THE LAPIDARY STYLE. [To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."] Sza, — You
quote in the Spectator of April 29th the English version of Landor's epitaph on Lady Blessington as a type of "the lapidary style." Is not the English inscription which he composed for a statue of Cromwell even nearer the mark ? If so, it may have a particular interest just now :— " Oliver Cromwell, • good son, a good husband, a good father, A good ditizen, a good ruler, Both in war and peace, Was born in this town. To know his public acts, Open the History of England Where it exhibits in few pages (Alas! too few) The title of Commonwealth."
Landor himself maintained that the best inscription ever written, either in Latin or any other language, was Shen- stone's, in memory, of his cousin, Mary Dolman, who died of smallpox. Of the concluding lines—" Hen quanto minus est cum reliquis versari, quam tui meminisse "--Landor said :— " When will any man write anything worth this again? It never comes into my mind but it takes entire possession of my heart, and I Amos incapable of reading for an hour after, as if I had just left Hamlet or Othello."—I am, Sir, dm., S. W. '
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