Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/65

 9 th S. X. JULY 19, 1902.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

57

and cannot be obtained elsewhere : ' Talbot Harland,' 'Tower Hill,' 'The South Sea Bubble,' 'The Goldsmith's Wife,' < Chetwynd Calverley,' 'The Fall of Somerset,' and ' Beatrice Tyldesley.' Others, such as ' Merry England,' 'The Miser's Daughter,' 'Rook- wood,' &c, are also advertised by the same firm. May I ask if Ainsworth intended his historical novels to follow on in- exact sequence ? I have noticed that several of them seem to dovetail remarkably well, and this, I imagine, can hardly be the result of mere caprice. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

MRS. THRALE'S HOUSE, STREATHAM PARK (9 th S. ix. 509). Although jt by no means fully answers his question, peihaps the follow- ing reference may be of use to B. R. J. :

"Their [the Thrales'] house,. Streatham Place, stood in Streatham Park, on the south side of the Lower Common at Streatham, Surrey, six miles from Westminster Bridge. It was taken down in 1863,* and no trace of it remains." Button's ' Lite- rary Landmarks of London,' p. 163.

JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

This house was pulled down and the materials sold by auction in May, 1863 (Hone's 'Handbook to the Environs of Lon- don,' 1876, pt. ii. p. 590). G. F. R. B.

"FLOWERING SUNDAY" (9 th S. ix. 508). With reference to a query under this head- ing, and in connexion with the use of flowers, &c., for decorating graves and memorial stones of relatives, perhaps the following may be of some little interest to your con- tributor and readers, or be the means of throw- ing some further light on the subject.

I first noticed the custom in Herefordshire on Palm Sunday, 1879, and on inquiry found that it prevailed in Monmouthshire and other parts of Wales, and also in Gloucestershire, and it was then on the increase. Five or six years afterwards I lit upon the subject treated at some length and in a most in- structive and able manner by Mr. George Tudor Williams, of Monmouthshire, in 'An Historical and Descriptive Sketch,' which 1 perused with interest in 1886, and made some notes and extracts therefrom, which I now epitomize in the following.

The custom is of remote antiquity, dating back long anterior to the Christian era. In Wales Palm Sunday is called " Sul y Blodou " (Flowery Sunday), owing to the custom which is of Celtic origin, but which was also prac-

given as 1868.
 * In 'Old and New London' (vi. 319) the date is

tised by the ancient Greeks, who used herbs to deck their tombs as well as, flowers. Parsley was a favourite herb for the purpose, and so referred to by Plutarch as far back as 350 B.C. Aramanthus and other flowers were mentioned in connexion with the adorning of Achilles' grave by the Thessalians. The custom was general in Virgil's time, and Anacreon, who wrote 590 years B.C., men- tioned the rose as "the amulet whereby no ills their tombs molest." Euripides, who wrote 400 years B.C., introduces Electra com- plaining that a tomb had not been decorated. Sophocles, about 380 B.C., makes the daughter of Agamemnon, on coming to her father's tomb, say, "And flowers of every sort were strewed." The tributes were intended to express the love and respect borne for the departed. The Greeks used ribbons as well as flowers, and had special days on which they thus respected the memories of the departed. The cus.tom was also practised in many Oriental countries. Mallet said that in Egypt a plant called in Arabic ribau our sweet basil was strewn on the graves with palm leaves, and that myrtle was also used. Chander, in his travels in Asia Minor, de- scribed graves with branches of myrtle at each end. Dallaway, in 'The Ancient and Modern History of Constantinople,' speaks of cypress at the endS of tombs. The custom was also followed by the Tartars. Shak- speare, alluding to the custom of decking graves " with fairest flowers," expressly men- tioned " the pale primrose," " the azure hare- bell," and " the leaf of eglantine."

In practising this ancient custom on Palm Sunday = Flowering Sunday, or other special days on which we choose thus to remember and respect the memory of our dear departed relatives, it would seem to call into play the best feelings of the human heart, and, whilst tending to beautify temporarily God's acre conduce to religious thought and pious reflective meditations, and it should on these grounds be kept up and conserved.

G. GREEN SMITH.

Moorland Grange, Bournemouth.

The custom of adorning with flowers the graves of deceased friends on Palm Sunday, in South Wales and Monmouthshire, did not originate in caprice. Many far-fetched ex- planations of this observance have been offered j but the facts are simple. In Catholic times it was the custom, on the occasion of the Palm Sunday procession, to affix branches of box or catskin (the local substitutes for palm) to the churchyard cross, where the procession halted while the ceremonial open- ing of the south door was being performed.