The meanings of these desires are not seldom hid, and each may conjecture for himself the motive of the deceased. Thus Thomas Fuller says of Catharine of Aragon: “She was buried in the abbey-church of Peterborough, under a hearse of black say; probably by her own appointment, that she might be plain when dead, who neglected bravery of clothes when living.” A vain woman, on the other hand, desired according to an old Welsh tale to be buried in her ball-dress, and her request was not denied; but her soul was hunted by the spirit-hounds, who pursue the objects of their malice. It is difficult to believe that anything but eccentricity lay behind the wishes of one who was recently buried at Barton-on-Humber, “in his best suit of clothes and brown boots, cane in hand and cap on head, watch in fob with chain attached, and with a few coins in his pockets.” Again, a woman wishes to be buried in the clothes she shall be wearing at the time of her death, and what might lie behind this desire is suggested by the romance of Mrs. Fitzherbert and George IV. It was in a will that he acknowledged her as his true wife, and the romance was recalled when he commanded the Duke of Wellington to see that he was buried in the clothes which he wore at death, and that nothing should be taken from him. The King, it was discovered, had piously worn a miniature of the woman he had loved, and by his command he secured that the portrait should be buried with him. John Hyacinth de Magelhaens, buried February 13, 1790, desired that “where the tree fell it might lie.” No doubt some sentiment or tradition would explain many quaint requests. A recent writer spins a little tale to explain a certain sentimental dying injunction “that there should be placed in his hands and buried with him a rosebud which will be found with him whenever or wherever he dies.” The reader of Jules Sandeau’s tale “Un Héritage,” soon discovers the reason for the last injunction in the will of Count Sigismond St. Hildesheim. “Je joins au présent testament un air tyrolien; je désire que cet air soit gravé sur ma tombe et me serve d’épitaphe.” On many such desires, however, it is curious to speculate.