'1618. Proceedings in the court of the Archdeaconry of Essex.

Eastwood, contra Richardum Downham. 'Presentatur, for sleeping in church. . . . Allegavit, that he did not sleepe in the church this twelvemonth. Unde Dominus habita monitione eum dimisit.'

Mr. Hale gives several citations for neglect of the usual ceremonies in interment, as also for burial out of the parish. One is here transcribed. It occurred in Essex in 1593.

'Detected, for burieing the dead corps of one Father Cooke not saing servyce in manner and form as it is in the book of Common Prayer prescribed.

... Fassus est, that he did not goe to the grave according to the booke of Common Prayer, by reason of a greate winde, and he not being well durst not goe into the danger of taking cold in the ayre; but he saith that he redd the whole servyce, according to the booke of Common Prayer. Unde Dominus injunxit ei, that on Sunday next he shall acknowledge that he hathe omitted his dewty, in not burieing the dead according to the order prescribed.'

I conclude these extracts with a bon bouche for the mothers and daughters of the present day.

'Burnham, contra Hayward, puellam.

'1617.

'Presentatur, for that she being but a yonge mayde, sat in the pewe with her mother, to the great offence of many reverent women: howbeit that after I, Peter Lewis, the vicar, had in the church privatlie admonished the said yonge mayde of her fault, and advised her to sitt at her mother's pewe-dore, she obeyed; but nowe she sitts againe with her mother.'

CHAPTER V.

INTERMENT.

CEMETERIES AND CHARNEL-HOUSES.

'Earth to earth, and dust to dust!'

Here the evil and the just,

Here the youthful and the old,

Here the fearful and the bold,

Here the matron and the maid,
In one silent bed are laid;
Here the vassal and the king
Side by side lie withering;

Here the sword and sceptre rust

'Earth to earth, and dust to dust!'

N the burial registers of the parish church at

IN

Clifton, near Bristol, are various entries referring to interments in 'THE QUALITY VAULT.' Amongst these, in the last century, occurs the name of the Lady Harriott Fitzgerald, daughter of Lord Kildare. And there is also a register, about the same period, of the burial of Miss Harriott Halds, 'in the Quality Vault.'

It is to be hoped that no plebeian dust may by any mismanagement have found its way into this aristocratic receptacle. But such notifications form a curious commentary on the remark which Southey relates to have been made by John Wesley, on the

occasion of his preaching at this church, and seeing many rich people assembled.

'My heart,' says he, 'was much pained for them, and I was earnestly desirous that some, even of them, might enter into the kingdom of Heaven.'

When this 'quality vault' was constructed the present usage of suburban cemeteries was not in vogue; indeed, the crying necessity had not existed which has been the main cause of their formation, though fashion may have done somewhat. But it is a strange fashion, a strange fancy, which can induce persons to prefer to be laid in a gay lounge, the feet of careless, frivolous, and thoughtless promenaders and pleasure-seekers all but treading on your grave, rather than to lie in the holy quiet of a churchyard. For though many churchyards be now of propriety and necessity closed, there are others yet open for those who earnestly wish them. But numbers, as we have said, who have power to gratify their own fancies, prefer these artificial, and comparatively unhallowed places.

It may be a fancy, but surely it is akin both to nature and reason, that the environs of the places solemnly dedicated ages ago to God's worship, hallowed by the prayers of succeeding generations for centuries past, where the air is redolent with the breath of prayer offered up by pious Christians now sleeping the sleep of the righteous below; where per

chance we ourselves were admitted into the Holy Communion of Christ's flock, and where we have seen probably some of those nearest and dearest to us laid in their last narrow house; where, it may be, their spirits are still hovering around ;-surely it is most natural, most reasonable, most pious, that there we should wish to repose too.

For it is difficult to understand the feelings of indifference with which some, sincerely good people too, declaim on the worthlessness of the body, and their carelessness of what becomes of it. What matters,' say they, 'this old vile garment, these rags?' Oh much, very much. For are we not told that it shall rise again? This contemptuous indifference is very far removed from a Christian repudiation of pomp and finery. Sir Lewis Clifford, who died in the beginning of the fifteenth century, when funereal pomp and ostentation were more than ever rife, ordered by his will 'y' on his careyne be nether laid cloth of golde ne of sylke; but a blake cloth; and a taper at his head, and another at his feet; ne stone, ne other thing, wherby eny man may witt where my careyne leyeth.'

No want of ceremony and observance here; no token of contemptuous indifference; merely a repu-` diation of pomp and luxury. No cloth of gold or silk, but a decent and solemn black cloth, and a