Stone Coffin, containing the remains of Henry of Worcester,,
Abbot of Worcester, ob. 1263.-From the Archæologia.

CHAPTER IV.

DIFFERING in their manner of preparing the dead for interment from that practised by their ancestors, the AngloSaxons, after their conversion, ceased to bury them with ornaments or arms; but the body, having been carefully washed, was enshrouded in a strait linen dress, or inclosed in a linen sack, and it was then swathed closely round with a strong cloth; the head and shoulders, however, were left

uncovered till the time appointed for the burial, when they were entirely enveloped in the shroud.a

The common people were buried without coffins; the higher classes were buried in coffins, some being constructed of wood, and some of stone; but they had, as yet, recourse to no means for the preservation of the body from corruption.

During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, however, a mode seems to have been devised and followed, of preserving the bodies of persons of rank from immediate decay, by salting them, and afterwards inclosing them in leather, or hides. This peculiar usage was probably discontinued about the commencement of the thirteenth century.

In this manner Hugh de Grentmesnel, who died A. D. 1094, was interred, his body having been salted, and wrapt up in a hide.b

A stone coffin was discovered in 1724, in the Chapter House of Chester Cathedral, containing a body inclosed in leather, supposed to have been the remains of Hugh Lupus, who died A. D. 1101.c

The body of Henry the First, who died A. D. 1135, having to be conveyed to a distance from the place where he died, was thus prepared: the bowels, brains, and eyes, were taken out and inhumed at Rouen, in Normandy; the body was then cut and gashed, and sprinkled with a quantity of salt, after which it was inclosed in bulls' hides; and in that state it was brought over to England, and buried at Reading. d

a Strutt.

b Gough's Sep. Mon. vol. i. p. xlix.

c Ibid.

d Corpus autem Regis apud Rothomagum diu jacebat insepultum ubi viscera ejus cerebrum et oculi sunt humata. Reliquum vero corpus cultellis incisum et multo sale respersum causa fetoris qui magnus erat et circumstantes inficiebat in coriis reconditum est taurinis.-Matt. Paris, Hist. Angl.

The corpse of Geoffry de Magnaville, who died at Chester, A. D. 1165, was salted, and wrapped up in leather.e

The remains of the Empress Maud, who died A. D. 1167, and was buried in the Abbey of Bec, were found there in the year 1282, wrapped up in an ox's hide. f

Robert de Ferrers, founder of the Abbey of Merevale, in the county of Warwick, who died in the reign of Henry the Second, "lieth there," saith Dugdale, "wrapt in an ox's hide." g

But from the thirteenth century the modes of preparing the bodies of the nobility and higher ranks for interment were different to the one before adopted, since they were often regularly embalmed, or covered with cerecloths, and deposited in coffins of stone, lead, or wood.

The stone coffins were hewn out of a single block, with a recess shaped purposely to fit the head and body; they were seldom of the same width throughout, but tapered gradually from the head to the feet. The recess for the head was not cut so deep as that for the rest of the body, and a small circular orifice was frequently made in the bottom of the coffin, about the centre. h Coffins of this description were most common during the thirteenth century; they were, however, chiefly used for the interment of the upper classes, from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, after which they were generally, though gradually, superseded by coffins of lead, which latter are found to contain bodies embalmed, or preserved in cerecloths, much

c Gough's Sep. Mon. vol. i. p. xlix.

f Bourget's Hist. of Bec.

g Antiq. Warw. p. 1090.

h This aperture was probably made for the purpose of carrying off any moisture or offensive matter that might exude from the body. The old French custom was somewhat different, but is yet explanatory of this,"Dans le fond du cercueil il est à propos d'y mettre du son vers le milieu, afin que si le corps se vuidoit, le son le put arrester."-Croix's Le Parfaict Ecclesiastique, p. 636.

oftener than those of stone. The lids of the stone coffins were generally raised to the level of, or a few inches above, the pavement; and they are often found carved with crosses, or sculptured in high relief. The more ancient are angular, or ridge-shaped; and they form, indeed, the earliest specimens in this country of the monumental relics of the middle ages.

Leaden coffins, though occasionally used earlier, as at the interment of Stephen, who died in 1154, and was buried in one at Feversham, in Kent, i were not common till the fifteenth century, when the custom of embalming the body, preserving it in a liquid pickle, or covering it with cerecloth, became prevalent. The ancient leaden coffins were fitted to the shape of the body, and much resembled in form the outer case of an Egyptian mummy: they were often chested or inclosed in an outer coffin of wood, sometimes in one of stone, and have been frequently found to contain the liquid pickle in which the body was preserved.

From the perishable quality of the materials, of which wooden coffins were composed, little respecting their form or shape during the middle ages can be elucidated; it is, however, evident that the coffin lid was sometimes of an angular shape, 'en dos d'asne,' as it is thus represented in an ancient illustration. k In these it is probable that the bodies of the middle classes of society were buried, though even they were often interred without coffins. The bodies of the common people, down to so late an era as the sixteenth century, were only enveloped in a shroud, and so buried.

i Sandford's Geneal. Hist. p. 42.

k In Nicholls' History of the Franciscans at Leicester, is the representation of a monkish funeral; the body is being conveyed in a wooden chest or coffin, which has an angular-shaped lid.

The cases or outer coffins of wood, in which leaden coffins were inclosed, were rectangular oblong chests, of an equal width throughout, and these were covered with black cloth or velvet, with a large white cross on the top. Such a one is depicted by John Rouse, in his representation of the funeral of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.

As to the articles used for preserving the corpse, it appears that for the embalming of the body of Elizabeth, queen to Henry the Seventh, who died in 1502, there was an allowance made of sixty ells of Holland, ell wide, together with gums, balms, spices, sweet wines, and wax; the body having been cered with these, the king's plumber covered it with lead, there being thereon an epitaph, also in lead, shewing who she was. The leaden coffin was then chested in an outer case or coffin of boards, which was well cered, and covered with black velvet, with a cross on the top of white damask. 1

Great care was evidently taken, from an early period, in the preservation of the bodies of our English monarchs, most of which from the fourteenth century, have been embalmed; and it was anciently the custom to dress their bodies in regal habiliments, prior to interment.

The body of John, which Matthew Paris correctly states to have been after death 'regio schemate ornatum', was in 1797 discovered in a stone coffin, beneath his monument, in the Choir of Worcester Cathedral. It had apparently been dressed in the same manner as is represented by the monumental effigy, except that instead of the crown on the head, a monk's cowl was substituted, which was deemed to be a passport through purgatory. The body was covered by a robe reaching from the neck nearly to the feet, and which had some of the embroidery still re1 Sandford's Geneal. Hist. p. 439.

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