The _lettre de faire part_, as it is called, is also a curious feature in the funeral rites of our neighbours. It is an elaborate document in the form of a printed letter, deeply edged with black, and informs that all the members, near and distant, of the deceased's family--they are each mentioned by name and title--request you, not only to attend the funeral, but to pray for his or her soul.
The fashion of sending costly wreaths to cover the coffin is recent, and was quite as unknown in Paris twenty years ago as it was in this country until about the same period. Wreaths of _immortelles_, sometimes dyed black, were, however, sent to funerals in France in the Middle Ages. In Brittany, the "wake" is almost as common as it is in Ireland, and quite as frequently degenerates into an unedifying spectacle. Like the Irish custom, it originated in the early Christian practice of keeping a light burning by the corpse, and in praying for the repose of the soul, _coram_ the corpse prior to its final removal to the church and grave, certain pagan customs, the distribution of wine and bread, having been introduced, at first possibly from a sense of hospitality, and finally as means of carousal.
Variable spelling and hyphenation have been retained.
Minor punctuation inconsistencies have been silently corrected.
Some illustrations have been moved from their original position so as not to interrupt the text.
The first line indicates the original, the second the correction.
In these, bassirilievi and figures in terra-cotta have been found, In these, bassorilievi and figures in terra-cotta have been found,
at the dawn of the Rennaissance at the dawn of the Renaissance
of this solemn procession can be ormed of this solemn procession can be formed
but in white for a spinister but in white for a spinster
The first line indicates the original, the second how it should read.
"On the 6th of January, 1756, the body of his 'Britannic Majesty' was conveyed in great state to the said Church of the Twelve Apostles,"
"On the 6th of January, 1766, the body of his 'Britannic Majesty' was conveyed in great state to the said Church of the Twelve Apostles,"