Non omnis moriar,
JOHN UNDERWOOD
May 6, 1735.
All the detail of the interment was in strict accordance with the testamentary prescriptions of the deceased, and proceeded as follows: As soon as the grave was filled up and covered with turf, the six friends who, by his desire, had attended on the occasion, sang the last stanza of the twentieth ode of the second book of Horace:
“Absint inani funere nœniæ,
Luctusque turpes et querimoniæ;
Compesce clamorem, ac sepulcri
Mitte supervacuos honores.”
No bell was tolled; no relative was present; the bier was painted green, and the body was laid on it dressed in ordinary clothes; beneath the head was placed a copy of Horace, at his feet a Milton, on his right hand a small Greek Bible, with his name on the binding in gilt letters, on the left a smaller edition of Horace, with the inscription “Musis amicus, J.U.,” and under his shoulders Bentley’s Horace. When the ceremony was concluded, his friends returned to his house, where his sister awaited them, and all sat down to an elegant supper; after it was over, the company joined in singing the thirty-first ode of the first book of Horace:
“Quid dedicatum poscit Apollinem vates?”
Then they drank gayly for some time, but retired at eight o’clock. Mr. John Underwood bequeathed about fifty thousand dollars to his sister, on condition that she should carry out faithfully the conditions of his will. He left $50 to each of his friends, requesting them not to wear mourning; then came the singular directions, which were carried out as above, and the will concluded thus: “ ... This done, I request my friends to separate, after drinking cheerfully together, and to think no more of John Underwood.”
Without Pomp or Vainglory
Joan, Lady Bergavenny, whose will is dated 10th of January, 1434, wills “that my body be kept unburied in the place where it happeneth me to die, unto the time my ‘maygne’ (household) be clothed in black, my hearse, my chare, and other convenable purveyance made, and then to be carried unto the place of my burying before rehearsed, with all the worship that ought to be done unto a woman of mine estate, which God knoweth well proceedeth not of no pomp or vain glory, that I am set in for my body, but for a memorial and remembrance of my soul to my kin, friends, servants, and all other....”
Desired Beautiful Scenery
Lord Camelford, the famous duellist, wrote a codicil to his will, by which he desired that his body “should not be buried within city walls or the haunts of men, but should be removed to a far-distant spot, where the surrounding scenery might smile upon his remains.” The Lake of St. Lampierre, in Switzerland, was the spot selected. On the borders of this lake was a sloping bank marked by three trees. The testator designated the centre one as that under which he had passed many hours meditating on the mutability of human affairs, and he requested that this might be carefully removed, his body interred beneath it, and the tree replaced. These, his last wishes, were faithfully executed.