churches in this valley, lights are kindled at 2 in the morning on every Xmas Day, and songs of joy and genuine gratitude are accompanied by the Harp and resound to the cottages below, whose little inhabitants rousing at the call hasten and chuse a convenient place to dance till prayer time, which begins at sunrise and separates the dancers for a while."
"The Christmas In."—As regularly as the great holiday time came round, those living in the Mid-Derbyshire villages were visited by
Your naybors' childeren,
Whom yo' ha' seyn before,
asking: "Will you have the Christmas in?"
First came the little girls, the eldest not more than six or seven the head of a party of half a dozen or so, each dressed in her "Sunday best," one of them carrying in her arms a sort of box: sometimes a wicker or rush-made tray, in or on which lay a doll dressed to represent the child-like idea of Christ in the Manger. They went the round of the houses in the villages, knocked, and as the door was opened asked: "Will you have the Christmas in?" for this was the name for the representation of the Nativity which they carried. Once inside, the band of little ones stood under the "Christmas bush," which hung from the houseplace beam, and there sang a carol or Christmas hymn. At the head, at the back of the "Christmas," was a larger figure intended for the Christ mother.
There was another "Christmas in" for the lads, who went about as "guisers." Not so gentle was their knock, and they shouted loudly "Wull yo hev th' Christmas in?" For the answer the party did not wait, but the leader bounded in, and, marching about the house-place, began to recite the following or some other lines, with which the "mummer" St. George led off:—
I ope th' door, I enter in,
I ope your favour for to win:
Whether I rise or whether I fa',
I'll dow my best to please yo aw,
Sant Garge is 'ear,
An' swears that hey'll cum in,
An' if he does, Ah know that hey
Wull pierce my skin!
This leader was dressed in a nondescript fashion: he had a white and a black leg; a jacket inside out; paper trimmings at his shoulders and round his neck; his face
