"He's with a better Friend now, my dear Vicar," said he, "than this earth can give him. We shall hear his sweet voice no more in our choir here; he has gone to join the choir of angels in a nobler temple than ours." Old Matthew's words were true; the loving little heart was broken. The old oak had fallen, and crushed the tender sapling as it fell[221]. On the morning of Trinity Sunday, there stood under the old yew-tree of St. Catherine's churchyard, three little stone crosses side-by-side, where but one had been before. THE END GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE, LONDON. Footnotes 1: In some parts of Devonshire and Cornwall, Lich-Gates are called "Trim-Trams." The origin of this word is not easy to determine; it is probably only a nickname. 2: Anglo-Saxon, _lic_,--a dead body. In Germany the word _leiche_ has doubtless the same original; it is still used to signify a corpse or funeral. The German _leichengang_ has precisely the same meaning as our _Lich-Gate_. 3: It is stated in _Britton's Antiquities_ that there was formerly a Lych-Gate in a lane called Lych-lane in Gloucester, where the body of Edward II. rested on its way to burial in the Cathedral. 4: A Lyke-wake dirge:-- "This ae nighte, this ae nighte, Every nighte and alle; Fire and sleete, and candle lighte, And Christe receive theye saule." (Scott's "_Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_.") 5: On the Lich-Gate at Bray, Berks, is the date 1448; but there are very few examples so early. 6: The following are among the most interesting of the ancient Lich-Gates still remaining:-- Beckenham, Lincolnshire; Berry-Harbor, Devonshire; Birstal, York; Bromsgrove, Worcestershire; Burnside, Westmoreland; Compton, Berkshire; Garsington, Oxon; Tawstock, Devonshire; West Wickham, Kent; and Worth, Sussex. The construction of the gate at Burnside is very curious, and Tawstock Lich-Gate possesses peculiar features of interest, which are noticed in the next Chapter. One of the finest Lich-Gates was at Arundel, in Surrey, but it has been removed, and is now the Church Porch. 7: St. John xi. 25. The first words of the Burial Office, said by the Priest at the entrance to the Churchyard. 8: A very interesting paper on Lich-Gates, in the "Clerical Journal," affords much information on this subject. Over the gate at Bray are "two chambers, connected with an ancient charitable bequest." 9: This chamber was formerly called the Chapel of the Holy Rood. 10: The custom of distributing "cakes and ale" at the churchyard on the occasion of funerals in Scotland, has been but very recently given up. Dean Ramsey, in his interesting "anecdotes," has informed us that at the burial of the Chief of a clan, many thousands would sometimes assemble, and not unfrequently the funeral would end in a disgraceful riot. 11: In Cornwall the now common practice of placing a wreath of white flowers on the coffin is a very ancient and still prevailing usage.