Previously to the formation of cemeteries, and the employment of omnibus-hearses, it was customary to invite large numbers to attend funerals. Guests were invited by _dozens_; and as each entered the house where the deceased lay, he was met at the door by a female attendant habited in black, and wearing a white apron, who offered him spiced liquor from a silver tankard. In the house each person was presented with a bun and a slice of currant bread. When the time for closing up the coffin arrived, each took his last look at the corpse and presented a shilling, or more, to the nearest relative of the deceased; who always sat at the head of the coffin for this purpose. In the neighbourhoods of Little Hulton, Peel Yate, Walkden Moor, &c., it was till of late years the custom for two persons to be nominated as "bidders" of guests to a funeral. These went to the various houses of the persons to be invited, and presented to each a sprig of rosemary; which the guest wore or carried in the hand at the funeral. This inviting or "bidding" was usually called "lating" or "lathing;" from the A.-S. verb _Lathian_, to invite, bid, or send for. SITUATION AND DIRECTION OF GRAVES. As churches are built to stand about East and West, the greatest spaces in the churchyard are the North and South sides of the church. Throughout Lancashire and the North of England there is a universal superstition that the south side of the church is the holiest or most consecrated ground, and it may be observed that that side of the graveyard is generally crowded with grave-stones, or green hillocks of turf, while the north side has but few. This is an old superstition, which held that the north side of the church was really unhallowed ground, fit only to be the last resting place of still-born infants and suicides. Then almost all graves are ranged east and west; and in a rare tract of the Marprelate series, called "_Martin's Month's Mind_" (1589) it is stated that "he would not be laid east and west (for he ever went against the hair), but north and south: I think because 'Ab aquilone omne malum' (from the north comes all evil), and the south wind ever brings corruption with it." The celebrated antiquary Thomas Hearne, left orders for his grave to be made straight by a compass, due east and west. Sir Thomas Browne[201] observes that "the Persians were buried lying north and south; the Megarians and Phœnicians placed their heads to the east; the Athenians, some think, towards the west, which Christians still retain; and Bede will have it to be the posture of our Saviour." One "Article of Inquiry" in a visitation of the Bishop of Ely in 1662, was--"When graves are digged, are they made six feet deep (at the least), and east and west?" FOOTNOTES: [193] Rev. John Booker, Prestwich, in _Notes and Queries_, v. 543. [194] _Richmondshire_, ii. 298. [195] In many instances, in social feasts, four persons were regarded as a "mess."