Will of La Duchesse D’Olonne
This lady, whose life was full of eccentricities, seems to have been determined to signalize her departure from the world by the singularity of her testamentary dispositions.
She desired in her will, probated in 1776, that her body should be carried into the principality of Lux, situated in Basse Navarre, and about two hundred and fifty miles from Paris. So far there was nothing very extraordinary; but she also desired to be followed by a very long procession, which was to consist of six mourning-coaches draped with black, for the family and the ecclesiastics, and of two hundred persons bearing torches, who were to receive a crown a day. The cortège was to walk at a solemn pace, and not to make more than five leagues per day, and at every five leagues, or as near that distance as it was possible to find a convenient resting-place, a funeral service was to be celebrated before the procession started again, and every church where such service should be held was to be hung with black.
What the cost of all this ceremony amounted to may be computed by the cost of the carriages alone, the hire of which amounted to eighteen thousand francs.
By another article in her will, the duchess devises liberal donations and annuities to her servants, proportioned to their services, but at the same time she sends them into exile; for she assigns to each a fixed residence at a certain distance from Paris, so that they shall be all separated from each other, and she specifies that they can only receive such annuities in the locality appointed them, and on condition that they shall make that their residence, because, as she alleges, she does not wish them to congregate together, and talk about her affairs and her character.
She left fifteen thousand francs to the poet Robbé, whom she lodged and supported in Paris, though it is difficult to discover on what grounds she patronized a man of such mediocre merit.
Lady Nicotine
A young lady of Kentucky exhibited a depth of sentiment rarely equalled, when she directed in her will that tobacco should be planted over her grave, that the weed, nourished by her dust, might be smoked by her bereaved lovers.
Forget John Underwood
On the 6th of May, 1735, was buried at Wittesca, Mr. John Underwood, of Lexington. The body was lowered into the grave at five o’clock, and as soon as the prayers were concluded a marble tablet was fixed at the extremity of the grave, bearing this inscription: