82 THE ASSOCIATIONS OF FLO WERS 
strew over the coffin. In many parts of Wales it is cus- 
tomary to plant the graves with shrubs and flowers. The 
nearest female relative of the dead, whether she be widow, 
mother, or sister, employs som.e poor person, as near as 
possible in age to the departed, and of the same sex, to 
keep the tomb strewed over with plants for several weeks, 
and to set slips of the mournful rosemary, or other suit- 
able shrubs. 
Our older poets refer continually to these simple cus- 
toms. 
“ Give her strewings, but not stir 
Earth that lightly covers her,” 
says the old epitaph. Thus, again, the beautiful lines of 
Herrick : 
“ Thus, and thus, we compass round 
Thy harmless and unhaunted ground. 
And as we sing thy dirge, we will. 
The daffodil, 
And other flowers, lay upon 
The altar of our love — thy stone.” 
In some places in Wales the graves are regularly weed- 
ed, and decked for two or three successive years, on the 
eve of Whitsuntide, Christmas, or any other great festival. 
The most thoughtless will not irreverently pluck the 
flowers from a grave ; but as the clods of the valley lie 
sweet about him, a bereaved mourner will sometimes 
gather a small blossom from the dust to which some 
beloved object has changed, to serve as a remembrance 
of the departed, and to lead him to moralise over the 
frailty of human loveliness. “ As a flower of the field, 
so it flourisheth ; but a wind passeth over it, and it is 
gone.” It was once superstitiously thought a happy omen 
of the future state of the deceased, if a shower of rain 
fell and refreshed the evergreens immediately after they 
were planted ; and it was this idea, probably, which ori- 
ginated the latter part of our familiar proverb : 
“ Blessed is the bride whom the sun shines on. 
And blessed is the corpse which the rain raineth on.” 
