ys inclin'd
A tender mother for to be,
And to her neighbours kind."

Belgrave. This I quote from memory; it may not be verbally, but it is
substantially correct:

"Laurance Stetly slumbers here;
He lived on earth near forty year;
October's eight-and-twentieth day
His soul forsook its house of clay,
And thro' the pure ether took its way.
We hope his soul doth rest in heaven.
1777."

Newtown Linford, adjoining Bradgate Park. In this churchyard is a tombstone
on which is engraved only the letters of the alphabet and the simple
numerals. The story goes, that he who lies below, an illiterate inhabitant
of the village in the last century, whose name, I believe, is now
forgotten, being very anxious that, after death, a tombstone should be
erected to perpetuate his memory, and being fearful that his relatives
might neglect to do so, came to Leicester to purchase one himself. Seeing
this stone in the mason's workshop (where it was used by the workmen as a
pattern for the letters and figures), he bought it "a bargain," supposing
it would serve his purpose as well as a new one, and after his decease it
was placed at the head of his grave, where it now appears.

All Saints' churchyard, Leicester. On two children of John Bracebridge, who
were both named John, and died infants:

"Both John and John soon lost their lives,
And yet, by God, John still survives."

Throsby (_Hist. of Leic._) relates that Bishop Thurlow, at one of his
visitations, had the words _by God_ altered to _thro' God_.

WILLIAM KELLY.

Leicester.

* * * * *

LONGFELLOW'S "REAPER AND THE FLOWERS."

On looking over, a short time ago, a book of German songs, I was much
struck by the similarity of thought, and even sometimes of expression,
between the above piece from Mr. Longfellow's _Voices of the Night_, and a
song by Luise Reichardt, a few verses of which I subjoin; as perhaps the
song may not be known to some of your correspondents.

"It is a favourite theme," as Sir W. Scott says, "of laborious dulness
to trace such coincidences, because they appear to reduce genius of the
higher order to the usual standard of humanity, and of course to bring
the author nearer to a level with his critics."

It is not, however, with the view of detracting from the originality of Mr.
Longfellow, that these two small pieces are put side by side; for possibly
the song alluded to was nev