Saturday, February 25, 2012

The Cream of Curiosity by Reginald Hine

Reginald Leslie Hine (1883-1949) wrote many important books on the history of Hitchin and for this reason I was interested to discover one of his earliest books The Cream of Curiosity, which was published in 1920. It includes two illustrations by the famous  William Heath Robinson. It is an account of various historical and literary manuscripts in Hine's personal collection, none of which appear to relate to Hertfordshire. 

However the book includes a chapter on memorial epitaphs and includes a goodly number of Hertfordshire epitaphs, such as this one from Cottered:


What to vain mortals can a pleasure be
When no one part is from consumption free;
The head, the hand, the knee a palsy shakes,
The blood runs chill and every member quakes.
Death will the end of all my sorrows be,
And then I launch into eternity

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