Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/44

30 Indeed the moralities even of professedly religious men were at a low ebb at the time, and his spirit seems to have taken a bitter vein at their practices. He converted an old windmill standing in his grounds into a monument for himself, surmounting it with an urn bearing this inscription: "Stranger! beneath this stone, 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 fears of superstition and the wicked arts of priestcraft." Whether this epitaph drew upon him the fury of the mob that set upon Priestley, or whether the illumination emanating from his printing press had been too bright for the eyes of bigots jealous of popular blindness, his monument was destroyed and not a stone was left to indicate where his ashes lay. About thirty years after this work of fury and destruction, his body was discovered accidentally by some workmen employed in constructing the canal that runs through the grounds belonging to his estate. It was found in excellent preservation, and now lies in a catacomb under Christ Church. After his death his widow endeavoured to dispose of his splendid founts of type, but found no purchaser in England ready to buy them, notwithstanding they had become so famous for their elegance. Finally they went into the hands of a literary association in Paris for £3,700, who