Hester Lynch SALUSBURY

This was no bad Joke—for an Authour—but here I am asked to write an Epitaph on pretty Miss Adams, whose Death at 18 Years old is a dreadful Blow to the poor Mother, who I fear will follow. Having left me to chuse Device, & Language and all Decorations of her Tomb; I recommended The carving a Tulip Tree or Rose Acacia on the white Marble; its lovely Flower snapt as if by Storms, and lying near the Root. The Inscription certes¹ will never please;— The People who send this Request, think I will bestow lavish Praises on the Favourite, who was a sweet good Girl no doubt:—but so is in her Parent’s Eye every Girl of 17 or 18 Years of Age. I feel quite sure the following Lines will not content M^rs Adams, but tis so hard to find Discriminating Praises for a pretty Lass like many another pretty Lass as should suppose She was—poor Soul! Well! here is my Endeavour.

From this Vault
shall
At the last Day
Rise the Reanimated Body of
Susan Adams.
More fair, more amiable, more excellent;
(since with our God all Things are possible:)
Than when at 17 Years of Age
She left a Circle of admiring Friends
To seek the unfading Wreath
of Bliss Eternal,
Bestow’d on Meekness Piety and Virtue.
Whilst by the raising up
This sublunary Token of Remembrance,
A momentary Consolation is afforded
To her Afflicted Mother.
Thus o’er the Tempest-beaten Flow’r we see
The Parent-Mourner stand—a Leafless Tree.
Thus too by Faith’s firm Telescope review’d,
Both rise to Life— to Light and Love renew’d.

Later she wrote…

Footnotes

1. Meaning: certainly.↩︎