The following EPITAPH on the Monument of my Kinfwoman was written at the Request of her Husband..
WITHIN the Burial-Vault near this Marble, lieth
the Body of PENELOPE, youngest Daughter (and Coheir with her. Sifter ELIZABETH) to ROBERT PHILIPS of Newton-Regis, in the County of Warwick, Efquire. She died in her Six and Thirtieth Year, on the 25th Day of January, 1726.
LET THIS INSCRIPTION,
(Appealing yet to teftimonies manifold)
Recall to every furviving witnefs,
And, for enfample, record to pofterity,
Her endowments,
Whether owing to the indulgency of nature,,
Or to the affiduous leffons of education,
Or to the filent admonitions of reflection.
To her parents, husband, children,
In no care, no duty, no affection,
Was he wanting,
Receiving, deferving, winning,
From them refpectively,
Equal endearments.
Of countenance and of difpofition,,
Open, chearful, modeft;
Of behaviour, humble, courteous, easy;
Of speech, affable, free, difcreet;
In civilities, punctual, fincere, and elegant;
Prone to offices of kindnefs and good will;
To enmity a stranger;
Forward, earneft, impatient,
To fuccour the diftrefs'd,
To comfort the afflicted;
Solicitous for the poor,
And rich in ftore of alms:
Whereby fhe became
The delight, the love, the bleffing, of all.
In her houfhold flourished
Chearfulness, due order, thrift, and plenty.
In the closet retired,
In the temple public.
Morning and evening did the worship;
By inftruction, by example,
Sedulous to nurture her children in godliness:
So prevalent her love to them,
Vifited with that fore difeafe,
Which too often kills or blites
The mother's fondeft hopes,
That (regardless of felf-prefervation)
In piously watching over their lives
She, catching the infection, lost her own,
Triumphing, through resignation,
Over fickness, pain, anguifh, agony,
And (encompaffed with tears and lamentations)
Expiring in the fervour of prayer.
To the MEMORY, ever dear and precious, of his most affectionate, most beloved, and most deserving Wife, is this Monument raised by HENRY VERNON, of Hilton, in the County of Stafford, Esquire: to him the bore five Sons and two Daughters, all furviving, fave Elizabeth; who dying, in her fecond Year, of the Small-Pox, fome few Days before, refteth by her Mother.
AR northward as the Dane extends his fway,
Where the fun glances but a floping ray,
Beneath the harpeft rigour of the skies,
Difdainful Thule's wintery island lies.
Unhappy maid! thy tale, forgotten long, -
Shall virgins learn from my inftructive fong,
And every youth, who lingers in defpair,
By thy example warn the cruel fair.
In Cyprus, facred to the queen of love,
(Where ftands her temple, and her myrtle grove,)
Was Thule born, uncertain how: 'tis fàid
Once Venus won Adonis to her bed,
And pregnant grew, the birth to chance affign'd
In woods, and fofter'd by the feather'd kind.
With flowers fome ftrew the helpless orphan round,
With downy mofs fome fpread the carpet ground, 16
Some ripen'd fruits, fome fragrant honey, bring;
And some fetch water from the running fpring;
While others warble from the boughs, to cheer
Their infant-charge, and tune her tender ear.
Soon as the fun forfakes the evening fkies,
And hid in shades the gloomy forest lies,
The nightingales their tuneful vigils keep,
And lull her, with their gentler strains, to fleep.
This the prevailing rumour: as she grew,
No dubious tokens fpcke the rumour true.
In every forming feature might be seen
Some bright refemblance of the Cyprian queen:
Nor was it hard the hunter youth to trace,
In all her early paffion of the chace :
And when, on fpringing flowers reclin'd, fhe fung,
The birds upon the bending branches hung,
While, warbling, fhe exprefs'd their various strains,
And, at a distance, charm'd the listening fwains:
So fweet her voice refounding through the wood,
They thought the Nymph fome Syren from the flood.
Half human thus by lineage, half divine,
In forefts did the lonely beauty shine,
Like woodland flowers, which paint the defert glades,
And wafte their fweets in unfrequented fhades.
No human face fhe faw, and rarely feen
By human face: a folitary queen
She rul'd, and rang'd, her fhady empire round.
No horn the filent huntress bears; no hound,
With noify cry, difturbs her folemn chace,
Swift, as the bounding ftag, fhe wings her pace ;
And, bend whene'er fhe will her ebon bow,
A fpeedy death arrefts the flying foe.
The bow the hunting goddess first supply'd,
And ivory quiver crofs her fhoulders ty'd.
Th' imperious queen of heaven, with jealous eyes, Beholds the blooming virgin from the skies,
At once admires, and dreads her growing charms,
And fees the god already in her arms :
In vain, she finds, her bitter tongue reproves
His broken vows, and his clandeftine loves :
Jove still continues frail and all in vain.
Does Thule in obfcurest shades remain,
While Maja's fon, the thunderer's winged fpy,
Informs him where the lurking beauties lie.
What fure expedient then fhall Juno find,
To calm her fears, and ease her boding mind?
Delays to jealous minds a torment prove ;.
And Thule ripens every day for love.
She mounts her car, and shakes the filken reins;
The harness'd peacocks spread their painted trains,
And fimooth their glofly necks against the fun :
The wheels along the level azure run.
Eastward the goddess guides her gaudy team,
And perfects, as fhe rides, her forming scheme..
The various orbs now pafs'd, adown the steep
Of heaven the chariot whirls, and plunges deep
In fleecy clouds, which o'er the mid-land main
Hang pois'd in air, to blefs the ifles with rain:
And here the panting birds repose a while :
Nor fo their queen; the gains the Cyprian isle,
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