Page:Over fen and wold; (IA overfenwold00hissiala).pdf/286

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SATOR
AREPO
TENET
OPERA
ROTAS

The meaning of this is not at all clear, to me at any rate. This puzzle bears the date 1614. The following curious inscription, too, was pointed out to me upon a flat, "broken and battered" tombstone that lies in the churchyard of Upton near Slough: "Here lies the body of Sarah Bramstone of Eton, spinster, who dared to be just in the reign of George the Second. Obijt. Janry. 30, 1765, aetat 77." One naturally asks who was this Sarah Bramstone? These records in stone are hard to interpret. Even old drinking vessels, that the wanderer in rural England occasionally unearths, often possess significant inscriptions, as the following example taken from a goblet of the Cromwellian period, I think, sufficiently proves. This certainly suggests a Jacobean origin of our national anthem:—

God save the King, I pray
God bless the King, I say;
    God save the King.
Send him victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Soon to reign over us;
    God save the King.

A few more miles of level winding road through a wooded country brought us in sight of the old historic town of Boston,—a name familiar in two hemispheres. A jumble of red buildings, uneven-roofed, and grouped together in artistic irregularity,