Then weave thy chaplet of flowers and strew the beauties of
Nature about the grave; console thy broken spirit, if thou canst,
with these tender yet futile tributes of regret; but take warning
by the bitterness of this thy contrite affliction over the dead,
and henceforth be more faithful and affectionate in the discharge
of thy duties to the living.
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In writing the preceding article it was not intended to give a
full detail of the funeral customs of the English peasantry, but
merely to furnish a few hints and quotations illustrative of
particular rites, to be appended, by way of note, to another
paper, which has been withheld. The article swelled insensibly
into its present form, and this is mentioned as an apology for so
brief and casual a notice of these usages after they have been
amply and learnedly investigated in other works.
I must observe, also, that I am well aware that this custom of
adorning graves with flowers prevails in other countries besides
England. Indeed, in some it is much more general, and is observed
even by the rich and fashionable; but it is then apt to lose its
simplicity and to degenerate into affectation. Bright, in his
travels in Lower Hungary, tells of monuments of marble and
recesses formed for retirement, with seats placed among bowers of
greenhouse plants, and that the graves generally are covered with
the gayest flowers of the season.
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