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occur of the expensive mode of conducting burials in the parish of Dunlop in Ayrshire. Such, indeed, was the extravagance that it was indicated as a fruitful source of revenue.

Scotland figures largely, in fact, in the matter of funeral extravagance. The inhabitants of Lochbroom in Ross are mentioned as great offenders in this respect, although (to their credit it is added) their feasts are seldom productive of any quarrels or irregularities among them.

In the parish of Campsie, in Stirling (1795)

"It was customary, till within these few years, when any head of a family died, to invite the whole parish: they were served on boards in the barn, where a prayer was pronounced before and after the service, which duty was most religiously observed. The entertainment consisted of the following parts: first, there was a Drink of Ale, then a Dram, then a piece of Short-bread, then another dram of some other species of liquor, then a piece of Currant-bread, and a third Dram, either of spirits or wine, which was followed by Loaves and Cheese, Pipes and Tobacco. This was the old Funeral Entertainment in the parish of Campsie, and was stiled their Service: and sometimes this was repeated, and was then stiled a Double Service; and it was sure of being repeated at the Dredgy. A Funeral cost, at least, a hundred pounds Scots, to any family who followed the old course. The most active young man was pointed out to the office of Server: and, in those days, while the manners were simple, and at the same time serious, it was no small honour to be a Server at a Burial. However distant any part of the parish was from the place of Interment, it was customary for the attendants to carry the corpse on hand spokes. The mode of invitation to the Entertainment was, by some special messenger; which was stiled bidding to the Burial, the form being nearly in the following words: You are desired to come to such-a-one's Burial to-morrow, against ten hours.' No person was invited by letter; and, though invited against ten of the clock, the corpse never was interred till the evening: time not being so much valued in those days."

So again in Gargunnock, in the same county (1796): "From the death to the Interment, the House is thronged by Night and Day, and the Conversation is often very unsuitable to the occasion. The whole parish is invited at 10 o'clock in the forenoon of the day of the Funeral, but it is soon enough to attend at 3 o'clock in the Afternoon. Every one is entertained with a variety of Meats and Drinks. Not a few return to the Dirge, and sometimes forget what they have been doing and where they are. Attempts have been lately made to provide a remedy for this evil; but old Customs are not easily abolished."

Of the parish of Garmunnock, County of Lanark, the minister, the Rev. Mr Adam Forman, deposes: "It is usual to invite on such occasions the greater part of the Country round; and, though called to attend at an early hour in the forenoon, yet it is generally towards evening before they think of carrying forth the Corpse to the Churchyard for Interment. While, on these occasions, the good Folks are assembled, though they never run into excess, yet no small expence is incurred by the family, who often vie with those around them, in giving, as they call it, an honourable burial to their deceased friend.” In Whimsies (1631) are two references to our subject. Of a Launderer it is written: "So much the hath reserved out of the labours of

her life, as will buy some small portion of Diet Bread, Comfits, and Burnt Claret, to welcome in her Neighbours now at her departing, of whose cost they never so freely tasted while she was living." And the description of a jealous neighbour concludes thus: "Meate for his Funerall Pye is shred, some few ceremoniall Teares on his Funerall Pile are shed; but the Wormes are scarce entered his shroud, his Corpse Flowers not fully dead, till this yealous Earthworme is forgot, and another more amorous, but lesse yealous, mounted his Bed."

Jorevin, who travelled in England in the early part of Charles II.'s reign, notes of a lord's burial at Shrewsbury: "The Relations and Friends being assembled in the house of the defunct, the Minister advanced into the middle of the Chamber, where, before the Company, he made a Funeral Oration, representing the great actions of the deceased, his virtues, his qualities, his title of Nobility, and those of the whole Family, &c. It is to be remarked, that during the Oration, there stood upon the Coffin a large Pot of Wine, out of which every one drank to the health of the deceased. This being finished, six Men took up the Corps, and carried it on their shoulders to the Church." A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, for March 1780, says: "Our ancient Funerals, as well as some modern ones, were closed with Merry Makings, at least equal to the preceding sorrow, most of the Testators directing, among other things, Victuals and Drink to be distributed at their Exequies, one in particular, I remember, orders a sum of money for a drinking for his Soul." And in July 1798, we have this reference to the manners of Yorkshire: "At Funerals, on which occasions a large party is generally invited, the Attendant who serves the Company with Ale or Wine has upon the handle of the Tankard a piece of LemonPeel, and also upon her left arm a clean white Napkin. I believe these Customs are invariably observed. From what cause they originated, some ingenious Correspondent may be able to inform me."

Wafers apparently were used at funeral entertainments. In Smith's Catalogue of persons deceased between 1628 and 1675 we read: “1671. Jan. 2. died Mr Cornelius Bee, bookseller in Little Britain. Buried 4 Jan. at St Bartholomew's, without Sermon, without Wine or WAFERS; onely Gloves and Rosemary."

North's Forest of Varieties, (1645), reflects: "Nor are all Banquets (no more than Musick) ordained for merry humors, some being used even at Funeralls;" and a singular insight into civic life is provided by Pleasant Remarks on the Humors of Mankind: "'Tis common in England for Prentices, when they are out of their time, to make an entertainment, and call it the Burial of their Wives. Many Aldermen would do the like, was it consistent with common decency, at the departure of theirs." Another observation is: "How like Epicurists do some persons drink at a Funeral, as if they were met there to be merry, and make it a matter of rejoycing that they have got rid of their Friends and Relations."

Flecknoe, in his Enigmatical Characters (1665), thus satirises the "curious glutton:" "In fine, he thinks of nothing else, as long as he lives, and, when he dyes, onely regrets that Funeral Feasts are quite left off; else he should have the pleasure of one Feast more, (in

imagination at least), even after death; which he can have erroneous. of, onely because they say there is no eating nor drink. World."

Grosse Poynte Books, by way of funeral tokens, used to be distributare quarto en of the better sort in England. We have seen a porrable Matters Bunyan, taken from before an old edition of his Works'stande for any endorsed in MS.: "Funeral Token in remembrance 1 Ceremoni Plomer, who departed this life Oct. 2, 1696, being 79 year of our Land is designed to put us that are alive in mind of our great Edinburgh Daniel Clerk the elder his book, Oct. 23, 1696." In suppc books > may be added that in the Athenian Oracle, the query: Books are not more proper to be given at Funerals, tha Gloves, Rings, &c.?" is answered: "Undoubtedly a Boo a far more convenient, more durable, and more valuable pr what are generally given, and more profitably preserve thVERGRE of a deceased Friend."

H THE T

The reference to "funeral baked meats," in Hamlet, nee adverted to, in conclusion of this section. Steevens, in a n the familiar passage, says that it anciently was the general to give a cold entertainment to mourners at a funeral.

SIN EATERS.

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Bagford's letter relating to the antiquities of London, printed in t m first volume of Leland's Collectanea, and dated Feb. 1, 1714, has thed following

"Within the memory of our Fathers, in Shropshire, in those villages adjoyning to Wales, when a person dyed, there was notice given to an old Sire, (for so they called him,) who presently repaired to the place where the deceased lay, and stood before the door of the house, when some of the Family came out and furnished him with a Cricket on which he sat down facing the door. Then they gave him a Groat, which he put in his pocket; a Crust of Bread, which he eat; and a full bowle of Ale, which he drank off at a draught. After this, he got up from the Cricket and pronounced, with a composed gesture, the ease and rest of the Soul departed, for which he would pawn his own Soul. This I had from the ingenious John Aubrey, Esq., who made a Collection of curious Observations, which I have seen, and is now remaining in the hands of Mr. Churchill, the bookseller. How can a Man think otherwise of this, than that it proceeded from the ancient Heathens?"

Presuming that the reference above is to the author of the Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaism, we append a passage therefrom, as contained in the Lansdowne MS. in the British Museum

"In the County of Hereford was an old Custome at Funeralls to hire poor People, who were to take upon them the Sinnes of the Party deceased. One of them, (he was a long, leane, ugly, lamentable poor Raskal,) I remember lived in a Cottage on Rosse high-way. The manner was, that when the Corps was brought out of the House, and layd on the Biere, a Loafe of Bread was brought out, and delivered to the Sinne Eater, over the Corps, as also a Mazar Bowle, of Maple, full of Beer, (which he was to drink up,) and Six

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her life, as will in consideration whereof he took upon him, ipso facto, all Burnt Claret, defunct, and freed him or her from walking after they were whose cost the tome alludes, methinks, something to the Scape-Goate in evit. chap. xvi. 21, 22. 'And Aaron shall lay both his hands description the live Goate, and confesse over him all the iniquities of the Funerall Pyrael, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them Pile are shed of the Goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man Corpse Flowerness. And the Goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities and another not inhabited: and he shall let the Goat goe into the WilderJorevin, w

reign, notesstome, (though rarely used in our dayes) yet by some people was Friends bein in the strictest time of the Presbyterian Government, as at Dynadvanced inolens the Parson of the Parish,) the kindred of a Woman deceased he made ais Ceremonie punctually performed, according to her Will: and, deceased, h was done at the City of Hereford in those times, where a Woman the whole Feares before her death, a Mazard Bowle for the Sinne-Eater; and ther places in this Countie: as also in Brecon; e.g. at Llanggors, there stoo Gwin, the Minister, about 1640, could not hinder the performance one drankcient Custome. I believe this Custom was heretofore used all over took up t

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ancient Tragique Historie of the faire Valeria of London (1598) recites: Makin Corpes was with funerall pompe conveyed to the Church and directisolemnly enterred, nothing omitted which necessitie or custom their claime: a Sermon, a Banquet, and like observations ;" and in for cold Romance of Syr Degore, we have

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"A great Feaste would he holde

Upon his Quene's Mornynge Day,
That was buryed in an Abbay."

So also in Hayward's Life and Reigne of King Henry IV. (1599): "Then hee (King Richard II.) was conveyed to Langley Abby in Buckinghamshire, and there obscurely interred, without the charge of a Dinner for celebrating the Funeral."

Again Aubrey writes: "A.D. 1686. This Custom is used to this day in North Wales;" where milk seems to have been the substitute for beer. Upon this Kennet, who seems to have had Aubrey's MS., annotates: "It seems a remainder of this Custom which lately obtained at Amersden in the County of Oxford, where at the burial of every Corpse, one Cake and one Flaggon of Ale, just after the interment, were brought to the Minister in the Church Porch."

MORTUARIES.

Mortuaries were called by our Saxon ancestors Saul rcea; Soul shot,or payment. It was anciently done by leading or driving a horse, cow, or other animal, before the corpse of the deceased at his funeral; such being considered as a gift left by a man at his death, by way of recompence for all failures in the payment of tithes and oblations, and called a corpse-present. It is mentioned in the National Council of Ensham held about the year 1006. Led into the mistake by the con

ducting of a horse before the corpse, some antiquaries have erroneous. represented it as confined to military characters.

"Offeringes at Burialles" are condemned in a list of Grosse Poynte of Poperie, evident to all Men, contained in a very rare quarto en titled A Parte of a Register, contayninge sundrie memorable Matters written by divers godly and learned in our time, whiche stande for an desire the Reformation of our Church in Discipline and Ceremoni accordinge to the pure Worde of God and the Lawe of our Land This work is said by Bancroft to have been printed at Edinburgh Robert Waldegrave, who printed most of the Puritan books a libels in the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign.

FOLLOWING THE CORPSE TO THE GRAVE; CARRYING EVERGRE ON THAT OCCASION IN THE HAND; TOGETHER WITH THE I OF PSALMODY.

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The heathen, writes Bourne, followed the corpse to the grave y's cause it presented to them what would shortly follow, how they th selves should be carried out to their final resting-place.

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So, in Langley's Translation of Polydore Vergil (1546), we re: "In Burials the old Rite was that the ded Corps was borne afore, a the people folowed after, as one should saie we shall dye and folo after hym, as their laste woordes to the Coarse did pretende. Fo thei used too saie, when it was buried, on this wise, farewell, wee com after thee, and of the folowyng of the multitude thei were called Exequies."

One of the Articles to be enquired of within the Archdeaconry of Yorke, by the Churchwardens and Sworne Men (1640), is: "Whether at the death of any there be praying for the dead at Crosses, or places where Crosses have been, in the way to the Church."

Misson's record of travel in England gives these details:

"They let the body lye three or four days, as well to give the dead person an opportunity of coming to life again, if his soul has not quite left his body, as to prepare mourning, and the Ceremonies of the Funeral." "They send the Beadle with a list of such Friends and Relations as they have a mind to invite; and sometimes they have printed Tickets which they leave at their Houses." "A little before the Company is set in order for the march," he continues, "they lay the Body into the Coffin, upon two stools, in a room, where all that please may go and see it; then they take off the top of the Coffin, and remove from off the Face a little square piece of Flannel, made on purpose to cover it, and not fastened to any thing. Being ready to move, one or inore Beadles march first, each carrying a long Staff, at the end of which is a great Apple, or knob of silver. The Body comes just after the Minister or Ministers attended by the Clerk. The Relations in close mourning, and a the Guests, two and two, make up the rest of the procession."

Macaulay's History of Claybrook in Leicestershire (1791) narrates: "At the Funeral of a Yeoman, or Farmer, the Clergyman generally leads the van in the procession, in his canonical habiliments; and the Relations follow the Corpse, two and two, of each sex, in the order of

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