NOTES.
(a) In the 18th Century, the undertaker issued his handbills—gruesome things, with grinning skulls and shroud-clad corpses, thigh bones, mattocks and pickaxes, hearses, etc.:
"These are to notice that Mr. John Elphick, Woollen Draper, over against St Michael's Church, in Lewes, hath a good Hearse, a Velvet Pall, Mourning Cloaks, and Black Hangings for Rooms, to be lett at Reasonable Rates.
"He also sells all sorts of Mourning and Half Mourning, all sorts of Black Cyprus for Scarfs and Hatbands, and White Silks for Scarfs and Hoods at Funerals; Gloves of all sorts, and Burying Cloaths for the Dead."
Again:—
"Eleazar Malory, Joiner at the Coffin in White Chapel, near Red Lion Street end, maketh Coffins, Shrouds, letteth Palls, Cloaks, and Furnisheth with all the other things necessary for Funerals at Reasonable Rates."
(b) The dead were formerly buried in woollen, which was rendered compulsory by the Acts 30 Car. ii. c. 3 and 36 Ejusdem c. i., the first of which was for "lessening the importation of Linen from beyond the seas, and the encouragement of the Woollen and Paper Manufactures of the Kingdome." It prescribed that the curate of every parish shall keep a register, to be provided at the charge of the parish, wherein to enter all burials and affidavits of persons being buried in woollen. No affidavit was necessary for a person dying of the plague, but for every infringement a fine of £5 was imposed, one half to go to the informer, and the other half to the poor of the parish. This Act was only repealed in 1815. The material used was flannel, and such interments are frequently mentioned in the literature of the time.
(c) Misson throws some light on the custom of using flannel for enveloping the dead, but I fancy that it is of much greater antiquity than he imagined. However, he asserts:—