“Sir,—A correspondent in your columns, about a fortnight ago, called attention to this subject, and expressed disapproval of the manner in which the offertories are taken in some Churches at funeral services—by laying the plate on the bier near the pulpit, and the congregation in a disorderly manner laying their offertory on the plate. I regret to observe that this practice is still pursued in two parishes in this neighbourhood, and I should like to call the attention of the proper authorities to the desirableness of changing the custom, and adopting the system suggested by your correspondent, that the offertory should be taken at the gate, or that two or more plates should be taken around the congregation. The parish clerk, too, might be instructed not to announce the amount of the offertory.”
Undoubtedly, this custom has survived from Pre-Reformation times, and was originally intended to compensate the Priest for praying for the Soul of the departed in Purgatory, but at present it only means a token of esteem towards the officiating Clergyman, or perhaps a tribute of respect to the departed. It was formerly customary in Wales to throw a sprig of rosemary into the grave on the coffin. The custom has been discontinued now, but it was done in the Vale of Towy, in Carmarthenshire as late as sixty years ago.
An excellent old Welsh Magazine, the “Gwyliedydd” for May, 1830, makes the following observation concerning the custom: “In ancient times, it was customary for all who attended a funeral to carry each a sprig of rosemary in his hand, and throw it into the grave as the minister was reading the last words of the funeral service”; and a writer in the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, in the following year adds that a custom analogous to this prevailed amongst the ancient heathens; who used to throw cypress wood into the grave in the same manner. The reason why they made choice of the cypress was, because its branches do not bud when thrown into the earth, but perish altogether; it was thus an expressive symbol of their opinion, that the bodies of the dead would never rise again. On the other hand, the Christians threw the rosemary into the graves of their brethren to express that hope of a joyful resurrection with which their faith had inspired them.
It was once customary to read the will of deceased over the grave. Sir S. R. Meyrick mentions this in his History of Cardiganshire, a hundred years ago, and the custom has been continued to a more recent date. The Rev. T. D. Thomas, Vicar of Llangorwen, near Aberystwyth, informed me that this was done by him at Llangadock, Carmarthenshire, about the year 1897, when officiating in the absence of the Vicar of that Parish.
There was also an old custom of burying one who had been murdered, in a coffin covered with red cloth. The Rev. D. G. Williams, in his collection of Carmarthenshire Folk-Lore, says that one William Powell, of Glan Areth, Vale of Towy, was so buried in the year 1770.
In Wales in pre-Reformation times, it was sometimes the practice to bury a rich man in the garments of a monk, as a protection against evil spirits; but this could not be done without paying large sums of money to the priests.
The custom of covering the coffin with wreaths is very generally observed at the present day throughout West and Mid-Wales. The coffin of the late Sir Pryse Pryse, Bart., Gogerddan, who was buried at Penrhyncoch, Cardiganshire, April 23rd, 1906, was covered with wreaths of most beautiful flowers, sent by Dowager Lady Pryse, Sir Edward and Lady Webley-Parry-Pryse, Countess Lisburne, Viscountess Parker, Lady Evans, Lovesgrove; Mr. and Mrs. Loxdale, and many other relations and friends, as well as the tenants and servants.
In times past the Welsh always carried the association of graves and flowers to the most lavish extreme, and Shakespeare, alluding to this in “Cymbeline,” the scene of which tragedy is more especially in Pembrokeshire, says:
“Arv. With fairest flowers,
Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,