10 



Burials in Woollen. 



shift is always white ; but there are different sorts of it as to fineness, 

 and consequently of different prices. To make these dresses is a 

 particular trade and there are many that sell nothing else." The 

 shirt for a man " has commonly a sleeve purfled about the wrists 

 and the slit of the shirt done in the same manner. This should be 

 at least half a foot longer than the body that the feet of the deceased 

 may be wrapped in it as in a bag. Upon the head they put a cap 

 which they fasten with a very broad chin-cloth, with gloves on the 

 hands, and a cravat round the neck, all of woollen. The women 



have a kind of head-dress with a forehead cloth That 



the body may ly the softer, some put a lay of bran about 4in. thick 

 at the bottom of the coffin. The coffin is sometimes very magni- 

 ficent. The body is visited to see that it is buried in flannel, and 

 that nothing is sewed with thread. They let it lye three or four 

 days." 



Pope, in his Moral Essays (Ep., i., 246 — 251), when giving ex- 

 amples of the ruling passion strong in death, thus refers to the 

 custom :— 



" Odious ! in woollen ! 'twould a saint provoke, 

 Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke : 

 No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace 

 Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face : 

 One would not, sure, be frightful when one's dead : 

 And — Betty — give this cheek a little red." 



The mistress was the celebrated Mrs. Oldfield; the maid, Mrs. 

 Saunders, her friend, also a clever actress. 



It would seem that some were much too fashionable to comply 

 with this regulation about burying in woollen ; and in these cases 

 it was, I believe, the custom that a servant of the household, or 

 someone to whom it was desired to offer a gratuity, should go and 

 give the information that the law had not been complied with, and 

 receive half of the penalty ; while the other half of the five pounds 

 was distributed to the poor. 



