The following is from an ingenious paper in "The World," No. 24 (written, I believe, by Lord Chesterfield): "When the lower sort of Irish, in the most uncivilised parts of Ireland, attend the funeral of a deceased friend or neighbour, before they give the last parting Howl, they expostulate with the dead body, and reproach him with having died, notwithstanding that he had an excellent wife, a milch cow, seven fine children, and a competency of potatoes.'

On the subject of the Irish howl, in Sir Henry Piers's Description of West Meath, 1682, in Vallancey's Collectanea, vol. i. p. 124, we read: "In Ireland at funerals they have their Wakes, which, as now they celebrate, were more befitting Heathens than Christians. They sit up commonly in a barn or large room, and are entertained with beer and tobacco. The lights are set up on a table over the dead; they spend most of the night in obscene stories and bawdye songs, until the hour comes for the exercise of their devotions; then the priest calls on them to fall to their prayers for the soul of the dead, which they perform by repetition of Aves and Paters on their Beads, and close the whole with a De Profundis,' and then immediately to the story or song again, till another hour of prayer comes. Thus is the whole night spent till day. When the time of burial comes, all the women run out like mad, and now the scene is altered, nothing heard but wretched exclamations, howling and clapping of hands, enough to destroy their own and others' sense of hearing and this was of old the heathenish custom, as the Poet hath observed:

-Omnes magno circum clamore fremebant

kind of Mourners to attend their dead; and yet they do not by all this attain the end they seem to aim at, which is to be thought to mourn for the dead; for the Poet hath well observed,

'Fortiter ille dolet, qui sine teste dolet.'

But

'The truly griev'd in secret weep.' "At some stages, where commonly they meet with great heaps of stones in the way, the corpse is laid down and the priest or priests and all the learned fall again to their Aves and Paters, &c. During this office all is quiet and hushed. But this done, the corpse is raised, and with it the outcry again. that done, and while the corpse is laying down and the earth throwing on, is the last and most vehement scene of this formal grief; and all this perhaps but to earn a groat, and from this Egyptian custom they are not to be weaned. In some parts of Connaught, if the party deceased were of good note, they will send to the Wake hogsheads of excellent stale beer and wine from all parts, with other provisions, as beef, &c., to help the expense at the funeral, and oftentimes more is sent in than can well be spent."

Compare also Cotgrave's English Treasury of Wit and Language, p. 35; and Memorable Things noted in the Description of the World, p. 15.

Mr. Gough, in his Introduction to the second volume of the Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain, p. vii., in a note, says: "The women of Picardy have a custom of calling the deceased by his name, as he is carried to the grave. (Incert. des Signes de la Moft, p. 180.) So do the Indians, and expostulate with him for dying. Xags was a common and affecting parting exclamation at the grave."

Howling at funerals appears to have been of general use in the Papal times from the following passage in Vernon's Hunting of Purgatory to Death, Lond. 1561, fol. 37 b,where, speaking of St. Chrysostom, he says: "No mention at al doth he make of that manner of singinge or rather unseemely howling that your Papists use for the Salvation of theyr dead, therby, under a pretence of godlinesse, picking the purses of the pore simple and ignorant people."

Anthony Stafford, in his Meditations and

Resolutions, 12mo. Lond. 1612, p. 16, says: "It is a wonder to see the childish whining we now-adayes use at the funeralls of our friends. If we could houl them back againe, our Lamentations were to some purpose; but as they are, they are vaine, and in vain."

In "Whimzies, or a New Cast of Characters," 12mo. Lond. 1631, p. 207, speaking of the death of "a zealous Brother," the author says: "Some Mourners hee hath of his owne, who howle not so much that hee should leave them, as that nothing is left them."

66

In the Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xv. (8vo. Edinb. 1795,) p. 636, Parish of Avoch, Rossshire, we read: At common funerals, in this district, the corpse is preceded by the parish officer tolling a hand-bell. The pall or mort-cloth is of plain black velvet, without any decoration, except a fringe. An immense crowd of both sexes attend; and the lamentations of the women, in some cases, on seeing a beloved relative put into the grave, would almost pierce a heart of stone."

Park, in his Travels in the Interior of Africa, tells, that among the Moors, April 3, a child died in one of the tents, " and the mother and the relations immediately began the Death-Howl. They were joined by a num ber of female visitors, who came on purpose to assist at this melancholy concert. I had no opportunity of seeing the burial, which is generally performed secretly in the dusk of the evening, and frequently at only a few yards distance from the tent. Over the grave they plant one particular shrub; and no stranger is allowed to pluck a leaf, or even to touch it." Speaking elsewhere of the Negroes he says: "When a person of consequence dies, the relations and neighbours meet together and manifest their sorrow by loud howlings."

(7) In Dudley Lord North's "Forest of Varieties," fol. Lond. 1645, at p. 80, is preserved the following Requiem at the Entertainment of Lady Rich, who died August 24th, 1638 :

"Who e'er you are, Patron subordinate,

Unto this House of Prayer, and doe extend

Your Eare and Care to what we pray and lend;

May this place stand for ever consecrate :
And may this ground and you propitious be

To this once powerful, now potential dust,
Concredited to your fraternal trust,

Till Friends, Souls, Bodies meet eternally.
And thou her tutelary Angel, who

Wert happy Guardian to so faire a charge,

O leave not now part of thy care at large, But tender it as thou wert wont to do. Time, common Father, join with MotherEarth,

And though you all confound, and she convert,

Favour this Relique of divine Desert, Deposited for a ne'er dying Birth.

Saint, Church, Earth, Angel, Time, prove truly kind

As she to you, to this bequest consign'd.” In "Batt upon Batt, a Poem, on the Parts, Patience, and Pains of Barth. Kempster," already quoted more than once, we find a notice of what is called Stirrup Verse at the Grave, p. 12:

"Must Megg, the wife of Batt, aged eightie, Deceas'd November thirteenth, seventy

three, (b)

Be cast, like common Dust, into the Pit, Without one line of Monumental Wit? One Death's head Distich, or Mortality-Staff With sense enough for Church-yard Epitaph?

No Stirrup Verse at Grave before she go? Batt does not use to part at Tavern so.'

(h) i. e. 1673.

THE Custom of using Torches and Lights at Funerals, or in funeral processions, appears to

have been of long standing. () The learned Gregory tells us that "the Funeral Tapers,

however thought of by some, are of harmlesse import. Their meaning is to show that the departed soules are not quite put out, but, having walked here as the children of light, are now gone to walk before God in the light of the living." (2)

Strutt tells us the burning of Torches was very honourable. To have a great many was a special mark of esteem in the person who made the funeral to the deceased. (3)

Monsieur Jorevin, before cited, describing a Lord's burial near Shrewsbury, speaking of six men taking up the corpse and carrying it on their shoulders to the church, says, "It was covered with a large cloth, which the four nearest relations held each by a corner with one hand, and in the other carried a bough"

(this must have been a branch of Rosemary); (*) "the other relations and friends had in one hand a flambeau and in the other a bough, marching thus through the street, without singing or saying any prayer, till they came to the church." After the burialservice he adds, the clergyman, "having his bough in his hand like the rest of the congregation, threw it on the dead body when it was put into the grave, as did all the relations, extinguishing their flambeaux in the earth with which the corpse was to be covered. This finished, every one retired to his home without farther ceremony." (a)

(a) Antiquar. Repertory, vol. ii. pp. 101, 102.

(1) "Dum autem Funus efferebatur, faces præferebantur. Constantii Corpus delatum fuisse nocturnis Cantionibus et Čereorum ignibus," &c. Durand. de Ritibus, p. 228.

"Gallos Funus honorificè curasse et multitudinem Luminum, splendorem sibi etiam per diem vendicantem, repercusso Solis radio repulsisse," &c. Ibid.

(2) Gregorii Opuscula, p. 112. See also Mr. Gough's Introduction to the second volume of his Sepulchral Monuments in Great Britain, p. vii.

"Among the Romans public funerals were celebrated in the day: private burials at night: and both were accompanied with torches." Female Mentor, vol. ii. p. 196.

"All Funerals," says Adam, in his Roman Antiquities, 8vo. Edinb. 1792, p. 476, "used anciently to be solemnized in the night-time with torches, that they might not fall in the way of magistrates and priests, who were supposed to be violated by seeing a corpse, so that they could not perform sacred rites till they were purified by an expiatory sacrifice. Serv. in Virg. xi. 143; Donat. Ter. And. i. 1, 81. Thus, to diminish the expenses of funerals, it was ordained by Demetrius Phalereus at Athens, Cic. de Legg. ii. 26, according to an ancient law which seems to have fallen

into desuetude, Demosth. adv. Macartatum, p. 666. Hence FUNUS, a Funeral, from funes accensi, Isid. xi. 2, xx. 10, or funalia, funales cerei, cereæ faces, vel candela, Torches, Candles, or Tapers, originally made of small ropes or cords, (funes vel funiculi,) covered with wax or tallow (sevum vel sebum). Serv. ibid. et Æn. i. 727; Val. Max. iii; 6, 4; Var. de Vit. Pop. R.

"But in after ages public funerals (funera indictiva) were celebrated in the day-time, at an early hour in the forenoon, as it is thought from Plutarch, in Syl., with torches also. Serv. in Virg. Æn. vi. 224; Tacit. Ann. iii. 4. Private or ordinary funerals (tacita) were always at night. Fest. in VESPILONES."

(3) Manners and Customs, vol. ii. p. 108. By the will of William de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, executed April 29, 1397, "Twenty-four poor people, clothed in black gowns and red hoods, are ordered to attend the funeral, each carrying a lighted torch of eight pounds weight."

In Mr. Nichols's "Illustrations of the Manners and Expenses of Ancient Times in England," 4to. Lond. 1797, Churchw. Accounts of St. Margaret's, Westminster, p. 1, under the year 1460-1, is the following article:

"Item. rec' de Joh'e Braddyns die sepultur' Roberti Thorp gen' p. iiii. Tor'. vjs. viijd." On which Dr. Pegge observes, p. 243, "Little

was done in these ages of gross Popery without lights. These torches cost ls. 8d. apiece; but we find them of various prices, according, as we may suppose, to their size. The Churchwardens appear to have provided them, and consequently they were an article of profit to the Church." The editor adds, "These torches, it is conceived, were made of wax, which in ordinary cases were let out by the Church, and charged to the party according to the consumption at the moment. appears in the York Churchwardens' Accompts, where wax is charged."

Ibid. p. 8, A. D. 1519:

This

"Item, Mr. Hall, the curate, for iv. torches, and for the best lights, at the buryal of Mr. Henry Vued, my Lord Cardinal's servant, vjs. vjd."

In Coates's "History of Reading," 4to. Lond. 1802, p. 115, in the Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Lawrence's parish are the following articles :

"A. D. 1502. It. rec. of wast of torchis at the berying of Sir John Hide, vicar of Sonyng, ijs. vjd.

"A.D. 1503. It. rec. for wast of torchys at the burying of John Long, maist' of the gram' scole, vjs. viijd.

"A. D. 1504. It. rec. of the same Margaret," (late the wife of Thomas Platt,) "for wast of torchis at the yer mind of the seid Thomas, xxd.'

See also Strype's edit. of Stow's "Survey of London," book i. p. 258, A. D. 1556. Sir John Gresham's Funeral. "He had four dozen of great staff torches and a dozen of great long torches."

Veron, in his "Hunting of Purgatory to Death," 8vo. Lond. 1561, fol. 40 b, says: "If the Christians should bury their dead in the nighte-time, or if they should burne their bodies, as the Painims did, they might well use torches as well as the Painims without any just reprehension and blame." He observes, ibid. fol. 45, "Moreover it is not to be doubted but that the auncient byshops and ministers of the Church did bryng in this manner of bearinge of torches, and singinge in funerals, not for thentent and purpose that

the Painimes did use it, nor yet for to confirme their superstitious abuses and errours, but rather for to abolishe them. For they did see that it was an hard thing to pluck those old and inveterate customes from the hartes of them that had been nouselled in them from their youth. They did forsee that, if they had buried their dead without som honest ceremonies, as the worlde did then take them, it had bene yet more harde to put away those olde rotten errors from them that were altogether wedded unto them." Our author tells us, ibid. fol. 47, "Chrisostome, likening the deade whome they followed with burnynge torches unto wrestlers and runners, had a respect unto the customes and fashions of Greke land, beyng a Greeke himselfe, amonge whiche there was a certain kind of running, after this maner :-The firste did beare a torche, being lighted, in his hand, which, being weary, he did deliver unto him that followeth next after him. He againe, that had received the torche, if he chaunced to be wery, did the like: and so all the residue that followeth in order;" hence " among the Grekes and Latines to geve the lampe or torche unto another hath beene taken for to put other in his place, after that one is werye and hath perfourmed his course." He concludes, "This may very wel be applyed unto them that departe out of this world."

Ibid. fol. 151: "Singinge, bearinge of lightes, and other like ceremonies as were uesd in their buringes and funeralles, were ordeyned, or rather permitted and suffred, by ye auncient bishoppes and pastours, for to abolish, put downe, and dryve awai the superstition and ydolatri yt the heathen and paynymes used about their dead; and not for anye opinion yt they had yt such thinges could profite the soules departed, as it doth manifestly appear by their owne writinges."

The following is the epitaph of the great Bude at St. Geneviève, Paris:"Que n'a-t-on plus en torches dependu, Suivant la mode accoutumée en Sainte? Afin qu'il soit pur l'obscur entendu Que des François la lumière est éteinte.”

Mr. Wordsworth, in his "Lyrical Ballads," vol. ii. p. 147, tells us that in several parts of the North of England, when a fune

ral takes place, a basin full of sprigs of boxwood is placed at the door of the house from which the coffin is taken up, and each person

who attends the funeral ordinarily takes a sprig of this wood and throws it into the grave of the deceased.

FUNERAL Sermons are of great antiquity.(1) This custom used to be very general in England. (2) I know nowhere that it is retained at present, except upon Portland Island, Dorsetshire, where the minister has half-a-guinea for every sermon he preaches, by which he raises annually a very considerable sum. This species of luxury in grief is very common there, and indeed, as it conveys the idea of posthumous honour, all are desirous of procuring it, even for the youngest of their children as well as their deceased friends. The fee is nearly the same as that mentioned by Gay in his dirge :

"Twenty good shillings in a rag I laid,

Be ten the parson's for his sermon paid." Mr. Gough, in the Introduction to the second volume of his "Sepulchral Monuments,"

p. xi. says, "From funeral orations over Christian martyrs (3) have followed funeral sermons for eminent Christians of all denominations, whether founded in esteem, or sanctioned by fashion, or secured by reward. Our ancestors, before the Reformation, took especial care to secure the repose and wellbeing of their souls, by masses and other deeds of piety and charity. After that event was supposed to have dispelled the gloom of superstition, and done away the painful doctrine of purgatory, they became more solicitous to have their memories embalmed, and the example of their good works held forth to posterity. Texts were left to be preached from, and sometimes money to pay for such preaching. Gratitude founded commemorative sermons as well as commemorative dinners for benefactors."

was well of her. A preacher was, with some difficulty, found, who undertook the task. He, after a sermon preached on the general subject of mortality, and the good uses to be made of it, concluded with saying, 'By the will of the deceased it is expected that I should mention her, and say nothing but what was well of her. All that I shall say of her therefore is this: she was born well, she lived well, and she died well; for she was born with the name of Cresswell, she lived in Clerkenwell, and she died in Bridewell.'"

Dr. Fuller, in his "Appeal of Injured Innocence," (Part iii. p. 75,) tells us that "When one was to preach the funeral sermon of a most vicious and generally hated person, all wondered what he would say in his praise; the preacher's friends fearing, his foes hoping,