30 MEMORANDA V.V TITUS WHRATCROFT, A.D. 1 7 22. 



Here followeth a description of the Burial of the Dead, 

 and y" custom thereof. 



First, on the day that the corps is to be buried, y*" Clerk 

 is to ring y" Passing Bell, which is usually about 6 or 7 

 o'clock in the morning of y" same day. 



J^e shall for a 7iia>i give every bell three tolls : a>id for a 

 woman he shall give every bell two tolls* and then ring 

 the fourth (tenor) for half-an-hour : and when it is ceased 

 give the bell two or three knolls as before directed. And 

 as for making of the grave, observe these directions following : 



When the corpse is buried, they pay the clerk 19 pence 

 if ye corpse be coffined, and 17 pence if it be wrapped in 

 a shroud ; whereof ye minister hath 7d. and ye clerk y" rest. 



If y*" people will have y*" corpse chimed to ye church, 

 they pay what they please to ye clerk : but if they will 

 have the bells rung, then they give what they please to 

 the ringers, and they drink it : and all those that are 

 ordained ringers have part of the same if they choose. 



BURIAL PLACES, ASHOVER, 



Shewing thk. relative position of the graves in Ashover 

 Church and Churchyard, 1722. 



[Although the following list of interments appears among the MSS. of 

 Titus Wheatcroft, the son of Leonard (a notice of whom appeared 

 m our last vokime), it was probably the work of the father, or, at 

 least, compiled by Titus from Leonard's memoranda and recollec- 

 tions. It is of great local value, and would have been more so, if, 

 instead of using the term "right" and "left" to distinguish the 

 relation of localities, he had employed the names of the cardinal 



* This method of announcing the death of male or female to the 

 inhabitants of a parish is alluded to by Durandus in his " Rationale," 

 written about 1 250. " Moreover, the bells ought to be rung when any- 

 one is dying, that the jieople hearing this may pray for him. For a 



ivoman indeed they ring twice but for a man they ring 



three times. If the dying man be an ecclesiastic, they toll so many times 

 as he hath received Orders. At the last time they ought to chime so that 

 the people may know for whom they have to pray. The bells oughl 

 also to be chimed when the corpse is brought to the church, and when 

 carried out from the church to the grave." 



