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86 HISTORY OF BISHOP AUCKLAND. after it had ceased to be enforced by law, and that this case was an exception which the Minister (John Tong) had thought fit to record. The custom of burying the dead of the poorer classes without coflfins was practised in this parish down to the year 1714, at which time William Chaloner was appointed Curate, when he, with a charity worthy of his holy office, gave the burial fees for the purpose of providing coffins. The corpse was wound in a sheet, and brought to the church upon a kind of bier, not unlike a butcher's cradle, with a wicker- work top. When the funeral cortege had to come any distance, the bier was placed cross-wise on a horse, and one of the attendants was mounted behind, in order to steady it ; but, on ordinary occasions, it was carried to the church by hand. The old bier stood in the lower part of the tower for some years after it had ceased to be used, and fell to pieces with old age. In those early times, a very beautiful old custom prevailed in this neighbourhood (faint signs of a revival of which we see at the present day), of hanging up garlands in churches above the seats of the departed.* Surtees supposes that this elegant mark of respect was chiefly, if not solely, reserved for females who died in their virginity. Dr. Percy, in an old song, says : — A garland fresh and fair, , Of lilies there was made, In sign of her yirginitie, And on her coffin laid. Brand, in. his "Antiquities," says — "When a virgin dies in a village, one nearest to her in size and age and resemblance, carries the garland before the corpse in the funeral procession, which is afterwards himg up in the church." He further says — " I saw, in the churches of Wolsingham and Stanhope, in the County of Durham, specimens of these garlands ; the form of a woman's glove, cut on white paper, hung in the centre of each of themu" This practice seems to have been once pretty general, as many allusions are made to it by our old Poets, and more especially Gay, whose pastorals are known to represent the real rustic manners of his times. To her sweet mem'ry floVry garlands strung, On her now empty seat aloft were hung. In the " London Morning Chronicle" for September 25, 1792, is to be found an elegiac ode from the pen of Miss Seward, wherein, speaking of the village of Eyam, in Derbyshire, this passage occurs : — Now the low beams with paper garlands hung, In memory of some village youth or maid, Draw the soft tear, from thrill'd remembrance sprung ; How oft my childhood marked that tribute paid ! The gloves suspended by the garland's side. White as its snowy flow'rs, with ribands tied. Nichols, in his " History of Lancashire," speaking of Waltham, says — " In this church, under every arch, a garland is suspended, one of which is customarily placed there whenever any yoimg unmarried woman dies." Bourne says — '■ It is still the custom, in many country churches, to hang a garland of flowers over the seats of deceased virgins, in token of esteem and love, and as an emblem of their reward in the heavenly church." Gough, in the Introduction to his second volume of " Sepulchral Monuments," has the following passage : — ^* The ancients used to crown the deceased with flowers, in token of the shortness of life ; and the practice is still retained in some places in regard to young women and children." Sharp, in' his " History of Hartlepool," says — " Until of late years, when a young unmarried female was buried, a garland was carried before the corpse, and afterwards suspended in the church. At present (1816) only one remains • The author was taking a stroll roimd Darham Cathedral daring the antamn of 1871» and observed a beaatifnl wreath of nataral flowen placed upon the tomb of the Ber. James £aine^ the historian. Digitized by Google