This ceremony continued seven days, and upon the eighth they carried the corpse to the place where it was to be burnt: amongst people of fortune, the bier, or coffin, was generally carried by relations: and at the funerals of Emperors and Consuls; the Senators, and Magistrates of the Republic did this office; but the common people were carried by Vespillones, or common bearers. When persons of high blood, or who were eminent for posts in government, or remarkable actions, were brought to the pile, the distinctions of their quality were carried before the coffin, as the consular fasces, the sword and mace, their ancestors in wax work, the plunder they had gained upon the enemy, the civic, mural, &c. crowns which they had deserved, and every thing else that might add to their figure. Servius observes, that in the beginning of the Republic, they buried their dead in their houses: but by a law of the twelve tables, it was forbidden either to bury, or burn any corpse within the city of Rome; but afterwards, the vestal virgins, and Emperors had a privilege of exception; as for other people they were either interred in the highways, or in their ground, out of the town. At the burning of the corpse, they laid it fast upon a pile of wood, of pines, yew, and other resembling trees, which lay one upon another in the figure of an altar. The corpse being dressed, and sprinkled with rich liquors, lay in a coffin, made on purpose, with his face upwards, and a piece of silver in his mouth to pay Charon for his fare. The pile was surrounded with cypress, an embalm of grief and death; after this some of the nearest relations, turning their back to the pile, set fire to it with a torch, which they held behind them; and the fire being lighted, they threw in the clothes, arms, and other rich goods, which the deceased person had the greatest fancy for. When the corpse was burnt, they wetted the bones and the ashes with milk and wine, and then put them into an urn, which they buried in a sepulchre for that purpose. Before this urn, they set a little altar, where they burnt perfumes. Their mourning lasted ten months, which was Romulus’s year; but it was possible to shorten this term by some public success of the state, or any extraordinary good fortune, which happened to a private family. _Account of the opening of the Tomb of King Edward_ I. _in Westminster Abbey, 467 years after its Interment._