Item 9 - Letter from Dr Whately to Harold Bompas

1 letter

Inked Note
Grandfather's Epitaph
by Dr. Whately
Arch of Dublin

Harold Bompas Esqre
121 Westbourne Terrace
W.2

EPITAPH
on Dr. Buckland

Mourn Ammonites mourn, o'er his funeral urn
Whose neck ye will grace no more
Gneiss, Granite and Slate, he settled your date
And this ye must now deplore

Weep caverns weep with infiltering drip
Your recesses he'll cease to explore;
For Mineral veins and Organic remains
No stratum again will he bore

His wit shone like Chrystal, his knowledge profound
From Gravel to Granite descended,
No Trap could deceive him, no Slip could confound
or Specimen true or pretended

He know the Birth-Rock of each pebble so round
and how far its Tour had extended

His Eloquence flowed like the Deluge retiring
Which Mastodon carcases floated
To a subject obscure he gave charms so inspiring
Young and old on Geology doated
He stood forth like an Outlier his hearers admiring
With pencil each anecdote noted

Where shall we our great Professor inter
That in peace may rest his Bones
If we hew him a rocky Sepulchre
He'll rise and break the Stones
And examine each Stratum that lies around
For he's quite in his Element underground

If with Mattock and Spade his body we lay
in the common Alluvial soil
He'll start up and snatch those Tools away
Of his own geological Toil
In a Stratum so young the Professor distains
That imbedded should be his Organic Remains

Then exposed to the drip of some [case?] hardening Spring
His Carcase let Stalactite cover
and to Oxford the petrified Sage we will bring
When he is incrusted all over

There mid Mammoths and Crocodiles high on a Shelf
Let him stand as a Monument raised to Himself

(on Dr. Buckland LLD
reader in Geology Oxford)