Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Taken from Original SourcesAshton, John
History
Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Taken from Original Sources
Ashton, John
Great Britain -- History -- Anne, 1702-1714; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 18th century
No wonder he exclaimed against these mortuary extravagances. Take an
alderman's funeral as an example: 'On Wednesday last the Corps of Sir
William Prichard, Kt., late Alderman, and sometime Lord Mayor of the
City of London, (Who died Feb. 18) having lain some days in State, at
his House in Highgate, was convey'd from thence in a Hearse,
accompanied by several Mourning Coaches with 6 Horses each, through
Barnet and St. Albans to Dunstable; and the next day through Hockley
(where it was met by about 20 Persons on Horseback) to Woburn and
Newport Pagnel, and to his seat at Great Lynford (a Mile farther) in
the county of Buckingham: Where, after the Body had been set out, with
all Ceremony befitting his Degree, for near 2 hours, 'twas carried to
the Church adjacent in this order, viz. 2 Conductors with long
Staves, 6 Men in Long Cloaks two and two, the Standard 18 Men in
Cloaks as before, Servants to the Deceas'd two and two, Divines, the
Minister of the Parish and the Preacher, the Helm and Crest, Sword and
Target, Gauntlets and Spurs, born by an Officer of Arms; the Surcoat
of arms born by another Officer of Arms, both in their rich Coats of
Her Majesty's Arms embroider'd; the Body, between 6 Persons of the
Arms of Christ's Hospital, St. Bartholomew's, Merchant Taylors'
Company, City of London, empaled Coat and Single Coat; the Chief
Mourner and his 4 Assistants, follow'd by the Relations of the
Defunct, &c. After Divine Service was perform'd and an excellent
Sermon suitable to the Occasion, preach'd by the Reverend Lewis
Atterbury, LL.D., Minister of Highgate aforesaid, the Corps was
interr'd in a handsome large Vault, in the Ile on the North side of
the Church, betwixt 7 and 8 of the clock that Evening.'[67]
[Footnote 67: _Daily Courant_, March 5, 1705.]
But there was one thing they did not spend so much money upon as their
forefathers did, _i.e._ on monumental statuary, &c. In this age the
bust, or 'busto,' was used in preference to the recumbent, or
half-figures, of the previous century; but by far the greater number
of mortuary memorials took the form of mural tablets, more or less
ornate, according to the taste and wealth of the parties concerned. As
a rule the epitaph was in Latin--this classical age, and the somewhat
pedantic one that followed, could brook no meaner tongue in which to
eulogise its dead; and their virtues were pompously set forth in that
language which is common to the whole of the civilised world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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