§ 73. The average cost of funerals of persons of every rank above paupers in the metropolis may, therefore, be taken as 14_l._ 19_s._ 9_d._ per head. In some of the rural districts, and in the smaller provincial towns, where the distinct business of an undertaker has not arisen, coffins are made by carpenters, and services are supplied at a very moderate cost; but the allowances from the benefit and burial clubs throughout the country, of which instances have been given, may be stated as instances of the general expense to the labouring classes. To persons of the middle or higher classes, who give orders to undertakers in the metropolis, for funerals to be performed in the country, the expense is further enhanced by the extra expense of carriage; so that there is ground for believing that the same average prevails throughout Great Britain, and that the total annual expense of funerals cannot be much less than between four and five millions per annum. § 74. Out of 5_l._ expended for the common funeral of an adult artisan in the metropolis, about 15_s._ will be the burial dues. Of this 15_s._ about 3_s._ may be stated as the amount the clergyman will receive. The surplice fees vary in different places from 2_s._ for the lowest class, rising with the condition to 5_l._ 5_s._, or more; but taking the average of all cases which occur in the metropolis, and on the experience of the ministers of several parishes, the burial fees, which form their chief emolument, that which was anciently denominated “Soul Scot,” might perhaps be fairly taken as at 7_s._ 2_d._ per case, which is the average of the burial fees in some of the principal parishes in London.[16] _Different proportions of the Expenses of Burials to the Community in healthy and unhealthy Districts._