BGCP_21: Ro S [?] 1777

Site co-ordinates: 35.80/15.80 

Photogrammetry here

This finely made rectangular grave-slab, aligned W–E, with a slightly rounded head, is 18.4 m long by 0.64 m wide with slightly bevelled edges; its sides are 1.78 m long. There is a hairline crack running obliquely across the E end.

Across the head of the slab the inscription reads:

Ro J[?] 1777

Below the Ro S.? [F?J?] there are further markings that may be lettering but which are too faint to read.

There are then four lines of inscription written longitudinally (ie landscape) on the N half of the slab, the lines extending to with 0.47 m of the foot of the slab:

HOW LOVD HOW VALUD ONCE AVAILS THEE NOT 

TO WHOM RELATED OR BY WHOM BEGOT 

A HEAP OF DUST ALONE REMAINS OF THEE 

TIS THAT THOU ART TIS ALL THE PROUD SHALL B[E]

This appears to be quite a common epitaph from the late 1700s.