ment to console him: nor is it more possible to describe than to forget his prudent, his pious attentions towards the man who had some years before certainly saved his valuable life, perhaps his reason, by half obliging him to change the foul air of Fleet-street for the wholesome breezes of the Sussex Downs. The epitaph engraved on my mother's monument shews how deserving she was of general applause. I asked Johnson why he named her person before her mind: he said it was, "because every body could judge of the one, and but few of the other." Juxta sepulta est HESTERA MARIA Thomæ Cotton de Combermere baronetti Cestriensis filia, Omnibus jucunda, suorum amantissima. Ut domestica inter negotia literis oblectaretur, 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, of the county of Flint, Esquire. She was A pleasing form, where every grace combin'd, A heart that for her friends with love o'erflow'd: Prey'd on her spirits-stole each power away; She smil❜d in hope, by sore afflictions tried, The following epitaph on Mr. Thrale, who has now a monument close by hers in Streatham church, I have seen printed and commended in Maty's Review for April, 1784; and a friend has favoured me with the translalation. Hic conditur quod reliquum est Qui res seu civiles, seu domesticas, ita egit, Ut quam brevem esset habiturus præscire videretur; In senatu, regi patriæque Vulgi obstrepentis contemptor animosus, Natus 1724. Ob. 1781. Consortes tumuli habet Rodolphum patrem, strenuum fortemque virum, et Henricum filium unicum, quem spei parentum mors inopina decennem præripuit. Domus felix et opulenta, quam erexit Et vicibus rerum humanarum perspectis, Here are deposited the remains of Who managed all his concerns in the present And all that related to a future world, Simple, open, and uniform in his manners, his conduct was without either art or affectation. In the senate steadily attentive to the true interests of his king and country, He looked down with contempt on the clamours of the multitude: Though engaged in a very extensive business, He found some time to apply to polite literature: And was ever ready to assist his friends labouring under any difficulties, with his advice, his influence, and his purse. To his friends, acquaintance, and guests, he behaved with such sweetness of manners as to attach them all to his person : So happy in his conversation with them, as to please all, though he flattered none. He was born in the year 1724, and died in 1781. In the same tomb lie interred his father Ralph Thrale, a man of vigour and activity, And his only son Henry, who died before his father, Thus a happy and opulent family, Raised by the grandfather, and augmented by the And, reflecting on the vicissitudes of Meditate on eternity. I never recollect to have heard that Dr. Johnson wrote inscriptions for any sepulchral stones, except Dr. Goldsmith's in Westminster Abbey, and these two in Streatham church. He made four lines once on the death of poor Hogarth, which were equally true and pleasing: I know not why Garrrick's were preferred to them, The hand of him here torpid lies, Mr. Hogarth, among the variety of kindnesses shewn to me when I was too young to have a proper sense of them, was used to be very earnest that I should obtain the acquaintance, and if possible, the friendship, of Dr. Johnson, whose conversation was to the talk of other men, like Titian's painting compared to Hud |