or 'father,' the disinheritance may be accounted for, and also its chronicle below this figure in a civilian cap (it may be either civilian or monkish, but I incline to the former). Of course this is only supposition founded upon dates and local history, and may be utterly wrong."
A TOMBSTONE ENIGMA The curious carvings and inscriptions that one comes upon ever and again when exploring rural England are a source of great interest to the traveller of antiquarian tastes, and there are many such scattered over the land of a most puzzling nature. Take the following tombstone enigma, for instance, to be found in Christchurch graveyard in Hampshire. Who will unravel the hidden import of this most mysterious legend? I have tried long and hard to arrive at some probable solution thereof but all in vain.
We were not slayne bvt rays'd,
Rays'd not to life,
But to be bvried twice
By men of strife.
What rest covld the living have
When the dead had none.
Agree amongst yov,
Here we ten are one.
H. Roger. died April 17. 1641.
I. R.
Then again in the church of Great Gidding—a village we passed a little to the left of our road before we reached Stilton—is another carved enigma consisting of the following five Latin words arranged in the form of a square thus:—
