Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/335

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ses. vi. oem. 6, 1900.1 NOTES AND QUERIES. 277 and your correspondent states that the same practice prevails in Germany. It is clearly in accordance with the use of the Church of England* to have the dead buried in this way, orientation being the local custom in England, both with regard to the position of our churches and the burial of our dead. At the time the Prayer Book was drawn up orientation was universal with regard to the burial of the dead; it had not then been interfered with by the irregularities naturally introduced by the use of unconsecrated ground for interments. The churches have also, by an almost invariable rule, been built to stand east and west. There were indeed a few-a very few-exce tions in the Middle Ages. The church of the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx was an exception, owing to the nature of the ground on which it was built; and there are a few other instances occurring here and there of a similar deviation for particular reasons from the usual custom. Here I will remark that, whereas the churches in England have, as I said, always and by continuous use in the Church of England-from early times, through the Mi dle Ages, down to the present day-been Hgced east and west, the custom of the man Catholic Church is not the same, the churches belonging to the Roman Mission in this country being oft/en made to stand north and south. This seems to show that the Roman communion is a foreign one in this country. We have lately been engaged in this place in promoting a memorial on the orientation of churches, four new churches havin been erected in Ealing and its immediate neighbourhood within the last few years not standing east and west. A layman to whom I sent a copy of the memorial, asking for his signature, made the appropriate remark, when expressing his readiness to sign, that the dead are buried with the face towards the east. The traditional rites and usages with regard to the burial of the dead ought surely to be carefully and scrupulously preserve _ Early man was often buried on tie tops of hills with usages which indicated his belief in a future state. There are many members of the Church of England who entertain the belief that the recitation of the ancient prayers as the mourners stand for the last time in the presence of their dead (buried with the use of the traditional rites) has an unknown etlicacv on behalf of the deceased

  • See the title of the Prayer Book, “and other

Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to person, and considering “the vastness and darkness of the unseen world,”* it is natural that such a belief should he held. Nor need we envy those who are interred without the use of the ancient dirge, undoubtedly forming, or at least suggestin , a rayer for the brother or sister departed? Tlie “ homo natus de mulicre” has come to us out of the Salisbury Use, and we conclude has been handed down from a remote age. S. Amvorr. Ealing. DR. HALL (9‘*‘ S. vi. 67, 217).-I am much obliged for MR. F0ss’s lucid reply. If I had found a “ Mr. Marshall ” in the early art of the ‘Memoirs’ of the doctor, I should) have understood the name. I looked expressly for it without success. It may be there, never- theless, for I was readin the ‘Memoirs’ with special reference to #Elie great original discovery Marshall Hall made in his method for reviving the apparently drowned. Irre- spective of his other discoveries, he ought to have been made a baronet-perhaps would have if he had lived long enough-for this alone. However, his name is known through- out the world for the resuscitation method, in which I trust his grandsons are adepts, for it is one of the most humane discoveries ever made. Fortunately, through the drill of the Life-Saving Society, it is now easily learnt. I should like to mention that the ‘ Memoirs ’ of Marshall Hall by his widow, published in 1861, is a volume of some 500 pages, to the best of my recollection (I see I uote p. 449 in my MS.), without an index, SOH may have missed the name, as I read-as already said- with a particular ob`ect, and cannot read through all in the boolrs and encyclopsedias I consult. It is a curious thing that the son of so distinguished a man as Dr. Hall should die without even his own Inn knowing of it ; for his name appears in this year’s ‘ Law List’ as if he were still alive, thus revealing another instance of the incorrectness of the ‘Law List ’ that I commented on in 9"' S. v. 165. MR. Foss would much oblige if he could let me have the exact date of death of Mr. Hall the barrister. I observe in the ‘Law List’ that the present Q.C. to whom MR. Foss refers puts a hyphen, and is in the ‘List’ under “Marshall-Hall.” RALPH THOMAS. Clifl`ord’s Inn, E.C. A “PARADISE ” (9"‘ S. vi. 207).-The para- graph in the Daily News from which MR. thi? Use of the Church of England,” &c. ‘I ' Dr. Arnold.