HERRICK.
There is also a solemn respect paid by the traveller to the
passing funeral in these sequestered places; for such spectacles,
occurring among the quiet abodes of Nature, sink deep into the
soul. As the mourning train approaches he pauses, uncovered, to
let it go by; he then follows silently in the rear; sometimes
quite to the grave, at other times for a few hundred yards, and,
having paid this tribute of respect to the deceased, turns and
resumes his journey.
The rich vein of melancholy which runs through the English
character, and gives it some of its most touching and ennobling
graces, is finely evidenced in these pathetic customs, and in the
solicitude shown by the common people for an honored and a
peaceful grave. The humblest peasant, whatever may be his lowly
lot while living, is anxious that some little respect may be paid
to his remains. Sir Thomas Overbury, describing the "faire and
happy milkmaid," observes, "thus lives she, and all her care is,
that she may die in the spring-time, to have store of flowers
stucke upon her winding-sheet." The poets, too, who always
breathe the feeling of a nation, continually advert to this fond
solicitude about the grave.
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