Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/157

Rh this building is above 450, of which nearly 200 are in the spacious and magnificent chancel alone; and there are also nearly 50 tablets and mural monuments, some of which are exceedingly interesting.

In the course of my researches I found several instances among the flat stones, of modern families availing themselves of vacant spaces upon stones to place in them inscriptions relating to events of recent date, without any regard to the incongruity of such proceeding. In one instance the decease of a party is recorded to have taken place in 1650; as in the case of "Edward Owner 4 times  this Toune ;" followed by a memorial of the date of 1823, preceding "the wife of Edward Owner" 1672. An instance also occurred in which the whole inscription, together with arms of a family of Felstead, was erased by the chisel; and the stone was appropriated to the memorials of deceased relations of another family now existing. I could cite many similar occurrences of the former description:—that is, of strangers taking the grave-stones of other families, and using them for the insertion of their own inscriptions; but I have confined myself to the relation of the foregoing instances to shew the usefulness which a register of monumental inscriptions would be in detecting the errors which result from the confusion consequently arising from the practices adverted to. The identity of families is not only destroyed by such means, but sometimes