In a century of melancholy monuments, the century of “The Grave” and “Night Thoughts,” the desire for simplicity is frequently expressed: there seems to be a common reaction against pomposity and show. “I desire to be decently and privately buried in the Churchyard of the parish of Wargrave without any funeral pomp or vain idle expense,” says Simeon Rockall (1789), and Pierce Galliard, of Edmonton and Southampton, “I will and desire that my body may be buried decently and privately without pomp or show and with as little expense as possible, either in the parish Church where I shall die or at Edmonton with my ancestors and family as shall be agreeable to my beloved wife and executrix.” These are but random instances. But sometimes the tones are raised by appeal to reason or to ridicule. Thus Rev. Obadiah Hughes (1751) says: “I order that my body be conveyed in a decent but not pompous manner, (for pomp and show abate the solemnity of death, and often prevent those serious impressions which a funeral might make upon the minds of attendants and spectators,) to the parish Church of St. Martin Outwich in the City of London, and be there deposited as near as may be to the precious remains of my late dear wife, there to rest and sleep together until the great resurrection day.” And Samuel Gillam, whose will was proved on August 13, 1793, thus breaks out: “Whereas I think it a very great absurdity and the most egregious folly to make the deaths and burials of persons to be an occasion of pomp and show, I do hereby order and desire my funeral may be performed in such manner as may be barely decent, but no more, and that the expense thereof do not exceed including the parochial fees £20, and that William Brent do undertake the same. I give unto the said William Brent as a legacy £10. I verily believe he is an honest man.”