"
This inscription is engraved as prose: verse is very frequently written
in this manner in ancient manuscripts, which custom, as Joseph Ritson
conjectured, arose "from a desire of promoting the salvation of
parchment." I must also add, that the initial letters are colored red
and blue, so that the whole bears a near resemblance to a manuscript
page.
There is another epitaph, engraved in large letters, upon the exterior
of the southern tower, which is an odd specimen of the spirit of the
middle ages. It is supposed to have been placed there in the twelfth
century.
"Quarta dies Pasche fuerat cum Clerus ad hujus
Que jacet hic vetule venimus exequias:
Letitieque diem magis amisisse dolemus
Quam centum tales si caderent vetule."
Some authors contend, that the old lady alluded to was the mistress of
one of the Dukes of Normandy: others believe her to have been the _chere
amie_ of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, illegitimate son to Henry Ist.
Till lately, there was an epitaph within the church, which, without
containing in itself any thing remarkable, strange, or mysterious, had a
legend connected: with it, that supplied the verger with an
inexhaustible fund of entertainment for the curious and the credulous.
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