He was a bountiful benefactor of
this Church--gave many benevolencies to the poor--to the Glory of
God--to the example of future ages:
When once they liv'd on earth one bed did hold
Their Bodies, which one minute turned to mould;
Being dead, one Grave is trusted with the prize,
Until that trump doth sound and all must rise;
Here death's stroke even did not part this pair,
But by this stroke they more united were;
And what left they behind you plainly see,
An only daughter, and their charitie.
And though the first by death's command did leave us,
The second we are sure will ne'er deceive us.
This church, however, was very small compared with its larger neighbour
dedicated to St. Helen, which claims to be one of the four churches in
England possessing five aisles, probably accounting for the fact that
its breadth exceeded its length by about eleven feet. The oldest aisle
dates from the year 1182, and the church contains many fine brasses and
tombs, including one dated 1571, of John Roysse, citizen and mercer of
London, who founded the Abingdon Grammar School. There is also a stone
altar-tomb in memory of Richard Curtaine, who died in 1643, and who was
described as "principalle magistrate of this Corpe"; on the tomb was
this charming verse in old English lettering:
Our Curtaine in this lower press.
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