torn off. It is consequently not possible to ascertain its original length; but it was probably about 150 mm.
This must be one of very few material relics of a custom once prevalent in Yorkshire and elsewhere of handing each mourner at a funeral a packet of cake or biscuit. Canon Atkinson, describing the custom in the North Riding, speaks of the cakes as "small round cakes of the crisp sponge description." They were called "Avril-bread."[1] At Whitby a correspondent of Notes and Queries says: "A round, flat, rather sweet sort of cake-biscuit is baked [he wrote in 1875] expressly for use at funerals, and made to order by more than one of the bakers of the town; it is white, slightly sprinkled with sugar, and of a fine even texture within. One would think it not well adapted to be eaten with wine."[2] In Upper Wensleydale in the West Riding another correspondent speaks of "a funeral cake made of Scotch short-cake, round, five to seven inches in diameter and three-quarters of an inch thick (price 4d., 6d., or 8d.), divided into two halves, laid together, and sealed in a sheet of white paper."[3] In Leicestershire biscuits are stated to be "commonly provided as refreshments for mourners before leaving the house on the day of a funeral," and to be similar to those described at Whitby, "excepting in shape, being flat finger biscuits, about four inches long and one broad."[4] At Sebergham, ten miles from Carlisle, what was given was "a small piece of rich cake carefully wrapped up in white paper and sealed."[5] In Lincolnshire, on the Welsh border of Herefordshire, and at and about Market Drayton in Shropshire, oblong sponge biscuits, or sponge fingers, are given to the assembled mourners,[6] In Radnorshire a hot plum-cake fresh from the oven used to be handed round to the guests, broken in
- ↑ Forty Years in a Moorland Parish, 227. The word avril is said to be derived from arval, heir-ale, the name of the feasts given by Icelandic heirs on succeeding to property.
- ↑ N. and Q. 5th ser. iv. 326.
- ↑ N. and Q. 5th ser. v. 236.
- ↑ N. and Q. 5th ser. v. 218.
- ↑ N. and Q. 5th ser. iv. 397.
- ↑ Antiquary, x.xxi. 331; Mrs. Leather, Folk-Lore of Herefordshire, 121; Folk-Lore, iv. 392. The writer of the last is in error in stating that the biscuits were, on the occasion referred to by her, given across the coffin (see Legend of Perseus, note at commencement of vol. iii.).
