"To add to your laments Wherewith you now bedew King Henry's herse," &c. Johnson furnishes two definitions of the word, herse--1. A carriage, in which the dead are conveyed to the grave. 2. A temporary monument, set over a grave. It is quite certain, however, that the _herse_, whether justly styled _a monument_, or not, was _not_ usually "_set over the grave_," but more frequently, like the _catafalque_, agreeably to the definition given above--_au milieu d'une eglise_. No writer, probably, refers to the _herse_, so frequently, as old John Strype, in his Memorials; and, in no instance, I believe, in the sense of a _car_ or _vehicle_, or as a structure, "_set over the grave_." Strype's Memorials are the records of a Roman Catholic age, or of a period, during which, the usages of the Romish Church, in England, had not entirely worn out their welcome with the people--the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Bloody Mary, and Elizabeth. For, even during the reigns of Edward VI., and of Elizabeth, not a few of those pompous practices, which grew up, in the times of their respective predecessors, still clung upon the imaginations of the populace, and were reluctantly surrendered. The church is the theatre of the Romish ecclesiastic. The service is an attractive spectacle. If the world were struck blind, who does not perceive, that the principal supports of Romanism would be instantly taken away! It has been the practice of all churches, that deal somewhat extensively, in forms and ceremonies, to demand of their members, with a greater or less degree of peremptoriness, that certain acts shall be publicly performed--_au milieu d'une eglise_. Thus the ceremony of marriage--the baptism of infants--the churching of women--and the burial of the dead furnish occasion, for throwing open the temple, and exhibiting its showy furniture to the multitude; and of verifying a pleasing saying of the late eminent, and excellent Archbishop of Bordeaux, while Bishop of Boston--"_If we cannot catch them, in one way, we catch them in another_." Nothing has ever been a more prolific source of capital to the Romish church, in former ages, than funereal parade, _au milieu d'une eglise_. Strype, with very few exceptions, speaks of the _herse_ as a "_herse of wax_." To this I have alluded in an earlier number. It may require a brief explanation here. Wax candles, of divers colors and forms, were attached to the _herse_, and the wax chandler of those days was in great request, and often rose to wealth and distinction.