The custom of decorating graves was once universally prevalent:
osiers were carefully bent over them to keep the turf uninjured, and
about them were planted evergreens and flowers. "We adorn their
graves," says Evelyn, in his Sylva, "with flowers and redolent plants,
just emblems of the life of man, which has been compared in Holy
Scriptures to those fading beauties, whose roots being buried in
dishonor, rise again in glory." This usage has now become extremely
rare in England; but it may still be met with in the church-yards of
retired villages, among the Welsh mountains; and I recollect an
instance of it at the small town of Ruthen, which lies at the head
of the beautiful vale of Clewyd. I have been told also by a friend,
who was present at the funeral of a young girl in Glamorganshire, that
the female attendants had their aprons full of flowers, which, as soon
as the body was interred, they stuck about the grave.
He noticed several graves which had been decorated in the same
manner. As the flowers had been merely stuck in the ground, and not
planted, they had soon withered, and might be seen in various states
of decay; some drooping, others quite perished.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20