From Witton Cemetery:
"O earth, O earth ! observe this well-
That earth to earth shall come to dwell;
Then earth in earth shall close remain,
Till earth from earth shall rise again."
From St. Philip's :
"Oh, cruel death, how could you be so unkind
To take him before, and leave me behind ?
You should have taken both of us, if either,
Which would have been more pleasing to
the survivor."
The next, upon an infant, is superior to the general run of this class of inscription. It was copied from a slab intended to be placed in Old Edgbaston Churchyard:
"Beneath this stone, in sweet repose,
Is laid a mother's dearest pride;
A flower that scarce had waked to life,
Aud light and beauty, ere it died.
God and His wisdom has recalled
The precious boo. His love has given;
And though the casket moulders here,
The gem is sparkling now in heaven."
Ramblers may find many quaint epitaphs in neighbouring village churchyards. In Shustoke churchyard, or rather on a tablet placed against the wall of the church over the tomb of a person named Hautbach, the date on which is 1712, there is an inscription, remarkable not only for lines almost identical with those over Shakespeare's grave, but for combining several other favourite specimens of graveological literature, as here bracketed:
"When Death shall cut the thread of life,
Both of Mee and my living Wife,
When please Go our change shall bee,
There is a Tomb for Mee and Shee,
Vee freely shall resign up all
To Him who gave, and us doth call.
Sleep here wee must, both in the Dust,
Till the Resurrection of the Just.
Good friend, within these Railes forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blest bee the man who spares these stones
And Curst be he that moves our bones.
Whilst living here, learn how to die;
This benefit thoni't reap thereby :
Neither the life or death will be
Grievous or sad, but joy to thee.
Watch thoue, and pray; thy time well spend;
Unknown is the hour of thy end.
| As thou art, so once were wee,
(As wee are, so must thou bee,
Dumspiramnus Speram us.'
It is a collection of epitaphs in itself, even to the last line, which is to be found in Durham Cathedral on a "brass” before the altar.
Local Landowners.—It is some what a difficult matter to tell how much of the ground on which the town is built belongs to any one particular person, even with the assistance of the Returns" obtained by John Bright of "the owners of land so called, possessing estimated yearly rentals of £1,000 and upwards." That these "Returns may be useful to biassed politicians is likely enough, as Lord Calthorpe is put down as owner of 2.073 acres at an estimated rental of £113,707, while Mr. Muntz appears as owning 2,486 acres at an estimated rental of £3,948. His lordship's £113,707 "estimated" rental must be considerably reduced when the leaseholders have taken their share and left him only the ground rents. The other large ground landlords are the Trustees of the Grammar School, the Trustees of the Colmore, Gooch, Vyse, Inge, Digby, Gillot, Robins, and Mason estates, &c., Earl Howe, Lench's Trust, the Blue Coat School, &c. The Corporation of Birmingham is returned as owning 257 acres, in addition to 134 had from the Waterworks Co., but that does not include the additions male under the Improvement Scheme, &c. The manner in which the estates of the old Lords of the Manor, of the Guild of Holy Cross, and the possessions of the ancient Priory, have been divided and portioned out by descent, marriage, forfeiture, plunder, and purchase is interesting matter of history, but rather of a private than public nature.
Local Notes and Queries.—The gathering of odd scraps of past local history, notes of men and manners of a bygone time, and the stray (and sometimes strange) bits of folklore garnered alone in the recollections of greybeards, has been an interesting occupation for more than one during the past score or
