The epitaph of Sir Thomas Stanley is supposed to have been written by Shakespeare, who was not ten years old when that nobleman died. The evidence upon which this impression was founded is not very clear; perhaps it comes from some affinity to the sentiment and diction of "The cloud-capp'd towers" and so forth of the great poet. The half of the epitaph inscribed on the front of the monument reads thus:
"Not Monumental Stone preserves our fame,
Nor Skye-aspiring Pyramids our name,
The memory of him for whom this stands
Shall outlive Marble and Defacer's Hands;
When all to Tyme's Consumption shall be given,
Stanley for whom this stands shall stand in Heaven."
The Great Bell hung on the rudest frame in the tower is a rival in size and weight to the Big Tom of Lincoln, or the mellow thunderer of Westminster. It never could have been turned on its eccentric axis without throwing down the steeple. It was the gift of the Henry Vernon who built the Golden Chapel; and as the Latin inscription around the upper rim reads, "Caused this bell to be made 1518 to the praise of Almighty God, of the Blessed Mary, and of Saint Bartholomew."
The master of the village school, who had made the antiquities of the Church his study, accompanied us and described them with the lively interest of an amateur. He had collected a little
