'Here lies my dog...'

 The excellent local history website Lichfield Discovered yesterday carried a piece about a dog's gravestone found behind a former solicitors' offices on one of the older streets. It commemorates a dog called Purchaser, born 1897, died 1907 – a dog whose 'gentle manners and reasonable disposition endeared him to all who knew him'. He was a bulldog owned by one of the solicitors, and had won first prize at the Birmingham and Midland Counties bulldog show in 1900. The gravestone carries, at its foot, an epitaph in verse which the Lichfield Discovered reporter hadn't managed to decipher in full. So, unable to resist the lure of a good epitaph, I went in search of the stone and, with the help of a man who is looking after the now vacant property, found it and got to work uncovering the verse epitaph at the foot of the stone, the last lines of which were obscured by earth and vegetation. After a little scrabbling and squinting, I had them. Here is Purchaser's verse epitaph: sweet, effective and touching...

           Here lies my dog
           Who now without my aid
           Hunts through the shadow land
           Himself a shade
           Or couched intent
           Before some ghostly gate
           Waits for my step
           As here he used to wait.

I think, in its simple way, it's as good as Byron's famous epitaph for his dog Boatswain, inscribed on his monument at Newstead Abbey – 

Near this Spot
are deposited the Remains of one
who possessed Beauty without Vanity,
Strength without Insolence,
Courage without Ferocity,
and all the virtues of Man without his Vices.
This praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
if inscribed over human Ashes,
is but a just tribute to the Memory of
Boatswain, a Dog
who was born in Newfoundland May 1803
and died at Newstead November 18th 1808.

Boatswain died of rabies, which Byron reportedly nursed him through, without fear of injury or infection. I hope Purchaser's end was more peaceful.