112 The Story of The Bronx 



in Fourteenth Street near Sixth Avenue (afterwards occupied 

 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art) , and that the coffin was 

 carried by underbearers. 



In 1760, the funeral expenses of Mrs. Alexander, mother of 

 General Lord Stirling of the American army, amounted to 

 £21, 85. and 6d. for the undertaker alone; to this must be 

 added the cost of food, drink, bands, gloves, rings, and pins 

 mentioned above. The scarcity of money at the time of the 

 Revolution had more effect in causing economy in the matter 

 of funerals than had the legislation passed by the Provincial 

 Assembly in attempts to stop the wasteful extravagance. 

 The funerals of the poorer members of the community were as 

 extravagant as those of their betters, if not more so, in propor- 

 tion. 1 Perhaps these funeral ceremonies were an inheritance 

 from the old Saxon days, as the reader will remember the obse- 

 quies of Athelstane in Scott's romance of Ivanhoe, and the 

 interrupted festivities upon that occasion. 



1 See Customs in Old New England, by Alice Morse Earle. 



