foul air of Fleet Street for the wholesome breezes of the Sussex Downs.

The epitaph engraved on my mother's monument shows how deserving she was
of general applause. I asked Johnson why he named her person before her
mind. He said it was "because everybody could judge of the one, and but
few of the other."

_Juxta sepulta est_ HESTERA MARIA
_Thomae Cotton de Combermere baronetti Cestriensis filia_,
_Johannis Salusbury armigeri Flintiensis uxor_.
_Forma felix, felix ingenio_:
_Omnibus jucunda_, _suorum amantissima_.
_Linguis artibusque ita exculta_
_Ut loquenti nunquam deessent_
_Sermonis nitor_, _sententiarum flosculi_,
_Sapientiae gravitas_, _leporum gratia_:
_Modum servandi adeo perita_,
_Ut domestica inter negotia literis oblectaretur_.
_Literarum inter delicias_, _rem familiarem sedulo curaret_,
_Multis illi multos annos precantibus_
_diri carcinomatis veneno contabuit_,
_nexibusque vitae paulatim resolutis_,
_e terris_--_meliora sperans_--_emigravit_.
_Nata_ 1707. _Nupta_ 1739. _Obiit_ 1773.

Mr. Murphy, who admired her talents and delighted in her company, did me
the favour to paraphrase this elegant inscription in verses which I fancy
have never yet been published. His fame has long been out of my power to
increase as a poet: as a man of sensibility perhaps these lines may set
him higher than he now stands. I remember with gratitude the friendly
tears which prevented him from speaking as he put them into my hand.

Near this place
Are deposited the remains of
HESTER MARIA,
The daughter of Sir Thomas Cotton of Combermere,
in the county of Cheshire, Bart., the wife of
John Salusbury,
of the county of Flint, Esquire. She was
born in the year 1707, married in 1739, and died in 1773.

A pleasing form, where every grace combined,
With genius blest, a pure enlightened mind;
Benevolence on all that smiles bestowed,
A heart that for her friends with love o'erflowed:
In language skilled, by science formed to please,
Her mirth was wit, her gravity was ease.
Graceful in all, the happy mien she knew,
Which even to virtue gives the limits due;
Whate'er employed her, that she seemed to choose,
Her house, her friends, her business, or the muse.
Admired and loved, the theme of general praise,
All to such virtue wished a length of days.
But sad re