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"and further Stafford, in his Niobe, or Age of Teares (1611), says: "I am so great an Enemie to Ceremonies, as that I would onelie wish to have that one Ceremonie at my Buriall, which I had at my Birth; I mean, swadling: and yet I am indifferent for that too."

We have the very coffin of the present age described in Durandus : Corpus lotum et sindone obvolutum ac Loculo conditum, Veteres in canaculis seu Tricliniis exponebant. Loculus is a box or chest ; and thus in old registers we find coffins called kists, i.e., chests.

The interests of the woollen manufacture interfered with this timehonoured rite in England. Misson writes of funerals: "There is an Act of Parliament, which ordains that the Dead shall be buried in a Woollen stuff, which is a kind of a thin Bays, which they call Flannel; nor is it lawful to use the least needleful of thread or Silk. (The intention of this Act is, for the encouragement of the Woollen Manufacture.) This Shift is always white; but there are different sorts of it as to fineness, and consequently of different prices. To make these dresses is a particular Trade, and there are many that sell nothing else." The shirt for a man "has commonly a Sleeve purfled about the wrists, and the slit of the Shirt, down the breast, done in the same manner. This should be at least half a foot longer than the Body, that the feet of the deceased may be wrapped in it, as in a Bag. Upon the head they put a Cap, which they fasten with a very broad chincloth; with Gloves on the hands, and a cravat round the neck, all of Woollen. The Women have a kind of head-dress with a Fore-head cloth." "That the Body may ly the softer," he adds "some put a lay of bran, about four inches thick, at the bottom of the coffin. The coffin is sometimes very magnificent. The Body is visited to see that it is buryed in flannel, and that nothing about it is sowed with Thread. They let it lye three or four days."

SETTING SALT OR CANDLES UPON THE DEAD BODY.

It was the practice in some parts of Northumberland to set a pewter plate containing a little salt upon the corpse; and in like manner a candle was sometimes set upon the body. Thus one of the articles of inquiry at York (between the years 1630 and 1640) was "whether at the death of any there be any superstitious burning of candles over the corpse in the day after it be light."

The devil, Moresinus says, abhors salt for the very sufficient reason that it is the emblem of eternity and immortality; being itself not liable to putrefaction, and preserving from corruption all that is seasoned with it. Considered in reference to this symbolical explication, how beautiful is the expression, "Ye are the salt of the earth!" Similarly in Reginald Scot's Discourse concerning Devils and Spirits (1584), Bodin is cited in behalf of the statement that the devil loves no salt in his meat, "for that is a sign of Eternity, and used by God's commandment in all Sacrifices."

According to Douce, the custom of putting a plate of salt upon

* Entitled an Act for burying in woollen; passed in 1678.

corpses still prevails in many parts of England, particularly in Leicestershire; but for the prosaic purpose of preventing the entry of air into the bowels and the consequent swelling of the belly, which would occasion either a rupture of, or a difficulty in closing, the coffin.

Campbell's Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland (1777) mentions this custom as obtaining in Ireland, where the plate of salt is placed over the heart. Moresinus' remark evidently lurks in his theory that they consider the salt as the emblem of the incorruptible part; "the Body itself," writes he, "being the Type of Corruption." Pennant records that, on the death of a Highlander, the corpse being stretched on a board and covered with a coarse linen wrapper, the friends lay on its breast a wooden platter containing a small quantity of salt and earth in separate portions; the earth as an emblem of the corruptible body, and the salt as an emblem of the immortal spirit. All fires are extinguished where a corpse is kept; and so ominous is it reckoned for either dog or cat to pass over it that the poor animal is killed without mercy.

From a passage in A Boulster Lecture (1640), the corpse, it appears, in olden time was stuck with flowers: "Marry another, before those Flowers that stuck his Corpse be withered.”

Herrick sings

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and his verses "To Perilla" abound with tender allusions to the funeral customs of his time

""Twill not be long (Perilla) after this

That I must give thee the supremest Kisse:
Dead when I am, first cast in Salt, and bring
Part of the Creame from that religious Spring;
With which (Perilla) wash my hands and feet;
That done, then wind me in that very sheet

Which wrapt thy smooth limbs (when thou didst implore
The God's protection, but the night before),

Follow me weeping to my Turfe, and there

Let fall a Primrose, and with it a teare :
Then lastly let some weekly-strewings be
Devoted to the memory of me :

Then shall my Ghost not walk about, but keep
Still in the coole and silent shades of Sleep."

Moresinus also explains the use of the candle on this occasion as an Egyptian hieroglyphic for life, designed to express the ardent desire of the survivors to have had the life of the deceased prolonged. In Levi's account of the rites and ceremonies of the modern Jews we have mention of the like practice. The corpse, he says, is taken and laid on the ground, and a pillow put under its head. The hands and feet are laid out even; the body is covered over with a black cloth; and a light set at its head.

From Scogin's Jests (1626) it appears that in Henry VIII.'s time it

was the custom to set two burning candles over the dead body. The passage is curious, as illustrative of more customs than one

"On Maundy-Thursday, Scogin said unto his Chamber-fellow, we will make our Maundy, and eat and drink with advantage: be it, said the Scholar. On Maundy-Thursday at night they made such chear that the Scholar was drunk. Scogin then pulled off all the Scholar's cloaths, and laid him stark naked on the Rushes, and set a form over him, and spread a coverlet over it, and set up two tallow Candles in Candlesticks over him, one at his head, the other at his feet, and ran from Chamber to Chamber, and told the fellows of that place that his Chamber-fellow was dead, adding, I pray you, go up, and pray for his soul; and so they did. And when the Scholar had slept his first sleep, he began to turn himself, and cast down the Form and the Candles. The fellows seeing that Scogin did run first out of the Chamber, were afraid, and came running and tumbling down ready to break each other's neck. The Scholar followed them stark naked; and the fellows seeing him run after them like a Ghost, some ran into their Chamber, some into one corner, and some into another. Scogin ran into the Chamber to see that the Candles should do no harm, and at last fetched up his Chamber-fellow, who ran about like a Madman, and brought him to bed, for which matter Scogin had rebuke."

Finally Pope's couplet will be familiar to the reader of the pathetic story of Eloisa and Abelard

"Ah, hopeless lasting Flames! like those that burn

To light the dead, and warm th' unfruitful urn."

Another practice we read of in the Life of Henrietta Maria (1669): "On the 25th of June 1610, she was carried with her Brother to perform the Ceremony of casting Holy-water on the Corps of her dead Father (Henry the Fourth of France), who was buried the 28th following."

FUNERAL ENTERTAINMENTS CALLED ARVALS OR ARVILS.

These funeral entertainments are of very old date; Cecrops, it is said, having instituted them for the purpose of renewing the interrupted intercourse of old friends. Moresinus represents that in England in his time they were so profuse that it cost less to portion off a daughter than to bury a dead wife. These burial feasts are still kept up in the North of England, where they are called arvals or arvils ;* and the bread distributed thereat is called arvil bread. The custom is evidently borrowed from the ancients, numerous examples of its popularity with whom are collected by Hornman in the thirty-sixth chapter of his Treatise de Miraculis Mortuorum.

An entertainment or supper, which the Greeks called Пepideimrov, and Cicero Circompotatio, made a part of a funeral; and thence Gough derives our practice of giving wine and cake among the rich, and ale among the poor.

The ancients had several kinds of supper made in honour of the

* This word occurs in the provincial poem of Yorkshire Ale—

"Come, bring my Jerkin, Tibb, I'll to the Arvil,

You man's ded seny scoun, it makes me marvill,”

deceased. First, that which was laid upon the funeral pile; such as is recorded in the 23d book of the Iliad, and the 6th of the Æneid. Secondly, the supper given to the friends and relations on their return from the funeral; as that celebrated in honour of Hector in the 24th book of the Iliad. This kind of supper is mentioned in Lucian's Treatise of Grief, and in the third book of Cicero's Laws. Thirdly, the Silicernium; a supper laid at the sepulchre, called 'Exárns dectvov. Others will have it to be a meeting of the aged relations, who proceeded with much solemnity after the funeral to take leave one of the other, as if they were never to meet again. The fourth was called Epulum Novendiale.

Juvenal mentions the cæna feralis, which was intended to appease the ghosts of the dead, and consisted of milk, honey, water, wine, olives, and strewn flowers. The modern arvals, however, are intended to appease the appetites of the living, who upon these occasions supersede the manes of the dead.

Hutchinson supplies an account of the Northumberland Observance: "On the decease of any person possessed of valuable effects, the friends and neighbours of the Family are invited to dinner on the Day of Interment, which is called the Arthel or Arvel Dinner. Arthel is a British word, and is frequently more correctly written Arddelw. In Wales it is written Arddel, and signifies, according to Dr Davises Dictionary, asserere to avouch. This custom seems of very distant Antiquity, and was a solemn Festival, made at the time of publicly exposing the corps, to exculpate the Heir and those entitled to the possessions of the deceased, from Fines and Mulcts to the Lord of the Manor, and from all accusation of having used violence; so that the persons then convoked might avouch that the person died fairly and without suffering any personal injury. The dead were thus exhibited by ancient Nations, and perhaps the Custom was introduced here by the Romans." It was customary, in the Christian burials of the Anglo-Saxons, to leave the head and shoulders of the corpse uncovered up to the time of burial, that relations and others might take a last view of their deceased friend. This practice we to this day partially retain in leaving the coffin of the deceased unscrewed.

The Berkeley MSS. supply information of a mirth-provoking character: "From the time of the death of Maurice the fourth Lord Berkeley, which happened June 8, 1368, untill his interment, the Reeve of his Manor of Hinton spent three quarters and seaven bushells of beanes in fatting one hundred geese towards his funerall, and divers other Reeves of other Manors the like, in geese, duckes, and other pultry." In the same spirit we read in Strype's Edition of Stow's Survey: "Margaret Atkinson, widow, by her will, October 18, 1544, orders that the next Sunday after her Burial there be provided two dozen of bread, a kilderkin of ale, two gammons of bacon, three shoulders of mutton, and two couple of rabbits. Desiring all the parish, as well rich as poor, to take part thereof; and a table to be set in the midst of the church, with every thing necessary thereto."

So at the funeral of Sir John Gresham, Knight, Mercer (1556), the church and streets were all hung with black, and arms, great store, A sermon was preached by the Archdeacon of Canterbury, “and after,

all the company came home to as great a dinner as had been seen for a fish day, for all that came. For nothing was lacking;" and likewise at the funeral of Thomas Percy, late skinner to Queen Mary (1561), he was "attended to his burial in St Mary Aldermary church, with twenty black gowns and coats, twenty clerks singing, &c. The Floor strewed with rushes for the chief mourners. Mr Crowley preached. Afterwards was a great dole of money; and then all went home to a dinner. The company of Skinners, to their Hall, to dine together. At this Funeral, all the mourners offered: and so did the said company." Similarly at the funeral of Sir Humphrey Brown, Knight, Lord Chief Justice (Dec. 15, 1562), we read that "the church was hung with black, and arms. The helmet and crest were offered (on the Altar), and after that his target; after that his sword; then his coatarmour; then his standard was offered, and his penon: and after all, the mourners, and judges, and serjeants of the law, and servants, offered. Mr Reneger made the sermon, and, after, they went home to a great dinner."

According to Waldron, the Manx people give no invitation to their funerals; everybody that had any acquaintance with the deceased coming either on foot or horseback. He sometimes saw upwards of a hundred horsemen, and twice that number on foot. All these were entertained at long tables spread with all sorts of cold provision, "and rum and brandy flew about at a lavish rate."

Misson, writing of ourselves, says: "Before they set out, and after they return, it is usual to present the guests with something to drink, either red or white wine, boiled with sugar and cinnamon, or some other such liquor. Every one drinks two or three cups. Butler, the keeper of a tavern (the Crown and Sceptre in St Martin's Street), told me that there was a tun of red port wine drank at his wife's Burial, besides mull'd white wine. Note, no men ever go to womens Burials, nor the women to mens; so that there were none but women at the drinking of Butler's wine."

The Minute Book of the Society of Antiquaries of London, July 21, 1725, records the account given, by one of its members, of the mode in which a Highland lord's funeral was conducted: "The body is put into a litter between two horses, and, attended by the whole clan, is brought to the place of Burial in the churchyard. The nearest relations dig the grave, the neighbours having set out the ground, so that it may not encroach on the graves of others. While this is performing, some hired women, for that purpose, lament the dead, setting forth his genealogy and noble exploits. After the body is interred, a hundred black cattle, and two or three hundred sheep, are killed for the entertainment of the company."

In the Statistical Account of Scotland, of the inhabitants of Kincardine, in Perth we read: "The desire of what is called a decent Funeral, i.e. one to which all the inhabitants of the district are invited, and at which every part of the usual entertainment is given, is one of the strongest in the poor. The expence of it amounts nearly to two pounds. This sum, therefore, every person in mean circumstances is anxious to lay up; and he will not spare it, unless reduced to the greatest extremity." Elsewhere in the same authority complaints

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