come fresh to my Hand.

_Mr_. SPECTATOR,

It is with inexpressible Sorrow that I hear of the Death of good Sir
_Roger_, and do heartily condole with you upon so melancholy an
Occasion. I think you ought to have blacken'd the Edges of a Paper
which brought us so ill News, and to have had it stamped likewise in
Black. It is expected of you that you should write his Epitaph, and,
if possible, fill his Place in the Club with as worthy and diverting a
Member. I question not but you will receive many Recommendations from
the publick of such as will appear Candidates for that Post.

Since I am talking of Death, and have mentioned an Epitaph, I must
tell you, Sir, that I have made discovery of a Church-Yard in which I
believe you might spend an Afternoon, with great Pleasure to your self
and to the Publick: It. belongs to the Church of _Stebon-Heath_,
commonly called _Stepney_. Whether or no it be that the People of that
Parish have a particular Genius for an Epitaph, or that there be some
Poet among them who undertakes that Work by the Great, I can't tell;
but there are more remarkable Inscriptions in that place than in any
other I have met with, and I may say without Vanity, that there is not
a Gentleman in _England_ better read in Tomb-stones than my self, my
Studies having laid very much in Church-yards. I shall beg leave to
send you a Couple of Epitaphs, for a Sample of those I have just now
mentioned. They are written in a different manner; the first being in
the diffused and luxuriant, the second in the close contracted Style.
The first has much of the Simple and Pathetick; the second is
something Light, but Nervous. The first is thus:

'Here Thomas Sapper lyes interred. Ah why!
Born in New England, did in London dye;
Was the third Son of Eight, begot upon
His Mother Martha by his Father John.
Much favoured by his Prince he 'gan to be,
But nipt by Death at th' Age of Twenty Three.
Fatal to him was that we Small-pox name,
By which his Mother and two Brethren came
Also to breathe their last nine Years before,
And now have left their Father to deplore
The loss of all his Children, with his Wife,
Who was the Joy and Comfort of his Life.'

The Second is as follows:

'Here lies the Body of Daniel Saul,
Spittle-fields Weaver, and that's all.'

'I will not dismiss you, whilst I am upon this Subject, withou