Page:Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham.djvu/148

136 eliminating useless and obsolete clauses, and inserting others necessitated by our high state of advanced civilisation. The new Act, which is known as the Birmingham Corporation Consolidation Act, came into force January 1, 1884, and all who desire to master our local governing laws easily and completely had better procure a copy of the book containing it, with notes of all the included statutes, compiled by the Town Clerk, and published by Messrs. Cornish, New Street.

Local Epitaphs.—Baskerville, when young, was a stone cutter, and it was known that there was a gravestone in Handsworth churchyard and another in Edgbaston churchyard which were cut by him. The latter was accidentally broken many years back, but was moved and kept as a curiosity until it mysteriously vanished while some repairs were being done at the church. It is believed that Baskerville wrote as well as carved the inscription which commemorated the death of Edward Richards who was an idiot, and died Sept. 21st, 1728, and that it ran thus:-

""If innocents are the fav'rites of heaven, And God but little asks where little's given, My great Creator has for me in store Eternal joys-What wise man can ask more?"

The gravestone at Handsworth was "under the chancel window," sixty years ago, overgrown with moss and weeds, but inscription and stone have long since gone. Baskerville's own epitaph, on the Mausoleum in his grounds at Easy Hill, has often been quoted:—

"Stranger, Beneath this cone, in unconsecrated ground, A friend to the liberties of mankind directed his body to be inurned. May the example contribute to emancipate thy mind From the idle fears of Superstition, And the wicked Act of Priesthood!"

Almost as historical as the above, is the inscription on the tombstone erected over Mary Ashford, at Sutton Coldfield:—

"Lovely and chaste as is the primrose pale, Rifled of virgin sweetness by the gale, Mary! The wretch who thee remorseless slew, Will surely God's avenging wrath pursue.

For, though the deed of blood be veiled in night, "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Fair, blighted flower! The muse, that weeps thy doom, Rears o'er thy sleeping dust this warning tomb!"

The following quaint inscription appears on the tombstone erected in memory of John Dowler, the blacksmith, in Aston churchyard:—

"My sledge and hammer lie reclined, My bellows, too, have lost their wind My fire's extinct, my forge decayed, And in the dust my vice is laid; My coal is spent, my iron gone, My nails are drove, my work is done."

The latter part of the above, like the next four, has appeared in many parts of the country, as well as in the local burial grounds, from which they have been copied:

From St. Bartholomew's:

""The bitter cup that death gave me Is passing round to come to thee.""

From General Cemetery:

""Life is a city full of crooked streets, Death is the market-place where all men meets ; If life were merchandise which men could buy, The rich would only live, the poor would die.""