ECCENTRIC MODES OF BURIAL.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 2180, 4 July 1890, Page 6

ECCENTRIC MODES OF BURIAL.

The story is fold of a certain Frenchman who had be6n a great collector of coins. By his will he directed that bis obsequies should be performed with every accompaniment calculated to inspire mirthful feelinge. His body was to be wrapped in tanned pigskin and buried coffioless in a standing position upon a pile of charcoal, laurel branches were to be carried by the mourners, and on returning from the cburch tLey were to throw open the chambers in which bis treasures were deposited, and all comers were welcome to help themselves as they pleased to the contents. It was a sore disappointment to the public, however, to find that before they were admitted the servants of tne deceased had de 2 camped with everything that was portable. — The wishes of a curious charcictrr, who wa& named Hilkington, better known as Squire Hawley, were fully carried out a few years ago at a place nf ar Doncaster. He was buried in his own garden, amid the graves of hia dead ca'tle, which had been stricken down by rinderpest. He was Laid out in full hunting costume, including spurs and whip, and was placed in a stone coffin weighing upwards of a toD, which had to be lowerfld into the grave by means of a crane. His old pony was' shct and buried at his *eet, and at his head were laid the bodies of his favourite dog and an old fox. All his property was left to his groom on condition that these funeral observances were fully carried out : in default, the estate was to go to the priest of Doncaster for the benefit of the TJoman Caihclic Church. The groom, however, did not suffer the bequeßt to himpelf to lapse. — It is related that a certain crotchety old Yorksbireman some years since left directions that on the day of his burial a great public breakfast should be given in the town where he might die, and that his coffin, slung upon towels knotted together, should be borne along by relays of men, and " bumped" three times upon a particular heap of stones, and that the •Lamentation of a Sianei" should then be sung. A still more important provision was made regarding the presence of mourners in the churchyard. Every man, woman, and child who entered the ground with or after the procession, had to receive a dole of sixpence. Never before or since, we are told, was that churchyard so full ot people. — A Sussex gentleman, named Jack Fuller, ordered his executors to bury him -in a pyramidal mausolenm in Brightling Churchyard. His reason for desiring to be enclosed in stone above ground was his unwillingness to be eaten by his relatives — a process he considered inevitable if buried in the ordinary way. " The worms," be declared " would eat me, the ducks would eat the worms, and my relations would eat the ducks." — A gentleman, named Underwood, left £6000 to his sister on condition that she had him buried in a particular fashion. Six gentlemen were appointed to follow him to the grave, where they wore to sing the last stanza o£ the twentieth Ode of the second Book of Horace. Mourning was forbidden to be worn ; no bell had to be

tolled, and no relation was to follow the corpse. The six chosen gentlemen "vere to be the only mourners. Th 9 coffin was paiDted green, and the deceased was buried with his clothes^n^ Threa copies of Horace were placed iS the grave with him, together with Bentley's " Milton" and a Greek Testament. After supper, the Bix mourn* ers sang the Ode — all baing in strict accordance with the will of the deceased. — Prom CasssU's Saturday Journal.