ON A STONE IN THE WALL OF CHISWICK CHURCHYARD.
This wall was made at ye charges of ye Right Honorable and trulie pious Lorde Francis Russell, Earle of Bedford, out of true zeale and care for ye keeping of this church-yard, and ye wardrobe of Godd's saints, whose bodies lay theirin buried from violation by swine, and other prophanation.—So witnesseth William Walker, Vo. A.D. 1623.
O.W.
A singular custom was formerly observed in the city of Middelburg, in the Netherlands. When any inhabitant died, a bundle of straw was placed before the house, with the ears towards the street, if the deceased was a man; but towards the house, if a woman.
G.W.N.