"Here lyeth Richard Dent, In his last tenement. 1709."
_Curious Inscription_ (Vol. iv., p. 88.).--In the first edition of _Imperatorum Romanorum Numismata Aurea_, by De Bie, Antwerp, 1615, at the foot of a page addressed "Ad Lectorem," and marked c. ii., are the following verses, which may be noted as forming a pendant to those referred to:
ri R S D D "Sc ptorum erum ummorum espice icta ul V N R P
st Qu R I N I T I a idem isu aciemus am nde acebunt." ll F V F I V Pl
"Continuall prayse these lynes in brass Of Allaine Dister here, Clothier vertuous whyle he was In Lavenham many a yeare; For as in lyfe he loved best The poore to clothe and feede, Soe with the riche and alle the reste, He neighbourlie agreed; And did appoint before he died, A smalle yearlie rent, Which would be every Whitsuntide Among the poorest spent."
I send you this copy from a _nibbing_ of a quaint epitaph, made in the beautiful old church of Lavenham many years since, with a view to putting a Query as to its construction. The first two lines, as I read them, want a verb, unless we read the conclusion of the first line as a verb, to _in-brasse_ (_i.e._ to record in brass). Can any of your readers give me an authority, from an old author, for the use of this or any similar verb? To _in-grain_ seems somewhat like it, but is modern. If no authority for such a verb can be given, I should be glad to have the construction of the lines explained.
[In "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., pp. 203. 264. 349., mention is made of this correspondence. The letters, of which the following are copies, were sold as waste paper, and are in my possession. They appear to have been written by the Rt. Hon. Richard Rigby, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, and relate to the appointment of an Examiner in the Chancery in the year 1783.
I return you many thanks for your two letters of y^e 10th and 11th inst., and for the trouble you are so obliging as to take on y^e business of the Examiner's Office. I have found a copy of an appointment of an Examiner transmitted to me by Lodge in the year 1762, and I send you Mr. Meredith's appointment upon the stamp'd paper you inclosed to me. If that appointment will not answer, or if the stamp is not a proper one, as you seem to hint may be the case, I must desire you to tell Mr. Perry to make out a proper appointment and send it over ready for my signature. I shou'd hope the one I send herewith will answer, that you may have no further trouble. I perceive five hundred pounds English was y^e sum I receiv'd in 1762; and I imagine that is the sum Mr. Meredith proposes to give now, and to which I give my consent.