Some interesting epitaphs

[Viktoria]

On the grave of a two year old little girl, rural Shropshire:-

  Was to my parents a a rose,
  A flower sweet and good.
  But death you see has called on me,
  And nipped me in the bud.

   She died over a hundred years ago.                                               Viktoria.
 

[Mike in Cumbria]

Much quoted, but I can't guarantee its authenticity.  It does appear in the Faber Book of Epigrams and Epitaphs though.

'Here lie the bones of Elizabeth Charlotte

That was born a virgin and died a harlot

She was aye a virgin at seventeen

An extraordinary thing for Aberdeen'

[Viktoria]

That scans as if William McGonagle wrote it!---"Bridge over the RiverTay---"
Poor girl, she did not deserve that , they ought to have listed her "clients" too.It takes two to tango!

It might have been a very large gravestone then though.

                                                             Viktoria.

[Luzzu]

Here are a couple from the Manchester General Cemetery Transcription Project.

www.mgctp.moonfruit.com

Luzzu 

[wrjones]

The one for my Great-Grandmother at Rhosymedre Denbighshire reads;

Ever smiling,always content.
Loved and respected wherever she went.

Regards
William Russell Jones.

[ann255]

How lovely.

[juliebeg]

I read this in a small book of epitaphs I had ... it is supposed to be genuine 

Here lies Mary the wife of John Ford
We pray her soul has gone to the Lord
If for Hell she forsook this life
She better be there than John Fords wife

[Linnet1937]

Not quite an epitaph, but there's a local stone where the verse is:

Reader, stopped as you pass by,
as you stand now, so once did I.
As I lie now, so you will you be.
Prepare, therefore, to follow me.

To which, a few years ago, someone scribbled underneath:

I read the papers, saw the tales,
Your reputation still prevails.
So to follow you, I'm not content
'til God confirms which way you went

We cleaned it off, but I can only assume some disgruntled descendant was keeping a watch as it keeps being re-written...

[GrahamSimons]

Here is an epitaph on a Mr. Jones, a celebrated bone merchant:-

"Here lies the bones of William Jones,
Who, when alive, collected bones
But Death, that bony, grizzly spectre,
That most amazing bone collector.
Has boned poor Jones so snug and tidy
That here he lies in bona fide."

Aberdare Times 29 December 1866