The "innocent and touching custom" of maidens' garlands: a field report.(Research Article)(funeral customs)

Abstract

Aspects of garlanding as a popular custom have received little attention in folkloristic scholarship. Funeral garlanding, particularly the creation of flower-decked shrines to commemorate victims of accidents, as in the case of Diana, Pricess of Wales, has also been explored. This paper deals with another manifestation of mortuary garlanding--the custom of making maidens' garlands for deceased young female virgins. The history, distribution, construction and meaning of these funeral mementoes are dealt with, and detailed fieldwork on maidens' garlands conducted at five churches in Shropshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire from 1990 to 2002, including photographic documentation, is reported in detail.

Introduction

As a child in Shropshire I attended Sunday school at Holy Trinity church, Minsterley, and I can remember gazing up in wonder at the seven garlands suspended from the gallery. The opportunity to research these dusty relics of the past arose in the form of a dissertation topic for my final year of degree study at Birmingham University in 2001, under my mentor Bob Bushaway. In this paper, based on extensive local, regional and national archival research, fieldwork and interviews, I update previous research by a variety of commentators from the nineteenth century onwards, and I present a snapshot of a popular religious custom that has withstood considerable orthodox opposition (see also my "Maidens' Garlands" website--www.dave.morris17.btinternet.co.uk).

Historical Background

Garlanding is a popular, multifaceted custom, some examples of which--for example, May Garlanding and ceremonies such as the Castleton Garland--have received attention in folkloristic literature (Boyes 1993; Robson 1993). Funeral garlanding, in particular the creation of flowery shrines to the victims of accidents, has recently been explored in Folklore (Everett 2000), especially since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales (Evans 1998). Anne Rowbottom (1999) has written an excellent essay on the use of flowers to commemorate the Princess. An older custom, however, in which the connection between funerals and flowers has been demonstrated, that is, the "innocent and touching custom" of using maidens' garlands, as Charlotte Burne described it in 1883 (Burne 1883, 313), has received relatively little attention in recent scholarship (see, however, Brears 1982; Spriggs 1982-3).

Maidens' garlands, or virgins' crowns or crants (the latter term deriving from the German word Kranz or the Dutch word Krans, meaning "wreath" or "chaplet") were funeral mementoes for young, usually female, virgins [1] celebrating "their triumphant victory over lusts of the flesh." Writing from Bromley, Kent, in the south of England, Edward Steele provides a mid-eigh-teenth-century eye-witness account of the adaptation of the custom of providing maidens' garlands at funerals to changed local attitudes:

 
   In this nation (as well as others) by the abundant zeal of our 
   ancestors, virginity was held in great estimation; insomuch that 
   those which died in that state were rewarded, at their deaths, with 
   a garland or crown on their heads, denoting their triumphant 
   victory over lust of the flesh. 
 
   ... the ancients had also their depository garlands, the use of 
   which were continued even till of late years ... which garlands, 
   at the funerals of the deceased, were carried solemnly before 
   the corpse by two maids, and afterwards hung up in some conspicuous 
   place within the church, in memorial of the departed person. 
   About forty years ago these garlands grew much out of repute, and 
   were thought, by many, as very unbecoming decorations for so sacred 
   a place as the church; and at the reparation, or new beautifying 
   several churches, where I have been concerned, I was obliged, by 
   order of the minister and church-wardens to take the garlands 
   down ... Yet notwithstanding, several people, unwilling to forsake 
   their ancient and delightful custom, continued still the making of 
   them, and they were carried at the funerals, as before, to the 
   grave, and put therein upon the coffin, over the face of the 
   dead; this I have seen done in many places (Steele 1747, 264-5). 

Eighty years later George Oliver describes the use of the garlands at Clee, in Lancashire:

 
   At the death of an individual, a messenger is despatched to every 
   householder in the village, with an invitation to join the 
   procession to the Church; and it happens, not infrequently, that 
   the corpse is attended to its final resting-place by a concourse of 
   three or four hundred persons. In the early times it was customary 
   in this parish to crown such young females that died in their 
   virginity with a triumphant chaplet composed of filigree work, as a 
   testimony of their conquest over the lusts of the flesh. This 
   token of respect merged, in process of time, into the practice of 
   gracing the procession of young unmarried women, with children of 
   their own sex, habited in white, and arranged in pairs, and bearing 
   garlands cut in white paper, emblematical of their uncorrupted 
   innocence, variously disposed according to the rank or situation of 
   the deceased, together with long slips of white paper to represent 
   ribbons, and other pieces cut into the form of gloves, all of which 
   were solemnly suspended when the funeral was over, in some 
   conspicuous part of the church, where they remained as a perpetual 
   trophy, or memento of the deceased. This practice is of considerable 
   antiquity, and derived probably from the Romans, who hung garlands 
   about the tombs of young people, as we learn from Lucian, Tibullus, 
   and others (Oliver 1829, 413-17). 

References to maidens' garlands are to be found in many other printed sources. A ballad dating from c.1630, entitled: "Two Unfortunate Lovers, or, A True Relation of the Lamentable End of John True and Susan Meace," is decorated with a woodcut showing a maiden's garland carried on a coffin borne by girls dressed in white (Figure 1).

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Two examples of an earlier broadside giving the text of the ballad "The Bride's Burial" (c.1625) to be sung to the tune of "The Lady's Fall" depict the body being carried to church; in one the coffin is borne by six monk-like figures preceded by a priest, and in the other it is carried by six white-clad girls. A recognisable maiden's garland rests on both coffins (Roxburghe Ballads, British Library).

The custom is referred to in the following quatrain in Beaumont and Fletcher's "The Maid's Tragedy" (1622):

 
   Lay a garland on my hearse, 
   Of the dismal yew, 
   Maidens, willow branches bear, 
   Say I died true (Fletcher 1941, 395). 

The custom was also known to Shakespeare. In Hamlet (c.1601) a priest says at the burial of Ophelia in the churchyard:

 
   Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants, 
   Her maiden strewments and the bringing home 
   Of bell and burial (Shakespeare 1999, Hamlet, Act 5 scene 1, 
   lines 255-7). 

Washington Irving (1783-1859) mentioned the custom in 1848 (see later), and there are accounts, too, from relatively recent times. In September 1953, the Daily Telegraph reported (with a photograph) the funeral of one Florence Jane Wisewell as follows:

 
   Two Maidens of Honour, Valerie Chivers and Elizabeth Penny, both 
   aged 15, carrying a pole supporting a virgin's crown which headed 
   the funeral procession of 72 year-old Miss Florence Jane Wisewell, 
   at Abbotts Ann, near Andover, yesterday. 
   The custom of carrying the virgin's crown is centuries old, and 
   was last observed in the village 32 years ago. The crown is 
   awarded on the death of an unmarried woman of unblemished character, 
   born, baptised and confirmed in the parish and a regular 
   communicant at the church. It is made of hazelwood and parchment 
   and is carried by two young virgins of the same parish and placed 
   on the font during the service. 
   It remains there for three weeks. If during that time no one has 
   challenged or disproved the right to the honour, the crown is hung 
   in the church until it decays. [2] 

The earliest surviving garland dates from 1680 and it is located at St Mary's Church, Beverley, Yorkshire (see Figure 2). The most recent one, made in 1995 for the funeral of Miss Joy Price, can be seen at Holy Trinity Church, Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire. Another fairly recent one, made in 1973 for Lily Myra Annetts, aged sevenW-two years, is at St Mary's Church, Abbotts Ann, Hamp-shire (a crown was awarded to her brother, William George, when he died at the age of fifteen in 1918). The garland of Florence Jane Wisewell (1953) is among the forty-three extant virgins' crowns at Abbotts Ann.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

The various sources are in agreement that the maidens' garlands were solemnly carried before the coffin during the funeral procession, [3] and placed upon it "during the reading of the funeral service" (Andrews 1890, 148). Washington Irving characterises the custom, which he observed in the most remote villages of southern England, as "a most delicate and beautiful rite," and he described the garland and the funeral procession as follows:

 
   A chaplet of white flowers is borne before the corpse by a young 
   girl nearest in age, size and resemblance, and is afterward hung 
   up in the church over the accustomed seat of the deceased. These 
   chaplets are sometimes made of white paper, in imitation of flowers, 
   and inside them is generally a pair of white gloves. They are 
   intended as emblems of the purity of the deceased and the crown 
   of glory which she has received in heaven (Irving 1848, 193). 

The garland might be suspended above the seat where the dead girl usually satduring church service (as in this case), or it might be hung in a position inside the church which was conspicuous, and under which the congregation as a whole pass (Vaux 1894, 167; Hole 1943, 110). Alternatively, it might be suspended from the rood screen, as at St Oswald's church in Flamborough, Yorkshire. [4] In some areas the garland was displayed for the full twelve-month mourning period (Morley 1971, 68), after which it was removed (Tyack 1899, 88); in other places, such as in Alfriston church (Sussex), where seventy garlands were reported hanging from the rood screen at one time, it probably remained in position untouched after the mourning period had ended (Alfriston Church History, 8).

Form and Construction

Many or most maiden's garlands were constructed on a wooden frame. Here, for example, is a description from 1875 of the garlands at Minsterley, Shropshire:

 
   Each measures a full foot in height ... The lower part consists of 
   thin wood about 9 1/2in. diameter, to which are secured two arches 
   of the same material, intersecting each other at the top, and 
   steadied by a second hoop placed at mid height. This wooden 
   framework is covered with linen, and on it are sewed lilies and 
   roses of two sizes, made of pink and white paper. From the lower 
   circle descend short paper streamers, principally blue and white; 
   but in one instance there is the addition of red cloth. Within 
   these crowns are hung several pairs of gloves cut out of white 
   paper ... The paper gloves ... seem ... an essential accompaniment 
   to the crown-formed garlands ... and to them were at times added 
   a ... collar or kerchief also of paper ... on which were written 
   the name, age, and date of death ... (Syer Cuming 1875, 193). 

The basic construction is beehive shaped and is made of bent wood of either willow or hazel, and it is quite heavy and unfeminine. At Abotts Ann, Hampshire, it would appear that the men (Mr Penny and Jessie Threadgill) were deputed to cut the wood for the construction of the garlands and also to make the bell shape (cited in Spriggs 1982-3, 16). However, the floral decorations appear to have been made by women and they were very colourful and feminine. Williams Howitt (1792-1879) recounted that his mother made paper flowers for garlands in his native village of Heanor,,Derbyshire (Andrews 1890, 146), and the Revd Gilbert White records that the clerks wife cut out paper gloves (Tyack 1899, 86). However, in the old Elizabethan poem entitled "Corydon's Doleful Knell" (see later), it is the lover who makes the decoration (cited in Irving 1848, 196-7).

At Ilam in Staffordshire, however, the garlands were made entirely of paper. A poem written by a woman from Eyam in Derbyshire also suggests a paper construction for garlands in that part of the country. The poet, Miss Anna Seward (1747-1809) the daughter of the Revd Thomas Seward, who was the vicar of Eyam for over thirty years, wrote as follows:

 
   Now the low beams, with paper garlands hung 
   In  memory of some village youth, or maid, 
   Draw the soft tear, from thrill'd remembrance sprung; 
   How oft my childhood mark'd that tribute paid. 
 
   The gloves, suspended by the garland's side, 
   White as snowy flowers with ribbons tied; 
   Dear village! long before those wreaths funereal spread, 
   Simple memorial of thy early dead! 
   (http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/- worp/seward/eyam/eyam.htrnl) 

Edward Steele informs readers of the Gentleman's Magazine (1747, 264-5) that in some cases the garlands were made of filigree-work of gold and silver wire and lined with silver cloth. Others were ornamented with "dyed horn" (Brand 1841, 207), and silk yellow and black ribbons. These latter are recorded in an anonymous Elizabethan poem called "Corydon's Doleful Knell":

 
   Her corpse shall be attended by maid's in fair array 
   Till the obsequies are ended, and she is wrapped in clay ... 
   A garland shall be framed by art and natural skill. 
   Of sundry-colour'd flowers, in token of goodwill 
   And sundry-colour'd ribbands in it I will bestow; 
   But chiefly black and yellow with her to the grave shall go 
   (Percy 1812, 2:292). 

Ribbons of these colours were found during conservation work on maidens' garlands in Shropshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire. The garland shape that seems to have been popular resembled the seventeenth-century example at Beverley in Yorkshire, depicted in Figure 2, which has paper kerchiefs, or collars with the deceased's details. Gilded or painted eggs were sometimes included and some garlands had the easily recognisable death symbol--the hourglass.

Distribution of the Custom …