g incautiously repaired
To a scene of amusement
Without proper protection,
Was brutally violated and murdered,
On the 27th May, 1817.

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:--

Sacred to the Memory of
JOHN DOWLER,
Late of Castle Bromwich, who
Departed this life December 6th, 1787,
Aged 42,
Also two of his Sons, JAMES and CHARLES,
Who died infants.

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."

From Witton Cemetery:

"O earth, O earth! observe this well--
That earth to earth shall come to dwell;
Then earth in earth shall close remain,
Till earth from earth shall rise again."

From St. Philip's:

"Oh, cruel death, how could you be so unkind
To take him before, and leave me behind?
You should have taken both of us, if either,
Which would have been more pleasing to the survivor."

The next, upon an infant, is superior to the general run of this class
of inscription. It was copied from a slab intended to be placed in Old
Edgbaston Churchyard:

"Beneath this stone, in sweet repose,
Is laid a mother's dearest pride;
A flower that scarce had waked to life,
And light and beauty, ere it died.
God and His wisdom has recalled
The precious boon His love has given;
And though the casket moulders he