House inscription, Exmouth, Devon, 1570, Inscription on house, God giveth all. Nil sini labore. Verses written on the gates of Bologna in Italy: What, if the stateliest buildings were thy own? None come too soon none go too late. Lines in the whispering gallery of Gloucester Cathedral: Inscription on a board at Richmond: Excellent asses' milk I sell, One angel honoured Balaam's ass But Currell's troop through Richmond pass With angels every day. John Currell, donkey Hackneyman, Richmond, Surrey. This is supposed to have been written for him by one of our popular writers. Door Inscriptions. THE two following were common in Queen Elizabeth's reign: :Would'st have a friend, would'st know what friend is best? Have God thy friend, which passeth all the rest. What better fare, than well content, agreeing with thy wealth, What better guest than trusty friend in sickness or in health. Shakespeare's England. At St. Bees' School, Cumberland, with the initials E. G. (for Archbishop Grindale the founder) and the date 1587. Ingredere ut proficias. OVER DOOR INSCRIPTIONS. Mediocera firma, 1654. Peregrinos hic nos reputamus, 1650. POETICAL AND AMBIGUOUS SIGN-BOARDS. Until recently, in a narrow street here, called Pump Pail, was a remarkable baker's sign, Home made bread-diners baked every day. This was however outdone by a baker, in an adjoining village, who had written up : People's vitals baked here! At a roadside cottage, I remember to have seen this announcement, Table bear-sold hear. Under which some acute wag had written (Croydon.) His own bruin ! (THOMAS WELLER.) The newspapers in August, 1776, noticed that over the door of a chandler's shop, in the village of Drinkstone, on the sign-board, was the following inscription : Hear Lifs won woo Cuers a Goos, Gud. Bare. Bako sole Hare. To translate these lines for the benefit of such readers to whom the Suffolk dialect may be inexplicable, they may be simply explained to mean―Here lives one who cures Agues. Good Beer. Tobacco sold here. Over the door of a barber and wig-maker, opposite Glasgow College, is the following quaint distich If Absolom had worn a wig, At Holwell, in Somerset, a detached part adjoining another parish, were the following: Reading, Writing, and Mensuration, The extraction of square and cubic root, ; Reminded by the Drinkstone couplet, (Current Notes, p. 87,) I remember to have somewhere seen I cures a goose; [i. e. Agues] And my wife cures the ganders. [i. e. the Jaundice.] (Glanville Wootton, Sherborne.) (J. C. DALE.) At Brechin, in Forfarshire, over the door of a shoemaker, named Tytler, who kept a shop there about forty years since, was a painted sign-board, having the representation of a pair of torn, and a pair of mended shoes, and underneath :— When boots or shoes are nearly ended, Here they can be neatly mended, BY GEORGE TYTLER: But, Gentlefolks, what do you think? Tytler died within the last twelve years; still many of the "living chronicles" of Brechin have a full recollection of the well known sign-board. He was cousin to the eccentric James Taylor, memorable as the writer of Scottish songs, &c. I SCOTTISH OVER DOOR INSCRIPTIONS. Upon the burial aisle of the noble family of Ruthven at Forgandenny, Perthshire, are the following apparently renewed lines : ALL. MEN. THINK. ON. ZOVR. DYING DAY ZIT. IOY. TO. DIE. TO LIVE. FOR. AY 1369. On the Police Office in the same town are these admonitory lines,— This hovse loves peace, hates knaves, Crimes pvnisheth, Preserves the Laws, and good men honovreth. Inscriptions on Mar's Wark, a building at the head of the Broad street in Stirling, begun by the Regent Earl of Mar, but now a ruin. The first two couplets are on the front :— THE. MOIR. I. STAND. ON. OPPIN. HITHT MY FAVLTIS. MOIR. SVBIECT. AR. TO. SITHT. I. PRAY. AL. LVIKARIS. ON. THIS. BIGING VITH. GENTIL. E. TO GIF. THAIR. IVGING* The third is on the back of Mar's Wark, within the garden,— ESSPY. SPEIK. FVRTH. AND. SPAIR. NOTHT CONSIDDIR. VEIL. AND. CAIR. NOTHT. The last couplet reminds me of an inscription upon an old house in Dunfermline, which proffers more cautious advice, dictated, no doubt, by the discretion of the erector, who was Robert Pitcairn, Commendatory of Dunfermline, and Secretary of State to Queen Mary. The lines are engraved over the chief entrance door to Pitcairn's house in Maygate Street : SEN. VORD. IS. THRALL. AND. THOCT. IS. FRE Willis's Current Notes. NEW TEMPERANCE HOTEL, BEDFORD. A new temperance hotel is in course of erection, near the coal station and the works of the Messrs. Howard. Over the entrance the following lines, composed, as we are told, by Mr. Usher, who is the architect, will be cut in stone : Weary traveller, step within ;— To cheer and elevate the mind. These lines give us reason to hope that Mr. Usher is better as an architect than a poet.-Builder. *i.e. Judgment, or opinion. Additional Tabern Rhymes. THE LION-HEAD OF THE "CENTURION." In September, 1740, Commodore George Anson sailed from England with a small squadron of ships, consisting of the Centurion, of 60 guns, the Gloucester, the Severn, the Pearl, the Wager, and the Trial Sloop, with two victuallers, and about 470 land forces, under the command of Colonel Cracherode. The Severn and the Pearl were separated from him on the coast of Brazil, whence they returned to England. All his other ships, except the Centurion, were either lost or destroyed, for want of hands to navigate them. He burned the town of Paita in Peru, where he found a good deal of plunder. He likewise took the rich Manilla galleon, valued at 400,000l. sterling; and, after undergoing an incredible number of difficulties, he arrived at Spithead on the 15th of June, 1744. His treasure was conveyed in a triumphant manner to London, where it was received amidst the shouts and acclamations of the people. He himself was soon after created a peer of the realm. He died in 1762, aged sixty-two years. The Lion, carved in wood, which adorned the head of his ship, the "Centurion," was placed, some years ago, on a pedestal in the stable-yard of a little inn at Waterbeach, adjoining Goodwood Park, near Chichester, the seat of the Duke of Richmond, with the following inscription : Stay, Traveller, awhile, and view One who has travell'd more than you. Quite round the globe, through each degree, Torrid and frigid zones have past, And safe ashore arrived at last, In ease with dignity appear, He in the House of Lords, I here. Some years ago this Lion was removed to Windsor, as a present to his Majesty; and the following lines, in imitation of the original inscription, have been written on the occasion of this movement : Such was this travell'd Lion's boast, |