Catharine Arnold Quotes
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As an architectural marvel, Bethlem appeared in at least thirty-six tourist guides in 1681.
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Nottingham’s Rock Cemetery, with its magnificent marble angels and sandstone catacombs.
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Hanging had been introduced by the Anglo-Saxons during the fifth century as a punishment for murder, theft and treason.
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If a woman possessed the unfortunate combination of delicate skin, thin eyebrows, a curving spine and a ‘sharp tongue’, it would be almost impossible for a man to refrain from beating her.
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However, not everyone who was entitled to an elaborate funeral received one. When Jane Seymour died in 1537, a fortnight after the birth of Edward VI, Henry VIII made strenuous attempts to restrict extravagant mourning.
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A shortage of coffins was one thing, but then London began running out of graves.
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In fact, the tunnel curves between Knightsbridge and South Kensington stations because it was impossible to drill through the mass of skeletal remains buried in Hyde Park.
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Only Mary Queen of Scots challenged the prevailing orthodoxy when she wore white to mourn the death of Lord Darnley in 1567, earning the title of ‘The White Queen’.
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Even in London, where space was at a premium, churchyards were traditionally filled with trees, evidence of a lasting pagan influence.
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Commoners bones may have been dug up again and slung into a charnel house: for royalty, burial was for ever.
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In 1666, an Act designed to promote the wool industry came into force, insisting that everyone should be buried in a woollen shroud. Other fibres, such as silk or linen, were banned.
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Nelson’s body was pickled in brandy, which was replaced with wine at Gibraltar, and brought back to England, amid macabre speculation that the Admiral’s crew had drunk the embalming brandy in transit.
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More than a hygienic method of disposing of the dead, cremation enabled lovers and comrades to be mingled together for eternity.
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The Anatomy of Melancholy was regarded by Sir William Osler, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford (1905–19), as the greatest medical treatise every written by a layman.
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Children were the primary victims of these filthy conditions and there were numerous anecdotes of undertakers temporarily storing the bodies of newborn infants in their own premises until there were enough dead babies to make it worthwhile giving them a decent burial.
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Meanwhile, we have carved out a place for ourselves among the dead; the glittering pinnacles of commerce rise along the skyline, their foundations sunk in a charnel house; and the lost lie forgotten below us as, overhead, we persaude ourselves that we are immortal and carry on the business of life.
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Death and burial were a public spectacle. Shakespeare may have seen for himself the gravediggers at St Ann's, Soho, playing skittles with skulls and bones.
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Following directly behind the bier were the servants who would, in earlier times, have been slaughtered at the graveside, along with a warrior's horse. Musicians and torchbearers came next, with the rear taken up by the mimes- sinister, silent figures in wax masks modelled on dead members of the family.
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In the words of Euripides, ‘those whom the Gods wish to destroy, first they make mad’.
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The Romans feared their dead. In fact, Roman funeral customs derived from a need to propitiate the sensibilities of the departed. The very word funus may be translated as dead body, funeral ceremony, or murder. There was a genuine concern that, if not treated appropriately, the spirits of the dead, or manes, would return to wreak revenge