A daughter of William Balderstone, of Balderstone, in her widowhood, makes a will of which the following is the commencement:--"Seventh day of January, 1497. I, Dame Jane Pilkington, widow, make and ordain this my last will and testament: First, I bequeath my bodye to be buried in y^e Nunnes Quire of Monketon, in my habit, holding my hand upon my breast, with my ring upon my finger, having taken in my resolves the mantel and the ring," &c.[199] FUNERAL CUSTOMS IN EAST LANCASHIRE. In _Nicholas Assheton's Journal_, he mentions that the corpse of a Mrs. Starkie was carried to church by four relatives; there was a sermon, and afterwards dinner, forty messes being provided for. On this, Dr. Whitaker remarks:--"An ancient usage. The nearest relations always took up the corpse at the door; and once more, if the distance was considerable, at the church gates. By forty messes, I suppose are to be understood so many dishes of meat." The editor (the Rev. Canon Raines) adds:--"This custom, which appears to be quite patriarchal, is still prevalent in some of the country parishes in South Lancashire. The custom of preaching funeral sermons on the day of the burial is now exploded, although so recently as 1776 the vicar of one of the largest parishes in Lancashire (Rev. John White, B.A., of Blackburn), objected to the building of a church in his parish unless he had 'some compensation made for the funeral sermons to be preached in it.'[200] I should rather understand the forty messes to be dinners provided for forty persons, although funerals in Lancashire at this period were conducted on a scale of prodigality scarcely to be conceived." [_The House and Farm Accounts of the Shuttleworths_ give examples of three burial customs--that of a dole to the poor; at one place 40_s._ 7_d._, at another 57_s._ 4_d._, at a third 47_s._ 8_d._ (?) a penny to each person; that of payment to the clergyman for a funeral sermon, in one case 5_s._; and that of providing dinners for the mourners, chiefly for those from a distance, in one case twenty-four messes of meat cost 58_s._ 8_d._; in another instance seventy dined at 6_d._ the mess or meal, seventy-six and sixty-five at 5_d._; in all 211 persons attending one funeral.--EDS.] BIDDING TO FUNERALS.