Page:Waverley Novels, vol. 22 (1831).djvu/79

NOTE TO CHAPTER III.

Note, p. 52.—Foster, Lambourne, and the Black Bear.

If faith is to be put in epitaphs, Anthony Foster was some thing the very reverse of the character represented in the novel. Ashmole gives this description of his tomb. I copy from the Antiquities of Berkshire, vol. i., p. 143.

“In the north wall of the chancel at Cumnor church, is a monument of grey marble, whereon, in brass plates, are engraved a man in armour, and his wife in the habit of her times, both kneeling before a fald-stoole, together with the figures of three sons kneeling behind their mother. Under the figure of the man is this inscription:

Antonius Forster, generis generosa propago,
 Cumneræ Dominus, Bercheriensis erat.
Armiger, Armigero prognatus patre Ricardo,
 Qui quondam Iphlethæ Salopiensis erat.
Quatuor ex isto fluxerunt stemmate nati,
 Ex isto Antonius stemmate quartus erat.
Mente sagax, animo precellens, corpore promptus:
 Eloquii dulcis, ore disertus erat.
In factis probitas; fuit in sermone venustas,
 In vultu gravitas, relligione fides,
In patriam pietas, in egenos grata voluntas,
 Accedunt reliquis annumeranda bonis.
Si quod cuncta rapit, rapuit non omnia Lethum,
 Si quod Mors rapuit, vivida fama dedit.
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“These verses following are writ at length, two by two, in praise of him:

Argute resonas Cithare pretendere chordas
 Novit, et Aonia concrepuisse Lyra.
Gaudebat terre teneras defigere plantas;
 Et mira pulchras construere arte domos,
Composita varias lingua formare loquelas
 Doctus, et edocta scribere multa manu.