Page:The Monumental Inscriptions in the Parish Church of S. Michael, Coventry.pdf/48

There was a problem when proofreading this page.

24

N.

On the West wall, near to South West door, a plain white marble slab, which reads thus:—

"Sacred to the memory of | Joseph Massey O'Keeffe, | of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, | who died in Coventry, June 1st, 1861, | aged 36 years. | The deceased served in the Regiment for upwards | of 18 years, and was with it in the Crimean War of 1854 and 1855, | including the battles of Balaclava, Inkerman, the | Tchernaya, and the siege and taking of Sebastopol | This tablet is erected by the Officers, Non-com. | Officers, and Men of his (F.) troop, to the memory of a | true comrade, and a good soldier."

O.

On a tablet, immediately behind the organ, is the following English and Latin inscription, now nearly effaced by age. This and many others are gilt letters on a blue stone, and any attempt to clean them results in the whole being entirely rubbed off; the arms, (plate iii.) are not now there, but evidently these have been as Dugdale records them:-

"Here lieth the body of Mrs. FRANCES BROOKE, mother of Mr. JOHN BROOKE, who departed this life the 3rd day of November, 1692, being aged 74 years."

Memento mori, & in æternum non peccabis.

"Hic jacet | JOHANNES BROOKE, Civis Coventriensis, illustri familia ortus, divini numinis cultor, | castissimus Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ filius, | obsequentissimus amicus, veterum nulli |postponendus, ingens Civitatis suæ | ornamentum; quem, ingemiscentibus | bonis Omnibus, ætatis flore Mors | inexorabilis abripuit, 4to die Sextilis, | Anno Dom. 1679. | Jam satura cs certe, mors invida, victima namque | ingenium, pietas, hictibi sacra jacet." |

This monument was 17 22 Beautifyed in the Year

Thus translated—

"Remember thou must die, and in eternity thou shall not sin." “ Here lies John Brooke, a citizen of Coventry, born of a noble family, a worshipper of the Holy Deity, a most devout son of the Anglican Church, a most obliging friend, inferior to none of the ancients, a great ornament to his City, whom inexorable death carried off in the flower of his age, amid the lamentations of all good men, on the 4th day of August, A.D. 1679."

“Surely now thou art satiated, O envious death, for intellect and piety lies here a victim consecrated to thee."