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."

A.D. 1562, at the funeral of Sir Humphrey Brown, Knight, Lord Chief Justice, Dec. 15, Mr. Reneger made the sermon, and after, they went home to a great dinner. 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 coat-armour; then his standard was offered, and his pennon; and after all, the mourners, and judges, and serjeants of the law, and servants, offered.

Waldron, in his "Description of the Isle of Man" (Works, fol. p. 170), says: "As to their funerals, they give no invitation, but everybody that had any acquaintance with the deceased comes, either on foot or horseback. I have seen sometimes, at a Mank's burial, upwards of an hundred horsemen, and twice the number on foot. All these are entertained at long tables, spread with all sorts of cold provision, and rum and brandy flies about at a lavish rate."

Misson, in his "Travels in England," translated by Ozell, p. 91, under the head of Funerals, 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 mulled white wine. Note, no men ever go to women's burials, nor the women to men's, so that there were none but women at the drinking of Butler's wine."

In the Minute Book of the Society of Antiquaries of London, July 21, 1725, vol. i. p. 169, we read: "Mr. Anderson gave the society an account of the manner of a Highland lord's funeral. 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," vol. vi. p. 487, parish of Kincardine, county of 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 expense of it amounts to nearly 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.

'E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.'

Gray."

Ibid. vol. ix. p. 543, complaints occur against the expensive mode of conducting burials in the parish of Dunlop, in Ayrshire. It is pointed out as an object of taxation.

On

Ibid. vol. x. p. 469, parish of Lochbroom, county of Ross: "At their burials and marriages, we are told, the inhabitants too much adhere to the folly of their ancestors. these occasions they have a custom of feasting a great number of their friends and neighbours, and this often at an expense which proves greatly to the prejudice of poor orphans and young people: although these feasts are seldom productive of any quarrels or irregularities among them."

Ibid. vol. xv. 8vo. Edinb. 1795, p. 372, parish of Campsie, county of Stirling, we read: "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 styled their service; and sometimes this was repeated, and was then styled 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 styled bidding to the burial, the form being nearly in the following words: You are desired to come to such-aone'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."

Ibid. vol. xviii. 8vo. Edinb. 1796, p. 123, parish of Gargunnock, county of Stirling:

The manner of conducting funerals in the country needs much amendment. 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 ten o'clock in the forenoon of the day of the funeral, but it is soon enough to attend at three 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."

Ibid. p. 174, parish of Carmunnock, county of Lanark, the minister, the Rev. Mr. Adam Forman, tells us: "We must mention a custom which still prevails, and which certainly ought to be abolished. It is usual in this parish, as in many other parts of Scotland, when a death has taken place, 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 expense 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. Such a custom is attended with many evils, and frequently involves in debt, or reduces to poverty, many families otherwise frugal and industrious, by this piece of useless parade and ill-judged expense."

In "Whimsies, or a New Cast of Characters," 12mo. Lond. 1631, p. 89, speaking of a launderer, the author says: "So much she 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." (a)

Ibid. p. 195, in describing a yealous (jealous) neighbour, the author concludes with observing: "Meate for his funerall pye is shred, some few ceremoniall teares on his funeral 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."

Mons. Jorevin, who travelled to England in the beginning of King Charles the Second's reign, speaking of a lord's burial at Shrewsbury, which his host procured him a sight of, tells us: "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 (a)" In northern customs duty was exprest

To friends departed by their fun'ral feast.
Tho' I've consulted Hollingshead and Stow,
I find it very difficult to know
Who, to refresh th' attendants to the grave,
Burnt claret first, or Naples-bisket gave."
King's Art of Cookery, p. 65.

the health of the deceased. This being finished, six men took up the corpse and carried it on their shoulders to the church," &c. Antiq. Repert. vol. ii. p. 105.

A writer in the "Gent. Mag." for March, 1780, vol. i. p. 129, 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."

Another writer, apparently describing the manners of Yorkshire, vol. Ixviii. p. 573, for July, 1798, says: "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 lemon-peel, 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."

By the following extract, wafers appear to have been used at Funeral Entertainments: "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." Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, vol. ii. p. 549, from MS. Sloan, No. 886, a Catalogue of Persons Deceased between 1628 and 1675, by one Smith, a Secondary of the Poultry Compter.

In Dudley Lord North's "Forest of Varieties," fol. Lond. 1645, p. 105, is the following: "Nor are all Banquets (no more than Musick) ordained for merry humors, some being used even at Funeralls."

In Pleasant Remarks on the Humors of Mankind, 12mo. p. 62, cciii. we read: ""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."

Again, p. 83, cclxxv.: "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!"

Richard Flecknoe, in his Ænigmatical Characters, 8vo. Lond. 1665, p. 14, speaking of "a curious Glutton," observes on his fondness for feasting as follows: "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't endure to hear of, onely because they say there is no eating nor drinking in the other world."

Books by way of Funeral Tokens used to be given away at the burials of the better sort in England. In my collection of portraits I have one of John Bunyan, taken from before an old edition of his works, which I bought at Ware in Hertfordshire. It is thus inscribed on the back in MS. : "Funeral Token in remembrance of Mr. Hen. Plomer, who departed this life Oct. 2, 1696, being 79 years of age, and is designed to put us that are alive in mind of our great change. Mr. Daniel Clerk the elder his book, Oct. 23, 1696.”

In the Athenian Oracle, vol. iii. p. 114, a querist asks: "Whether Books are not more proper to be given at Funerals than Bisquets, Gloves, Rings, &c.?" And it is answered: "Undoubtedly a Book would be a far more convenient, more durable, and more valuable present than what are generally given, and more profitably preserve the Memory of a deceased Friend."

(3) In Reed's edit. of Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 43, there is the following note on this passage by Mr. Steevens:

"It was anciently the general custom to give a cold entertainment to mourners at a Funeral. In distant Counties this practice is continued among the yeomanry.'

See the " Tragique Historie of the faire Valeria of London," 1598. "His corpes was with funerall pompe conveyed to the church and there solemnly entered, nothing omitted which necessitie or custom could claime: a sermon, a banquet, and like observations." Again, in the old romance of "Syr Degore," b. l. no date:

"A great feaste would he holde

Upon his quene's mornynge day,
That was buryed in an abbay."

See also Hayward's "Life and Reigne of King Henry IV." 4to. 1599, p. 135: "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.”

THE following is extracted from Mr. Bagford's letter relating to the antiquities of London, printed in the first volume of Leland's "Collectanea," p. lxxvi. It is dated February 1, 1714-5.

"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?"

Aubrey's collection, here mentioned, was most probably the "Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaism," still preserved among the Lansdowne Manuscripts in the British Museum; whence the following remarks on this subject, in Mr. Aubrey's own hand, have been extracted:

"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 highway. The manner was, that when the corpse 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 corpse, as also a mazar bowle, of maple, full of beer, (which he was to drink up,) and sixpence in money: in consideration whereof he took upon him, ipso facto, all the sinnes of the defunct, and freed him or her from walking after they were dead. This custome alludes, methinks, something to the scapegoate in the old lawe, Levit. chap. xvi. v. 21,

22. 'And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goate, and confesse over him all the iniquities of the Children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited; and he shall let the goat goe into the wilderness.'

"This custome, though rarely used in our dayes, yet by some people was observed even in the strictest time of the presbyterian government, as at Dynder, (volens nolens the parson of the parish,) the kindred of a woman deceased there had this ceremonie punctually performed, according to her will: and also the like was done at the city of Hereford in those times, where a woman kept, many yeares before her death, a mazard bowle for the Sinne-eater; and the like in other places in this countie; as also in Brecon. (1) I believe this custom was heretofore used all over Wales." (2)