This is the twelfth item from Robert Dymond's book: "Things New and Old Concerning the Parish of Widecombe-in-the-Moor and its Neighbourhood" (1876)

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LINES ON A GRAVESTONE, WITHOUT INSCRIPTION, IN THE CHAPEL YARD AT DARTMOOR PRISON.

Beneath this plain and silent stone,

Which hath no name engraved thereon-

No words of Holy Writ, to tell

To passers by what here befell.

The convict’s worn and ragged form

Lies sheltered from life’s bitter storm.

That storm of sin and misery,

Now hushed, hath set the prisoner free.

No other sickness shook his frame

But anguish for his tainted name ;

He droop’d whene’er he thought upon

His distant wife, his helpless son.

What though his frailties dreadful were,

His punishment was hard to bear;

Cut off, like Cain, from every tie

That sweetens life, ’twas bliss to die.

Cast no uncharitable stone

At him, as if he sinned alone ;

But weep a brother’s fate, for grace

Alone hath saved thee from his place.

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