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the postage of, on account of the transaction carried on. Let the member have the privilege of granting five franks to his friends; and be it recollected that this, at five a day, fairly valued at half a crown each, will in the year save them, that is, the friends of the thousand members, 228,125l. of postage. It is not probable that constituents will send above two letters per day, and the remaining three the member will receive uncharged. I have said enough to show that this important case cannot remain much longer on a footing so manifestly detrimental to the public interest, labouring under pressure in every department. JOHN MACDONALD.

Mr. URBAN,

Feb. 16.

THE Church of Higham Ferrers, in Northamptonshire, is one of the most handsome in itself, and most rich in its monuments, in a county which is distinguished for the beauty of its ecclesiastical structures. It was made collegiate by Archbishop Chicheley, who also built near the church a School and a Bedehouse; a view comprising the church and school was given in your vol. LXXXV. i. 393.

The monument represented in the accompanying drawing (Plate II.) is that of Laurence de Sancto Mauro, or Seymour, who died Rector in 1337. Its slab is beautifully inlaid with brass, as may be seen engraved in Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, vol. II. p. 332. The Rector, in a rich cope, stands under a highly decorated arch, surrounded with niches containing saints. Four brass shields of arms have been torn away; but some shields still remain carved in stone, on the sides of the tomb. They appear to have been originally nearly the same on both sides of the tomb; 1. the three lions of England; 2. the same under a label, Plantagenet of Lancaster, Lord of Higham Ferrars; 3. two chevrons under a label of three, Seymour; and 4. checky, . . . . . On the south side the label of the second coat is of three points, and on the north of five.

The tomb is surmounted with a finely formed arch, of which the side next the high altar is exhibited in the plate. It is principally with a view of showing the remarkable manner in which this arch has been adorned with painting, the thi nt drawGENT.A

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ings are communicated. During the repairs of the church in the year 1827, when an attempt was made to restore the mouldings to their early sharpness and beauty, by removing the accumulated filth and whitewash, this colouring was accidentally discovered.

The central moulding, within the arch, is painted with the lozenge pattern, shown at large in fig. 1. The lozenge is of red and black, on a slatecoloured ground. The three knobs, which are seen projecting from this part, have iron rings in them, either for suspension of lamps, or a canopy or curtain, or perhaps to fix on bosses which have been broken off.

The outer members of the arch, on each side, are divided into compartments, in the manner shown at large in fig. 2. The ground is alternately green and red, the latter not vermilion, but a kind of crimson, apparently laid on dry, whilst most of the other colours appear to have been laid on wet, and some with oil. The compart. ments are separated by a broad black line, close to which on the crimson side is another of brown which was once gilt, and on the green side a like stripe of white. The lowest compartment on the west side is green, with a pattern of black and white dragonflies; the next above is red with the same insect pattern; the two next are alternately green and red, with a pattern of white lions; then two compartments, green and red, of flies; two, at the turning of the arch, of lions; and so down the other side.

Instead of the cluster of heads, fig. 3, there is on the north side a square florid pinnacle, and the shaft or buttress supporting it is corbelled at bottom with a Bishop's head (fig. 4), answering to fig. 5 in the south chancel, the groundwork of the tracery of which was relieved with a coat of paint. Fig. 6 is the eastern corbel shown in the view.

The priest to whose memory this magnificent monument was erected, was evidently one of wealth and rank. There can be little doubt that he was a member of the family which we find from Brydges's History of Northamp tonshire, vol. II. p. 257, held a fourth part of the neighbouring manor of Thingdon or Finedon, and which was probably a branch of that of which Dugdale has given an account in his

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and I shall proceed to point out a few instances of this system of imitation in the common ceremonial of our funerals as practised in the part of Lincolnshire where I reside.

On the decease of an individual, when the eyes and mouth have been ceremonially closed, after the manner of the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, a bell is tolled, which is called the Passing Bell, to intimate to all whom it may concern, that a fellow Christian has passed from life to death. Some think that the passing bell was originally intended to drive away the evil spirits who were waiting in the lower regions of the air to seize upon the soul of the deceased person in its passage from the body. For this opinion I cannot find sufficient authority, though it was undoubtedly an ancient belief, that unclean spirits have a decided antipathy to the sound of bells, and particularly to those which have been ritually consecrated. Hence the well-known observation of Durand, "Cæterum campanæ in processionibus pulsantur ut dæmones timentes fugiant." The truth is, that this bell was intended as an admonition to the survivors to pray for the departed soul; and the number of prayers enjoined was, two for a woman, and three for a man; which accounts rationally for our custom of distinguishing the sex of the departed by the number of strokes with which the passing bell commences and concludes. A slight variation has crept in through lapse of time, the death of the female being announced by three pulsations, and that of the male by four.

The corpse is now laid out, and shrouded. This is a custom of great antiquity, and was used, not only by the early patriarchs, but also by the Egyptians, as their mummies fully testify. It is, in fact, a custom dictated by Nature herself. A pewter dish containing salt is usually placed on the stomach of the corpse to prevent a premature decay; a practice which was derived from the Druids, combining two remarkable emblems, -the body, of corruption; the salt, of incorruption or immortality. The corpse, thus prepared, is watched till the funeral, which generally takes place on the third day after the decease, in reference to the inhumation of our Saviour, who was crucified on one day, lay in the tomb the whole of

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the next, and on the third was triumphantly restored to life.

On the funeral day, the relatives and friends of the deceased assemble about an hour before the time appointed for interment, and are regaled with sweet cakes and wine. This custom is of unfathomable antiquity, The "bread of mourners" is mentioned by the prophet Hosea; and the wine, or "cup of consolation for the dead," by Jeremiah. The heathen nations observed the same practice. The funeral cake used by the Greeks was placed in the mouth of the deceased to appease the wrath of Cerberus, and is called by Virgil, “melle soporatam et medicatis frugibus of fam." The ancients made libations to the dead of wine, honey, and blood, and honey was universally considered a symbol of death. IIorava, or round, broad, and thin salt cakes made a part of the funeral offerings to Hecate or the moon. The Hindoos were enjoined in the Vedas to offer a cake called peenda to the ghosts of their

ancestors.

Before the coffin is ultimately screwed down, one of the attendants usually invites the sorrowing relatives and others to take a farewell view of the deceased, whose face has been kept exposed till this moment, that all suspicion of violence or unfair dealing may be removed. The corpse is then removed to the church in procession, carried by six persons of the same sex, followed by the mourners, habited in black scarves, hoods, and gloves, and preceded by the clergyman and medical attendant; the body being covered with flowers, which tend to accelerate decay after interment, and the coffin with evergreens, which are symbolical of the soul's immortality. This custom may be traced to an early period. Virgil thus describes its observance on the death of Marcellus :

―― Manibus date lilia plenis : Purpureos spargam flores, animamque nepotis

His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani Munere."-En. vi. 884.

And Propertius says,

"Et tenerâ poneret ossa rosâ."

At Roman funerals the doors were hung with cypress, which was esteemed the proper emblem of a fune

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ral. The Saxons used sprigs of rose

mary.

The train is preceded by a choir of singers, which is a vestige of heathenism, and is probably a transcript of the bardic funeral dirge. The idolatrous nations of Greece and Rome, whose funeral rites were celebrated with great pomp, used to sing hymns over their dead, because they conceived that during the performance of harmonious music, the soul would slide into Elysium with greater facility. To accomplish this purpose, a hymn called by the Greeks Aoion, was first sung during the procession to the funeral pile by hired female vocalists, and consisted of mourning verses for the loss they had sustained. Then an anthem was used at the pile in commendation of the deceased; after which they chaunted a kind of dialogue while the ashes were collected. The Jews used a similar practice over their illustrious dead. It was adopted by the early Christians; and in Saxon times it was usual for the priest who preceded the coffin to sing a funeral psalm. The custom was continued by some of the Reformed Churches; and amongst others, it is still used by the Church of England,

and by some classes of Protestant dissenters from the establishment.

GEO. OLIVER,

Mere, May 3.

MR. URBAN, YOUR esteem for the language of England, your father-land, and the mightiest isle of the sea, and your kind insertion of my former letters on the corruptions of it, lead me to hope that you will open the Gentleman's Magazine for a few more thoughts on the same subject.

From want of attention to the Saxon ground-work of our language, and to the Gothic dialects that come from the same original with it; the adjective endings, some and ful, as in frolicsome, merciful, &c. have been neglected, confounded, and abused. These endings have their own particular meanings; some being equally as useful as ful, though it should not be used instead of it. Some, as I showed in my former letter, by reference to the German, means strictly, apt to do or promote the thing denoted by the word to which it is put; as quarrelsome, apt to quarrel, wholesome (German heilsam), apt to heal, &c. But

[June,

ful means full of, or having much of, a thing; as spiteful, full of spite, sorrowful, full of sorrow, &c. So that delightful, spoken of a fine morning, of music, or any other charming thing, is wrong; and delightsome, as it is sometimes shaped by the vulgar, is right; because a morning or music cannot have, or be full of, delight itself, but is apt to delight man, or to promote delight in his mind.

If these distinctions are allowed, many such adjectives as the following should end with some, instead of ful frightful, healthful, hurtful, dreadful, mindful, and

others.

(applied to a thing.)