in 1741-2: Halley published a treatise on Comets, when he was nineteen
years old; and first applied the barometer to measure heights. Here
also lie William Pate, whom Swift, in his Letters, calls the learned
woollen-draper: Sir Samuel Fludyer, bart., the courtly lord mayor;
Parsons, the comedian, with this quaint epitaph:--

Here Parsons lies, oft on life's busy stage
With nature, reader, hast thou seen him vie;
He science knew, knew manners, knew the age,
Respected knew to live, lamented die.

Bliss, the Astronomer Royal, who died in 1762, is also buried here;
Charnock, the author of _Biographia Navalis_, a _Life of Nelson_,
&c.; the amiable Lord Dacre, who died in 1794; and Mary, his relict,
1808.[5]

[5] Lady Dacre visited her dear lord's tomb daily for several
years; at the foot of the grave she was accustomed to kneel,
and utter a fervent prayer. We can just remember seeing this
devout lady on one of these pilgrimages. She usually rode
from her mansion in the neighbourhood to the churchyard, on a
favourite poney, and wore a large, flapping, drab beaver hat,
and a woollen habit, nearly trailing on the ground. At home
she evinced an eccentric affection for her deceased lord: his
chair was placed, as during his lifetime, at the dinner-table;
and its vacancy seemed to feed his lady's melancholy.

Harris says that Samuel Purchas resided at Lee, and there wrote a
great part of his collection of travels, or "Celebrated Pilgrimages
and Relations of the World."