y
palms. It is not unusual to find such meaningless, or apparently
meaningless, designs employed to fill in otherwise blank spaces,
though symbols of death, eternity, and the future state are in
plentiful command for such purposes. Something like this same ornament
may be found on a very old flat stone in the churchyard of Widcombe,
near Bath. It stretches the full width of the stone, and is in high
relief, which has preserved it long after the accompanying inscription
has vanished. The probable date may be about 1650.

FIG. 3.--AT WIDCOMBE, NEAR BATH.

In Newhaven Churchyard, though there are but these two striking
examples of the allegorical gravestone, there is one other singular
exemplification of the graver's skill and ingenuity, but it is nearly
a score of years later in date than the others, and probably by
another mason. It represents the old and extinct bridge over the
Sussex Avon at Newhaven, and it honours a certain brewer of the town,
whose brewery is still carried on there and is famous for its "Tipper"
ale. Allowing that it was carved by a different workman, it is only
fair to suppose that it may have been suggested by its predecessors.
Its originality is beyond all question, which can very rarely be
said of an old gravestone, and, as a churchyard record of a local
institution, I have never seen it equalled or approached.

FIG. 4.--AT NEWHAVEN, SUSSEX.

Under the design is the following inscription:

"To the Memory of Thomas Tipper, who
departed this life May y'e 14th, 1785, Aged
54 Years.

"READER, with kind regard this GRAVE survey
Nor heedless pass where TIPPER'S ashes lay.
Honest he was, ingenuous, blunt, and kind;
And dared do, what few dare do, speak his mind.
PHILOSOPHY and History well he knew,
Was versed in PHYSICK and in Surgery too.
The best old STINGO he both brewed and sold,
Nor did one knavish act to get his Gold.
He played through Life a varied comic part,
And knew immortal HUDIBRAS by heart.
READER, in real truth, such was the Man,
Be better, wiser, laugh more if you can."

That these were all the especial eccentricities of this burial-place
disappointed me, but, with my after-knowledge, may say that three such
choice specimens from one enclosure is a very liberal allowance.

Suspecting that sculptors of the quality necessary for such
high-class work would be unlikely to dwell in a small and unimportant
fisher-village such as Newhaven was