PRINTED FOR G. & W. B. WHITTAKER, 13, AVE MARIA LANE, PREFACE. HAVING always derived a particular pleasure from a walk among the tombs, the Author became in early life a collector of Epitaphs. A recent tour through GREAT BRITAIN, and the ISLE of MAN, enabled him to enlarge the collection, by the insertion of several inscriptions of great merit, that convey fine moral thoughts in the style and spirit of genuine poetry; many of them were never before published, and are correctly copied from the monuments on which they are inscribed: a few are taken from the works of our most popular Poets, which certainly do no discredit to the authors whose names they bear. If some pieces of inferior merit, as far as regards poetic composition, have been admitted into the collection, they are, at least, entitled to the praise of being moral and instructive, however they may offend |