MRS. STONE'S "GOD'S ACRE." *
nom needlework and novels to churchyards and charnel-houses is a great leap ; but it indicates Mrs. Stone's versatility of talent, and the readiness with which she can grasp the salient points of things before her, and apply them to an immediate purpose. Al- theugh she talk; of reading and research, it may be doubted whether she has got much further than the "reading," on such topics as ancient and medieval burials ; relics, shrines, and pil- grimages in connexion with the dead ; or even the less recondite matters of mourning customs, tombs, and epitaphs, flowers on graves. But the result of her studies is laid before us in a far more popular style than many antiquarians could command. At any rate a Dryasdust would have avoided her touch-and-go man- ner, looking to effect rather than to completeness ; but the lady knows the kind, of public she is writing for, and is fully aware that this is not an age of painstaking readers. And the digres- sions in wilich she occasionally indulges, to introduce matter po- pular if not strictly germane to the subject, and the "sketches" she sometimes presents to the reader, would certainly have been eschewed by the archeologist.
A good deal of what is designated progress in art, manners, and customs consists in a return to the starting-point of simple nature, but "nature methodized" and refined by cultivation. This is remarkably the ease with burials. "Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return," is not only the doom of humanity, hut seems more consistent with the physical state of the world. Yet except in the ancient custom of cremation and some Hindoo suprstitious exposures, men have continually striven with all their power to avert it. A simple savage in the merest state of na- ture is compelled to let decay do its work very quickly, for want of means to retard it ; the utmost he can accomplish is to preserve the bones as ornaments, amulets, or tokens of triumph. The tu- muli scattered throughout the world bear testimony to the uni- versal desire to preserve the bodies of their dead, which prevailed among semi-barbarous tribes. The rich and luxurious Egyptians • God's Acre ; or Historical Notices relating to Claurckyards. By Mrs. Stone, Authoress of '' History of the Art of Needlework," "English Society," Ste. Pub- lished by Parker and Son.
embalmed them with all the ingenuity of scientific appliance which was within the reach of a stationary though by no means contemptible civilization. The Etruscans buried their dead, but endeavoured to exclude the atmosphere in order to preserve the body entire and clothed ; and a story is told that an ancient Lu- cumo remained perfect to our day, but faded almost instantly on his tomb being broken open. Some such mode of sepulture was practised in other places, and it would now exist among the Negroes if they had skill to construct a tomb. Christians reserved embalment as an honour for great men, and used a small air-tight grave in the form of a leaden coffin for the wealthy ; both modes originating, like the ancient ones, in superstition, and continued from custom. Something of sacrifice combined with notion of use in a future state attended barbarian funerals. Wives, slaves, horses, valuables, were buried with the dead. Some vestige of such a custom is discernible in. civilized society ; the sacrificial officer is now replaced by the undertaker, the heirs are now the victims, by the milder form of a long bill, and instead of shed- ding of blood there is much expenditure of black kid and black silk. Northern peoples introduced a more festive if unseemly sort of burial rite, founded on the proverb that "grief is dry," and the medical opinion that nature requires support under depressing circumstances. According to Mrs. Stone, festivity descending into tipsy jollity and probably outrage, is within her own experi- ence in the North of England, as Mrs. Gaskell describes some- thing similar in Yorkshire.
"To such an extent did funeral feasts progress in England, that it is re- corded that it was less expensive to portion a daughter than to bury a wife. But it needs not to go to the pages of antiquarians to testify to this. Such reckless extravagance is, or was, twenty years ago, common in Cumber- land ; where everybody known to the deceased is invited, and everybody unknown, welcomed ; where the house being not large enough to contain a tithe of the guests, all the various barns and outhonsea of a substantial farm-steading are pressed into the service ; where the temporary tables groan under the weight of substantial viands, and ale, and rum, and whisky fly like water ; where feasting begins early in the day, and some leave the tables to attend the funeral, and some do not; where, after the holy service, feasting is renewed, and results may be guessed. And all this because, otherwise, you would burying your relative stingily. "This I knew, twenty years ago, in Cumberland; and perhaps a few quotations from my diary of that time may not be inapplicable here.
"The invitations given by the friends of a deceased person to the funeral here (in Cumberland) are not merely numerous, they are general and uni- versal. I have myself heard the following announcement by a town-crier, whose bell called the attention of passengers at a market-town in that county—' I give notice that all friends and relations are requested to attend the funeral of Mary Lavery, of New Town, at the Old Church, tomorrow, at two o'clock.'
"In the neighbouring county, Northumberland, the announcement was (and probably still is) somewhat more formaL 'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.' Joseph Dixon it departed, on of Christopher Dixon was. Company is desired tomorrow at five o'clock, mitl at six he is to be buried. For him and all faithful people give God meal hearty thanks.' * * * ." In some villages in the Northern counties they have still regular 'bidders' as they are called, who on occasion of a death knock at the door of every house without exception. 1116a-redly well remember receiving the following announcement one day on opening my own door, The widow Russell bids you to her husband's Amend tomorrow.'
"In some places, as in Durham, the bidders knock on the door with a key, not daring to use the rapper, as it is considered unlucky to do so on these occasions ; but this superstition was not prevalent where I resided. "As the time for the funeral approaches, a table covered with a white linen cloth is placed outside the house-door, and on it is a basin of water containing sprigs of boxwood and rosemary. This, 'for remembrance,' is a relic of a very ancient custom. No person crosses the threshold without taking one of these sprigs, which he bears in his hand. A little spiced wine is handed round to the assembled company, and then the train proceeds to church, the numerous attendants forming companionship as they please ;
but invariably, of course, leaving place at the head of the procession for the more intimate Mends of the mourners. Many accompany the funeral only a few yards, and gradually drop away ; nor is this considered at all out of course or disrespectful, for the compliment of attendance has been paid.
" It is when a death takes place at a sequestered residence, detached by an interval of perhaps several miles from other habitations or from the church to which the funeral is destined, that opportunity is given for that excess which frequently disgraces these solemn occasions; and where, in the absence of absolute excess, a cheerful hilarity pervades a scene with
which anything like social merriment is certainly inconsistent. Hundreds
are frequently assembled from different quarters for miles around. There is abundant wealth of beef, ham, bacon, mutton-ham, fowls, and other such sufficing refreshment ; and spirits (usually smuggled) fly about merrily ; and mirth too often becomes uproarious, and excess sadly degrading. Everybody invited or uninvited who chooses to go is welcomed and feasted. "However little the ability of the entertainers may keep pace with their inclination, they are in a manner obliged to do this ; since the feelings and habits of the district would seem to cast a reproach on them otherwise."
These customs are doubtless expiring if not already obsolete. They may hold their ground against sermons and books, but not so easily against railways. Although one of the most useless outlays con- ceivable, (for it is of no service to any one,) a leaning to an expen- sive funeral—expensive that is as regards the means and station of the family,—still lingers in the minds of most people ; as well as a superstitions preference for being buried in a vault, as more dignified. The taste for expense may be diminished by wise example, and increased intellectual culture, purifying the taste to understand how incompatible with the awful simplicity of death is any display of vanity or ostentation. Vault burial may hold its ground longer. There is a strong family feeling and "tyrant cus- tom" in its favour; but it is founded on notions concerning .the body which are mere idols of the cave, and opposed to inflexible natural laws, as well as to the text already quoted, which Chris- tians seem to have looked on as of speculative importance only. It is, however, not to be doubted that by the aid of reason anti the spread of a knowledge of natural laws, society will perceive that dissolution into its original elements is the proper terrestrial end of the material body. Accompanying this gradual reform in the
sentiment of mankind concerning the corpse, taste and propriety of monumental style will increase,' our lapidary poetry and epi- taphs in general will rise in dignity ; and, aided by Mrs. Stone, we may aim at a consistency in our mortuary plants and flowers, or expect that the cemetery companies will contract for taste as well as for the simple interment. • For the aversion to trouble—the dis- position to delegate everything to somebody "whose business it is "—even in a due attention to the memory of the dead.—is, (as our authoress discovered in her visit to a cemetery,) one of the worst signs of the times.
"I entered the cemetery : a more beautiful and luxurious garden it is impossible to conceive. The season was autumn and every path was radiant with dahlias, fuchsias, verbenas, heliotrope, sidvias, lobelias, geraniums, monthly roses, and a multitude of other flowers, in the richest bloom. Such fine African and French marigolds I never saw, though I thought them in very bad taste there. In some country churchyards, where the custom of plant- ing flowers is most rife, none are thought of that are not sweet-scented. Merely beautiful looking flowers are never admitted, though it is said that these are sometimes planted by stealth, as a sort of satire, on the grave of - an unpopular person.
"But on the graves of beloved ones the homely sweet-scented rosemary, emblem of remembrance, the aconite, the snow-drop, the violet, and lily of the valley ; and the rose—ever the rose—type always of purity, affection, goodness : these are suitable to churchyard or cemetery. "These, and the humble, unshowy, fragrant mignionette had been in far better taste than the flaunting flowers to which I have referred. The beauti- ful laurustinus, flowering as it does the winter through, and the arbutus, with its elegant flower and gorgeous fruit, gleamed at frequent intervals, forming a beautiful relief to the gloomy cypress and dismal yew. It is no unusual mistake in churchyards, as well as in modern cemeteries, to plant these latter shrubs so thickly—at the head and foot, for instance, of graves • placed closely together—that they cannot possibly have room to grow; and • the effect of regular regimental rows of evergreens, dwarfed and crippled like stunted shrubs, is one rather ludicrous than solemn or touching."
Previous page
