Willow Coffins

QUAKER'S COFFIN. I depart from this life with a love for all my fellow-men, without exception, and although all too conscious that I have not been true to my calling, nor attended to the voice which so often has spoken to me, yet I do believe that God is love. Thus did the late Mr. S. W. Richardson, who was vice-chairman of the great Tyneside (Eng land) shipbuilding firm of Messrs. Swan, Hun ter, and Wigham Richardson, Limited, the builders of the Mauretania, sum up bis life. His will, which has just been proved, siows «state valued at £92,000 gross. Mr. Richard son, who was a member of an old Quaker family, and died at the age of 71, directed that ?'His remains should be buried in a wicker basket-coffin, ani that, the words 'Mini Quoque Spent Dedisti' (To me Thou hast also given hope) should be engraved upon his tombstone.' He further stated that it had been his happy lot to be largely blessed with the love of friends and relatives, and he left to each of his nephews and nieces and a number ol friends, £10, wherewith he begged each of them to purchase some trifle to help to keep him in their memory. He also left £1000 to the Walker Mechanics Institute, and large sums to other institutions, as well as legacies to clerks and servants.... 09 Nov 1908 - General News. QUAKER'S COFFIN. - Trove

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/39416450

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BASKET BURIAL. (From the /Saturday Rcvicw .) The waning amusements of the season have received an interesting addition 'in the exhibition of coffins at the Duke of Sutherland's. There arc few things which in these days have escaped being made the subject of a competitive display, but it has never before occurred to any one, as far as we are aware, to ask people to spend a summer afternoon in looking at coffins, and considering how they would like to be buried. Yet none of the shows of the year have proved more attractive than this one. Oil Thursday afternoon the umbrella -tents at Prince's were deserted, and the pai*k passed by, while the fashionable world crowded the terrace at. Stafford House, engaged in an inspection of. various illustrations of the new form of sepulture invented or recommended by Mr. Seymour Haden, and in discussing its sanitary, aesthetic, and other advantages. The bright and animated aspect of the company, and the cheerful and even lively tone of the conversation which prevailed, would perhaps scarcely have suggested to an unprepared observer the nature of the subject which had brought the sprightly throng together ; but some allowance may be made for the gratification of discovering a novel topic of fashionable gossip. After all the bills of mortality are not likely to be increased by a change in the method of burial, and, on the other hand, there is at least something new to talk about. The skeleton of the feast may be taken as an appropriate symbol of the new phase of social excitement. The ladies, when . they retire to the drawing-room, will exchange views as to the last sweet tiling in shrouds or coffins, while the gentlemen below will occupy themselves over their wine with cheerful dissertations on the relative merits of cremation and interment. It would appear that the painful sensitiveness on the subject of mortality which at one period afflicted the French Court, so that no reference to it was tolerated, has passed away from good society in England at the present day. The question of the nicest way of being buried is discussed with perfect frankness and equanimity, and a considerable part of life promises to be spent on the consideration of what is- the most picturesque and poetical fashion of decay. It seemed at one time as if the question was going to be dropped, or perhaps we should say buried, for Mr. Haden's second letter certainly did not excite anything like the same interest as' the first, and although he promised another in a few days, weeks elapsed without even tlie slightest reference to the subject. Mr. Haden has now, however, finished his letters and opened an exhibition into the bargain, and he may expect at least the proverbial allowance of nine days for his wonders. The specimens of coffins exhibited at Stafford House are about a dozen in number, and notice is given that they are merely suggestive, and do not practically fulfil all the conditions essential to their principal use. They are all made of osiers, either white or stained, and in shape are similar to an ordinary coffin, except that they are rounded at the end6. They have, in fact, very much the appearance of extra-sized bassinets for very large babies. Some are of a perfectly plain character, and are recommended as 'inexpensive,' while others are of a more ornamental character, with stripes of blue, or black and gold. But, of course, they are all much less costly than the boxes in present use, though this is a consideration which to most people will appear comparatively immaterial in such a case. The question is not one of expense, but of decency and sanitary wholesomeness. A double basket is provided for cases in which charcoal is required, the powdered dust being placed in the interval from two to three inches — between the two baskets. In most of the examples the meshes of the wicker work are too close for the conditions of speedy disintegration; and thus one of the practical difficulties of the experiment is how to make the coffins sufficiently open for this purpose, while at the same time strong, and capable of retaining a proper hold of their contents. The solution of the problem may possibly be found in the use of a temporary outer covering while the body remains in the house, which will be removed when it is deposited in the earth. No attempt was made on this occasion to illustrate the manner of filling up the baskets with ferns, lichens, mosses, fragrant shrubs, evergreens, and so on, as proposed by Mr. Haden, but there were a couple of coffins in which the wicker was lined inside with a surface covering of moss, and which certainly looked snugger, as a lady observed, than the naked wicker-work, which rather suggests cool summer wear. It is admitted that in special cases linings of some imperishable material for a few inches upwards from the bottom will be necessary, and in other cases some modifications of the ordinary form, in order to insure a complete inclosure of the body in wool, charcoal, or other disinfectants. In appearance the wicker coffins when tilled up with foliage must, we should think, be less gloomy and repulsive than the wooden ones ; and to some minds there may, perhaps, be a sentimental feeling of relief in the idea that screwing down is dispensed with. On the whole, it may be supposed that any one, judging by his feelings when alive, might prefer, as a matter of taste, to be lightly swathed in herbs and osiers rather than screwed down roughly in a hard, tight box; but, after all, the question of the fittest mode of interment concerns the survivors rather than the departed one, and it is necessary to recognise at the outset that, where there is anything like natural feeling, it is hopeless to think of reconciling the misery of the event with any kind of aesthetic enjoyment. And it is here that Mr. Haden has strangely erred. In his second letter he seems to suggest that some measure of consolation will be found for bereavement in the occupation of decking the body -with flowers. ' The men,' he writes, ' are away on the business of the dead, the women are left ; the mother, the wife, the daughter, the stranger even that is within their gates. The dead is in their- keeping. Simple flowers and pleasant memories suggest the grateful nature of their task. Who that knows them will doubt their pious employment r ' In this passage Mr Haden strikes a discordant note which is surely contrary to the ordinary feelings of human nature Affection for the dead is usually mingled with a natural awe of the remains, and nothing can be more repugnant to ordinary feelings than the notion of getting pretty and picturesque effects out of the decoration of a bier. The associations of death must necessarily be dark and painful, and they are only likely to be made more so by any attempt to disguise the gloomy reality by fantastic ornament. All that is required 'is respectful usage of the dead, and reasonable consideration for the health and feelings of the living. Some means must be taken. . to prevent the spread of infection while the body is at home; but there is no reason why the period should not be shortened at least by prompt removal to a mortuary, if not by actual interment; and it is on this and other sanitary points that Mr. Haden's remarks are chiefly valuable. It cannot be denied that he has established a strong case in favour of less dilatory burial — and the positive statement which has been signed by the chief surgeons and physicians conclusively sets at rest the vulgar delusion with regard to the risks of premature interment — and also in favour of the disuse of envelopes for the body which resist the natural processes by which it would other wise be harmlessly resolved into its elements. He has further demonstrated very clearly the danger of accumulating great masses of decaying animal matter in unsuitable soil, and in the midst of a crowded population, as is the case with more than one of our principal cemeteries. Whether or not a coffin can be devised by which the secure confinement of injurious emanations while the body is in the house can be reconciled with facile natural resolution as soon as it is deposited in the earth, remains to be seen. At present, Mr. Haden's proposal, as far as it has assumed a specific shape, is still in a purely experimental stage; but there can at least be 110 doubt as. to the soundness of his views as to the course which should be followed in regard to actual burial. ..... BASKET BURIAL. The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912) Saturday 28 August 1875 p 3 Article

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24 Apr 1875 - A Threatened Industry. - Trove

trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/18335800

" Mr. Editor, —Iam an undertaker, and lam not ashamed of my trade. l am known to half the parish clerks in London and round about it, and though I am not by any means at the top of my profession, yet I have walked by the side of four horses as often as most men, and have taken the measure before now of an alderman. lam rather given to figures, and of an evening amuse myself with calculations. At the last Exhibition in Hyde Park I saw an obelisk set up as big as all the gold that had come from Australia. This set me thinking, and I have calculated that if all the coffins I have made were set up on their ends and placed one upon the other they would make a pile about as big as the Monument, and a very pretty pile too. I could tell you some thing about the length of the hatbands and mourning scarfs I have made, but if I were to say that the crape and the silk tacked together and made into a streamer would spread out from Dover Castle to Calais I dare say you would not believe me. Well, Sir, I do not tell you this because I am proud; for, to make a common joke of our trade, I am ready to walk by your side any day you like, while you shall be drawn at your ease by four horses. I only want to show you that I have some right to make myself heard when the undertakers have a grievance. My motto, undertaker though I am, has always been, ' Live and let live.' I have never done anything to take the bread out of another man's mouth, and I had hoped nobody would do any thing to take it out of mine. But times are changed. What with co-operation and these 'sanitary associations, it is as much as an honest tradesman can do to get a living. Why, Sir, I have lived in this parish man and boy nigh sixty years. We used to get on very comfortably, I am sure, and when the old churchyard was at last shut up we had a nice snug cemetery made where it would do your heart good to lie, for the ground is as dry as a bone. We buried quite regular like, with now and then a dispensation of a fever, which made trade brisk; and, as one good parson said in his sermon, taught us to prepare for death. Of course, we had special prayers for those ill of the fever, but no decent undertaker objected to them. At last, Sir, some gentlemen who want to go clean against Nature and ruin some very honest tradesmen, who have a right to live as well as the rest of the world, got up a Sanitary Associ ation, and made such a fuss and trouble with water-supply, sewer ventilation, and Heaven knows what, that I don't now do half the business I once did. As if this were not bad enough, thete are some folks as wicked as Bloody Mary herself, for they want to born us all up, clean contrary to the Prayer-book and the Burial Act. And now there is a gentleman who writes to the Times that we are all to be buried in wicker-work coffins. If he is not a basket manufacturer, or the owner of a great plantation of osiers, I shall be very much surprised. No, Sir, baskets are very good things in their way; but baskets are baskets, and coffins are coffins, and I will never believe that any respectable person would wish to be carried to the churchyard like a codfish. Why, Sir, I should say that a second hand coffin is a deal more respectable than a basket I am myself a wonderful advocate for lead coffins, but I am not prejudiced on this point, so long as a coffin of some kind of other is left me. " I do hope, Mr. Editor, you will do your best to protect us and our trade. All we ask is for Providence to be left alone. Why should we be much wiser and better than our fathers ?—I am, Mr. Editor, yours dutifully, As Undertaker. " P.S. —The parish clerk, the sexton, and the grayedigger —he is a very decent man, and has buried nine of his own children—are all-of my way of thinking, and so, I believe is Mr. Stanfeld, and the ladies and gentlemen who stand up for letting alone them contagious diseases." ... 

24 Apr 1875 - A Threatened Industry. - Trove trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/18335800