493. The small Celandine. [III.]

See ‘Poems of the Fancy’ [XI.].

494. *_The two Thieves_. [IV.]

This is described from the life, as I was in the habit of observing when a boy at Hawkshead School.  Daniel was more than 80 years older than myself when he was daily thus occupied under my notice.  No book could have so early taught me to think of the changes to which human life is subject, and while looking at him I could not but say to myself, We may, any of us, I or the happiest of my playmates, live to become still more the object of pity than the old man, this half-doating pilferer.

495. *_Animal Tranquillity and Decay_. [V.]

If I recollect right, these verses were an overflow from the ’Old
Cumberland Beggar.’

* * * * *

XXIV.  EPITAPHS AND ELEGIAC PIECES.

496. *_From Chiabrera_. [I. to IX.]

Those from Chiabrera were chiefly translated when Mr. Coleridge was writing his Friend, in which periodical my Essay on Epitaphs, written about that time, was first published.  For further notice of Chiabrera in connection with his Epitaphs see ‘Musings at Aquapendente.’

497. *_By a blest Husband, &c._

This lady was named Carleton.  She, along with a sister, was brought up in the neighbourhood of Ambleside.  The Epitaph, a part of it at least, is in the church at Bromsgrove, where she resided after her marriage.

498. Cenotaph.

In affectionate remembrance of Frances Fermor, whose remains are deposited in the Church of Claines, near Worcester, this stone is erected by her sister, Dame Margaret, wife of Sir George Beaumont, Bart., who, feeling not less than the love of a brother for the deceased, commends this memorial to the care of his heirs and successors in the possession of this place. (See the verses on Mrs. F.)

499. *_Epitaph in the Chapel-yard of Langdale, Westmoreland_. [IV.]

Owen Lloyd, the subject of this Epitaph, was born at Old Brathay, near Ambleside, and was the son of Charles Lloyd and his wife Sophia (nee Pemberton), both of Birmingham.  They had many children, both sons and daughters, of whom the most remarkable was the subject of this Epitaph.  He was educated under Dawes of Ambleside, Dr. Butler of Shrewsbury, and lastly at Trin.  Coll., Cambridge, where he would have been greatly distinguished as a scholar, but for inherited infirmities of bodily constitution, which from early childhood affected his mind.  His love for the neighbourhood in which he was born and his sympathy with the habits and characters of the mountain yeomanry, in conjunction with irregular spirits, that unfitted him for facing duties in situations to which he was unaccustomed, inclined him to accept the retired curacy of Langdale.  How much he was beloved and honoured there and with what feelings he discharged his duty under the oppressions of severe malady is set forth, though imperfectly, in this Epitaph.