Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/511

 ii s. VIIL DEC. 27, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

505

EPITAPHIANA.

DOUGLAS EPITAPH IN BOHEMIA. Possibly this epitaph might interest some student of the family of Douglas. It is given exactly as printed :

Sacred Tothe Memory of Henry Daglass, Stall- Masters to his Highness Prince Bretzenheim who departed this Life March 29. 1841. Aged 48 years. This Stone was Errected by his Countryment.

Churchyard of the church of St. John the Baptist at Pardubic in Bohemia.

From the ' Jahrbuch der K. K. Gesell- schaft Adler,' Neue Folge, vii. 197.

DONALD L. GAXBKEATH. Montreux.

APHRA AS A CHRISTIAN NAME : FORDWICH CHURCH, KENT. Parents might do worse than resuscitate the pretty Christian name I came across on a brass in the nave of Fordwich Church, near Canterbury, for it is very rarely used in this country nowadays. The inscription is :

Here lyeth ye Body of Aphra Haw- | kins wife of Henry Hawkins Gent. & Davgh | ter of Thomas Norton Esq. Who scarcely ! Having arrived to 21 yeares of age yet fvl | ly attayned perfection in many vertves | Departed this frayle lite ye xvj th of Janv. 1605.

On the tombstone is a brass showing Aphra in full Elizabethan costume, still so perfect that a modern dressmaker could easily copy the costume therefrom.

J. HARRIS STONE. Oxford and Cambridge Club.

EPITAPH AT WELWYN. The following inscription formerly existed upon a wooden rail in Welwyn Churchyard, Hertfordshire :

In memory of John Batten, of this parish, who died July 28, 1839. To whom God magnified his mercy when, in a fit of madness, the devil cast him in a mill water-wheel of 80 horse power, but the new buckets broke and he was cast out alive, and not a bone of him was broken.

It is said that this occurred at Wheat- hampstead Mill, and that there was not room for an eel to go through without being crushed. W. B. GERISH.

XATHANIEL HULME'S EPITAPH AT CHAR- TERHOUSE. The following epitaph, which is very little known, was written by Nathaniel Hulme, a doctor of the Charterhouse, during his lifetime. It is on a mural tablet in the grounds of the Charterhouse, in the form of a last prayer :

O God the Creator of all things, whose mercy is infinite, and whose wisdom is incomprehensible, before Thee do I humbly prostrate myselt to the

Earth and to Thee do I freely commit my spirit,, because I know and do trust that the same kinci Providence which brought me into the world, and gave me milk out of my mother's breast for my immediate nourishment, will as certainly preside over my death, and dispose of my immortal part in such manner as will be most suitable to its future Existence.

GEORGE WHERRY. Cambridge.

LITTLE OAKLEY, ESSEX. Epitaph on a headstone to John Read, mariner (son of Francis and Elizabeth Read), who died 22 Aug., 1810, aged 36 (in southern portion, of the churchyard) :

Beneath yon Waves how many Seamen sleep For Englands Glory buried in the deep Yet deem not Dangers only haunt the Seas On shore what Mortal can escape Disease The Way imports not if to Heaven we go By the swift millet or Consumption slow For sixteen Years this Mariner, endured Consumptions Taint by Medicine seldom cured Such long protracted Woe but few have knowik In few more Christian Patience ever shone May he who Fishermen did not disdain But bade them follow in his sacred Train This Fisherman accept his Sins forgive And in his Kingdom bid him rise and live.

This stone, being on high ground and much exposed to the weather, is rapidly becoming illegible. I noted the inscription last August. WILLIAM GILBERT.

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS CARD. I believe this has been frequently discussed, and no- doubt the date of the earliest card with a seasonable greeting ascertained. Recently,, in some papers, prints, &c., collected by the late Duncan C. Dallas of 108, Fleet Street, the inventor of the photographic -print ing process known as " Dallastype," I found a number of his business cards with an excellent Christmas card printed on the back,, designed by J. T. Lucas. The roast beef,, pudding, port, and other consumables have a Dickensian suggestion illustrative of the accompanying greeting : " The Compliments of the Season." The date of this production, would probably be 1867, but certainly prior to 1870. ALECK ABRAHAMS.

[Christmas cards were earlier than 1867. For their origin see 9 S. viii. 504 ; ix. 56 ; x. 237 ; xiL 347, 391.]

' THE TIMES ' AND CHRISTMAS DAY. A note may well be made that The Time& was the only paper published in this country on Christmas Day, 1912, the issue being for postal subscribers only. This year The Times associates itself with other papers,, there being an entire suspension of the