EPITAPH: BEING PART OF AN INSCRIPTION FOR A MONUMENT TO BE ERECTED BY A GENTLEMAN TO THE MEMORY OF HIS LADY.

Farewell, my best beloved! whose heavenly mind Genius with virtue, strength with softness, joined; Devotion, undebased by pride or art, With meek simplicity, and joy of heart; Though sprightly, gentle; though polite, sincere; And only of thyself a judge severe; Unblamed, unequalled, in each sphere of life, The tenderest Daughter, Sister, Parent, Wife. In thee their patroness the afflicted lost; Thy friends, their pattern, ornament, and boast; And I——but, ah! can words my loss declare, Or paint the extremes of transport and despair? O Thou, beyond what verse or speech can tell, My guide, my friend, my best-beloved, farewell!