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NEAR WORTHING 189
A goodly human and lovable fellow this Tipper, and his epitaph is well worth quoting here :
" Reader, with kind regards this Grave survey. Nor heedless pass where Tipper's ashes lay : Honest he was, ingenius, blunt, and kind ; And dared to do what few dare do, speak his mind. Philosophy and History well he knew, Was versed in Physick and in Surgery too, The best old Stingo he both brewed and sold; Nor did one knavish act to get to his Gold. He played through Life a varied comic part, And knew immortal Hudibras by heart— Reader, in real truth such was the man, Be better, wiser, laugh more if you can."
It is with a pang of regret that we learn he shuffled off this mortal coil at the early age of fifty-four.
What could be more inspiriting than Hilaire Belloc's song of ale with its sixteenth century flavour ?
" If I was what I never can be,
The master or the squire ; If you gave me the rape from here to the sea,
Which is more than I desire ; Then all my crops should be barley and hops.
And did my harvest fail, I'd sell every rod of my acres, I would,
For a belly-full of good ale." |
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