Last weekend while I was in Leicester Cathedral, standing by the sleek new tomb for car park King Richard 3, I cast my eye delicately over the tombstones built into the walls and stumbled upon this little beauty.
Humble bragging was a thing even in 1743. What is humble bragging? Bragging about how humble you are. Look at this for the form raised to an art:
Of a most extensive learning, in his own profession eminent
Not aspiring after more Preferments, of much greater Deserving,
Possessed of many Shining Qualities, which his Modesty would have concealed.
Not bad.
Of course, there is always the chance he didn’t write this himself, in which case it’s not really humble bragging, and he was actually a diamond chap.