"With wicker rods we fenc'd her tomb around, For both his horse and cow the churchyard graze." Hawke Locker, in his Views in Spain, speaking of Grenadilla, says: "We passed two or three crosses, which marked the spot where some unfortunate wretches had met a violent death by the way. Some of these probably were killed by accident, but all were described as so many barbarous murders, and the fluency of the narrative proved that we were listening to a tale which had been told a hundred times before. The very ancient custom of casting a stone upon these untimely graves is still observed throughout Spain. Affection or superstition induces many to offer this tribute, accompanied by a silent prayer for the dead; but even a mere stranger, exempt from such motives, may find a gratification in adding a stone to the heap, from that veneration for the dead which seems to be inherent in our constitution." In Malkin's Scenery, Antiquities, and Biography of South Wales, 1804, Glamorganshire, p. 67, we read: "The bed on which the corpse lies is always strewed with flowers, and the same custom is observed after it is laid in the coffin. They bury much earlier than we do in England; seldom later than the third day, and very frequently on the second. The habit of filling the bed, the coffin, and the room with sweet-scented flowers, though originating probably in delicacy as well as affection, must of course have a strong tendency to expedite the progress of decay. It is an invariable practice, both by day and night, to watch a corpse: and so firm a hold has this supposed duty gained on their imaginations, that probably there is no instance upon record of a family so unfeeling and abandoned as to leave a dead body in the room by itself for a single minute in the interval between the death and burial. Such a violation of decency would be remembered for generations. The hospitality of the country is not less remarkable on melancholy than on joyful occasions. The invitations to a funeral are very general and extensive, and the refreshments are not light, and taken standing, but substantial and prolonged. Any deficiency in the supply of ale would be as severely censured on this occasion as at a festival. The grave of the deceased is constantly overspread with plucked flowers for a week or two after the funeral. The planting of graves with flowers is confined to the villages and the poorer people. It is perhaps a prettier custom. It is very common to dress the graves on Whitsunday and other festivals, when flowers are to be procured; and the frequency of this observance is a good deal affected by the respect in which the deceased was held. My father-in-law's grave, in Cowbridge church, has been strewed by his surviving servants every Sunday morning for these twenty years. It is usual for a family not to appear at church till what is called the month's end, when they go in a body, and then are considered as having returned to the common offices of life." In the same work, p. 606, in notes on an Elegy written by Mason, we are told again that "it is a very ancient and general practice in Glamorgan to plant flowers on the graves; so that many churchyards have something like the splendour of a rich and various parterre. Besides this, it is usual to strew the graves with flowers and evergreens, within the church as well as out of it, thrice at least every year, on the same principle of delicate respect as the stones are whitened. No flowers or evergreens are permitted to be planted on graves but such as are sweet-scented: the pink and polyanthus, sweet-Williams, gilliflowers and carnations, mignionette, thyme, hyssop, camomile, and rosemary, make up the pious decoration of this consecrated garden. Turnsoles, pionies, the African marigold, the anemone, and many others I could mention, though beautiful, are never planted on graves, because they are not sweet-scented. It is to be observed, however, that this tender custom is sometimes converted into an instrument of satire; so that, where persons have been distinguished for their pride, vanity, or any other unpopular quality, the neighbours whom they may have offended plant these also by stealth upon their graves. The white rose is always planted on a virgin's tomb. The red rose is appropriated to the grave of any person distinguished for goodness, and especially benevolence of character. In the Easter week most generally the graves are newly dressed, and manured with fresh earth, when such flowers or evergreens as may be wanted or wished for are planted. In the Whitsuntide holidays, or rather the preceding week, the graves are again looked after, weeded, and otherwise dressed, or, if necessary, planted again. It is a very common saying of such persons as employ themselves in thus planting and dressing the graves of their friends, that they are cultivating their own freeholds. This work the nearest relations of the deceased always do with their own hands, and never by servants or hired persons. Should a neighbour assist, he or she never takes, never expects, and indeed is never insulted by the offer of any reward, by those who are acquainted with the ancient custom. The vulgar and illiberal prejudice against old maids and old bachelors subsists among the Welsh in a very disgraceful degree, so that their graves have not unfrequently been planted by some satirical neighbours, not only with rue, but with thistles, nettles, henbane, and other noxious weeds. In addition to the foregoing remarks, it may be observed of the Glamorganshire customs, that, when a young couple are to be married, their ways to the church are strewed with sweet-scented flowers and evergreens. When a young unmarried person dies, his or her ways to the grave are also strewed with sweet flowers and evergreens; and on such occasions it is the usual phrase that those persons are going to their nuptial beds, not to their graves. There seems to be a remarkable coincidence between these people and the ancient Greeks, with respect to the avoiding of ill-omened words. None ever molest the flowers that grow on graves; for it is deemed a kind of sacrilege to do so. A relation or friend will occasionally take a pink, if it can be spared, or a sprig of thyme, from the grave of a beloved or respected person, to wear it in remembrance; but they never take much, lest they should deface the growth on the grave. This custom prevails principally in the most retired villages; and I have been assured that, in such villages where the right of grazing the churchyard has been enforced, the practice has alienated the affections of very great numbers from the clergymen and their churches; so that many have become dissenters for the singularly uncommon reason that they may bury their friends in dissenting burial-grounds, plant their graves with flowers, and keep them clean and neat, without any danger of their being cropped. This may have been the fact in some places; but I confidently believe that few of the clergy would urge their privileges to an unfair or offensive extent. These elegant and highly pathetic customs of South Wales make the best impressions on the mind. What can be more affecting than to see all the youth of both sexes in village, and in every village through which the corpse passes, dressed in their best apparel, and strewing with sweet-scented flowers the ways along which one of their beloved neighbours goes to his or her marriage-bed?" In the same work, p. 223, speaking of the church of Llanspyddid, on the south side of the Uske, surrounded with large and venerable yew-trees, Malkin observes: "The natives of the principality pride themselves much on these ancient ornaments of their churchyards; and it is nearly as general a custom in Brecknockshire to decorate the graves of the deceased with slips either of bay or yew, stuck in the green turf, for an emblem of pious remembrance, as it is in Glamorganshire to pay a tribute of similar import in the cultivation of sweet-scented flowers on the same spot." Gough, in Sepulchral Monuments, Introd. ii. 104, says: 'Aubrey takes notice of a custom of planting rose-trees on the graves of lovers by the survivors, at Oakley, Surrey, which may be a remain of Roman manners among us; it being in practice among them and the Greeks to have roses yearly strewed on their graves, as Bishop Gibson, after Kirkman de Funeribus, p. 498, remarks from two inscriptions at Ravenna and Milan. The practice in Propertius of burying the dead (Eleg. i. 17) in roses, is common among our country-people; and to it Anacreon seems to allude, Ode liii., where he says, ροδον νεκροις αμνει. In the Female Mentor, 1798, ii. 205, 206, we read: "Independently of the religious comfort which is imparted in our burial service, we sometimes see certain gratifications which are derived from immaterial circumstances; and, however trivial they may appear, are not to be judged improper, as long as they are perfectly innocent. Of this kind may be deemed the practice in some country villages of throwing flowers into the grave; and it is curious to trace this apparently simple custom up to the politest periods of Greece and Rome. Virgil, describing Anchises grieving for Marcellus, makes him say: Bishop Gibson is also cited as an authority for this practice by Mr. Strutt, in his Manners and Customs, Anglo-Saxon Era, i. 69. See also Bray's History of Surrey, ii. 165. I do not find that the custom is at present retained. Full canisters of fragrant lilies bring, The graves of Glamorganshire, decorated with flowers and herbs, at once gratify the relations of the departed and please the observer. Friar Lawrence, in Romeo and Juliet, says: 46 Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary Of Paris, the intended husband of Juliet, who, to all appearance, died on her wedding-day, it is said, in the language of Shakespeare, "He came with flowers to strew his lady's grave," when he provoked, and met his fate by the hand of, Romeo. Sir Thomas Overbury, in his Characters, describing the "faire and happy milk-maid," says: "Thus lived she, and all her care is, that she may die in the spring-time, to have store of flowers stucke upon her winding sheet." A MS. entitled Historical Passages concerning the Clergy, cited in the History of Shrewsbury, 4to. p. 92, speaking of the ancient Papal times, observes: "It is probable before this time there were neither seats nor benches in churches; the floors were commonly strewed with flowers and sweet herbs, especially at midnight masses and great festivals, upon which the people must prostrate themselves." The following curious passage I found in the Festyvall, 1528, f. 77, in the account of St. Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury : "He was also manfull in his houshold, for his hall was every daye in somer season strewed with grene russhes, and in wynter with clene hey, for to save the knyghtes clothes that sate on the flore for defaute of place to syt on." Pennant, in his Tour in Scotland, remarks a singular custom in many parts of North Britain, of "painting on the doors and window-shutters white tadpole-like figures, on a black ground, designed to express the tears of the country for the loss of any person of distinction. Nothing seems wanting to render this mode of expressing sorrow completely ridiculous, but the subjoining of a N.B. These are tears.' I saw a door that led into a family vault in Kelso churchyard in 1785, |