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buted to the Second Poor, upon his Gravestone in the Church of Croscombe.*

In 1728, ELIZABETH BROWN charged a freehold messuage in London, with an annual payment to the poor of the parish of Christ Church, during such time as the stone, which then lay on the body of her husband, should after her burial continue unremoved, or until such time as any other person should be buried under the same stone without the consent of her executors first had in writing, and in case the stone should be removed after her burial, or any other person should be buried under it without such consent, then the annuity to cease.5

Miss MARY DUNNING, by indenture in 1805, granted a yearly annuity of 67., upon condition, that herself, and her nephew, The Right Hon. RICHARD BARRÉ Lord ASHBURTON, and any of his descendants, while there was room without disturbing the remains of those that should have been buried before, and The Right Hon. ELIZA* Rep. II. p. 392. 5 Rep. IV. p. 88.

BETH Dowager Lady ASHBURTON, and MARY DUNNING, late of Walkhampton, should be permitted to retain for their place of interment, the Burial Place on the South side of the Church of Ashburton, called "Crews's Aisle," under which The Right Hon. JOHN Lord ASHBURTON, the deceased brother, JOHN DUNNING, Esq., the deceased father, and AGNES the deceased mother of the said MARY DUNNING had been already interred,—and that the same ground should remain undisturbed by any other person, and that every other person should be excluded from being interred there, but if the same should be refused to be complied with, she declared that the Annuity should cease.

Miss DUNNING was interred in the burial place called " Crews's Aisle,”—but The Commissioners are not aware, that the remains of any person have since been deposited there."

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ROSE-TREES, AND DRESSING THE
GRAVES WITH FLOWERS.

A Singular instance of affection has been observed for time out of mind in the parish of Ockley, in Surrey, of planting Rose-trees upon the Graves, especially upon those of Lovers, so that this Church-yard is full of them. This custom is the more remarkable, because we may observe it to have been anciently used, both among the Greeks and Romans. They were so very religious in it, that we find it often annexed as a Codicil to their Wills,—as appears by an old inscription at Ravenna, and another at Milan, by which they ordered Roses to be yearly strewed and planted upon their graves.1 Hence the Elegy of PROPERTIUS, implying the usage of burying amidst

roses,

Illa meo caros donasset funere crines,
Molliter et tenerâ poneret ossa rosâ.
Lib. i. eleg. 17. lin. 21.

1 CAMDEN'S Britannia, edited by Bishop GIBSON. vol.

i. p. 236.

Y

and ANACREON, speaking of it, says, that the Rose protects the dead from putres

cence,

Τόδε καὶ νεκροῖς ἀμυνεί.

Od. 53. lin. 25.

The Romans were passionately fond of Roses, and were at much expense to procure them in Winter, to float in the Falernian Wine. They called their Mistresses Roses, from tenderness, and crowns of those flowers were tokens of pleasure and gallantry. The Rose was the emblem of a short life, and hence it was strewed over Tombs,--and it also appears in Epitaphs, that relations engaged to strew them annually.2

ALEXANDER the Great adorned the Barrow of ACHILLES, whom he regarded as his Ancestor, with choice flowers, anointed the Stela or Pillar upon it with sweet perfumes, and, with his companions, ran naked, as the custom was, round it.3

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SUETONIUS informs us, that AUGUSTUS

2 FOSBROKE'S Encyclopedia of Antiquities, p. 748. 3 CHANDLER'S Hist. of Ilium, p. 70.

took a view of the Corpse of Alexander in the glass coffin in which it was deposited at Alexandria, and with the utmost veneration scattered flowers over it, and adorned it with a golden Crown.*

The same Historian also acquaints us, that, notwithstanding the detestable crimes of the Tyrant NERO, there were some persons, who, for a long time after his death, continued to deck his Tomb with spring and summer flowers.5

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It is to this circumstance that Lord Byron alludes,

When NERO perish'd by the justest doom
Which ever the destroyer yet destroy'd,

Amidst the roar of liberated Rome,

Of Nations freed, and the World o'erjoy'd, Some hands unseen strew'd flowers upon his tomb; Perhaps the weakness of a heart not void Of feeling for some kindness done when power Had left the wretch an uncorrupted hour.

The time when the Women go out at

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