The subject of funerals naturally leads to that of. epitaphs ;^and tjke^grnter
of the article in the Gentlemen’s Magazine has there preserved one I k an
humble individual, which, besides its quaintness,' is'*so curiously connected,
with a locality interesting to every reader of Shakespeare, that we-shall perhaps
not be blamed for reproducing ifcherer It runs as fe llow s'|j|a
Here lyefb the bodyof Robert Preston,"late Drawer of the,Roar’s Head Tavern in Great
East-Cheap, who departed this life March 16, Anno'Bom. 1730, aged 27 years. -
Bacchus, to give the toping world surprize,
Produc’d one sober son, find here he lyes';
Though nurs’d among full hogsheads, he defy’d .
The charms of Wine, and ev’ly vice deny’d.- , .
O Reader! if to justice thou-’r t inclin’d, .
1 Keep honest Preston daily in thy mind. ",
He d$sw good Winet took oare to fill his pots;
Had shndry -virtues that outweigh’d Ms faults. • ’
You that on Bacchus have the like dependence, ••
Pray copy Bob in measure and attendance.
The Sadlers’ Company is the oldest of all the city livery cqmpgnjps, haying
originated, out of the andent gilda SeMriortmty which is believed-to have existed
at London in the remote ages of Anglo-Saxon history. Most'^fthe;, other
companies are known to have possessed ornamental funeral palls i^fiaribë?
times. • In 1.562, the Merchant Tailors had no less than three palls. In the
year 1572, John Cawoöd, the well-known printer, left to the- Stationers’^orrU
pany a pall which is .described in his will as “ a herse clothe, of clothe Jof gó^,-’
pouderyd with blew velvet, and border’d abought with blacke velvet, embroidered
and steyned with, blew, yellow, red, and green.” The .Company
of Fishmongers still possess a very superb pall, resembling in general form
that of the Sadlers’ Company, and, like it, supposed to be of the. reign of
Henry VIS. or of that of Henry VIII.' This pall, of-which the ornaments are
exceedingly elaborate, is arine specimen of ancient art. ; It has in the middle
a richly worked picture of’St. Peter, surrounded by numerous other figures.
The whole is bordered with a broad fringe of gold and purple thread.
The initial letter on the foregoing page has been furnished by a printed
book-of the end of the fifteenth century. In the earlier ages of printing it
was- 'dustomary to leave a square space for the reception of the initial letters,
which were afterwards inserted, according to the will of the possessor óf the
hook, by the same illuminators who ornamented the manuscripts.