FUNERALS BY TORCHLIGHT. The custom of using torches at funerals is a very ancient one, and was in vogue among the Romans. Their public funerals-funera indictiva-were celebrated by day; private burials-tacita-by night; but both were accompanied by torches. William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, who was executed April 29, 1397, and was buried in Bisham Abbey, directed by his will that twenty-four poor people, clothed in black gowns and red hoods, should attend the funeral, each carrying a lighted torch of 8lbs. weight. It appears that at one time funeral torches were provided by the churchwardens, who charged the friends of the deceased a certain price for their use, according to the weight of wax consumed. At Sir John Gresham's funeral in London, in 1556, they had “four dozen of great staff torches and a dozen of great long torches." Two instances of torchlight funerals have occurred in Wycombe during the present century. The following extract relates to the former of these occasions: March 5, 1811. Louisa dr. of Charles and Susanna She was niece to Sir Howard Douglas, of the Royal The second instance was of Elizabeth Gellett, Oct. 25, 1823. This lady was the wife of the proprietor of the Red Lion Hotel. The procession was formed in the gateway leading up to the stable yard of the hotel, and when all was in readiness the torches were lighted, and the whole party then set forth towards the Church. First came a man by himself bearing a torch in his right hand, followed by two others in similar fashion; next was borne the corpse in the procession, accompanied by four persons, two on each side, holding the corners of the pall with one hand, and in the other carrying a torch. Behind the corpse walked the nearest relatives and friends, some bearing torches and some being without. Arrived at the entrance to the churchyard, the one who had walked by himself stepped forward, and accompanied the clergyman, who had come thus far to meet them. The torches were kept burning until the conclusion of the service, when they were all extinguished. Since then no such ceremony has taken place at a funeral at Wycombe. R. S. DowNS. A PAPER FROM A FAMILY DEED-CHEST. THE document, of which a copy follows, was found among a number of old deeds and papers relating to the family of Garrett, formerly Nevill, of Hudnal, in the parish of Eddlesborough, and subsequently of Chesham. This branch of the Nevills does not appear within the period comprised in its records to have had any pretension to political or military distinction; and a simple yeoman family living quietly upon its small estate in a village at a distance from the main lines of communication through the country was not likely to have much to do with public affairs outside its own very restricted local circle. Hence, as was to be expected, its papers, which seem to have been very carefully preserved from generation to generation, mostly relate to dealings with property or to the personal matters of members of the family. But that which is here published has some little historical interest, and it may be worth bringing to light for the sake of the illustration it affords of some of the conditions under which our ancestors lived at the end of the sixteenth century. A brief sketch of the circumstances of the time, so far as they explain the contents of the document, may be desirable by way of introduction. At the outset, it is necessary to bear in mind that in the history of this period religion and politics are inseparably connected. So intimate is the relation between them, and so closely do they appear to act and re-act upon each other, that it is generally impossible to say where the influence of the one ends and that of the other begins. It seems clear, however, that Queen Elizabeth was a Protestant on political much more than on religious grounds. If she could have had her own way, she would probably have established as the national religion a sort of "popery without the pope,' such as her father had in effect established. But the bloodshed and misgovernment of the preceding reign had divided the nation against itself, and she saw that the only safe course open to her was to consolidate it by adopting a policy of comprehension and compromise, which might in time bring together Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Puritans on terms of mutual toleration and concession. Hence, her demeanour towards her subjects of the old faith was at first forbearing and conciliatory. The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, though passed in deference to the Protestants at the beginning of her reign, were not pressed with harshness; and the religious sentiment of the nation was for a time left free to develop. But, before many years had passed, the Catholics forced the Queen's hand. They struggled against the loss of the ascendancy they had enjoved under Queen Mary. They rose in futile rebellion in the north. The Pope issued a bull of excommunication and deposition against Elizabeth. She was harassed by the successive plots which had for their object the restoration of a Catholic sovereign in the person of her cousin, Mary of Scotland. It was partly in the interests of the Roman Church that Philip of Spain made his vain attempts to add England to his already world-wide empire. And, among other efforts to stem the advancing tide of Protestantism, the College of Douay was founded for the training of English Catholic priests, to take the place, as vacancies should occur, of those who had come into office during Mary's reign. Throughout the country the adherents of the old faith warmly welcomed these " seminary priests," as they were called, and their influence soon made itself felt in checking the gradual reconciliation of the Catholic gentry to the English Church. Elizabeth resented their coming, both because it clashed with her policy of comprehension, and because she could not but regard the Douay priests as political emissaries. As to the nation, though the Protestants were probably still the less numerous, they were the abler and the more vigorous party, and the operation of the Test Act of 1563 had given them almost absolute control in Parliament. Events had inspired them with bitter hostility and profound mistrust towards the Catholics, on both religious and political grounds. The landing of a few Douay priests was readily magnified into an invasion by an army of Papal emissaries, commissioned in the interests of Spain to sow treason and revolt throughout the land, while at the same time they re-introduced the hated Roman ritual. And the arrival of a Jesuit mission under Campian and Parsons confirmed and intensified the anti-Catholic feeling. Elizabeth suspended her policy of toleration and compromise. The Court of High Commission was formally established, with almost unlimited power in spiritual matters, and the Aots of Supremacy and Uniformity were strictly enforced. Seizure, torture, and execution of priests; imprisonment of recusants; prohibition of mass even in private houses; deprivation and fines for non-attendance at public worship, were among the results. For many years the Catholics were treated with a severity that equalled, if it did not surpass, the persecution of the Protestants under Philip and Mary; while, on the other hand, the intolerance of the Anglican despots of the High Commission brought more or less suffering upon the extremists amongst the Puritans also. Rigorous search was made in all parts of the country for the emissaries from abroad, who adopted all sorts of disguises, and who, when concealment failed them, could only by flight escape death, torture, or imprisonment. Those who tried to protect or screen them were severely punished. To harbour a felon was less of a crime than to give shelter to a hunted Catholic priest. The statute-book and the state-papers of the period contain many references to the arbitrary and inquisitorial measures that were adopted to discover the hiding places of the fugitives, and to intercept communication between them and those who sympathized with them. How far this persecution was due to religious animosity, and how far to motives of patriotism or political expediency, it is impossible to determine. No doubt many of the seminary priests were animated by a devout missionary spirit, and aimed simply at bringing England back to what they regarded as the true faith. But, as certainly, many others used their cassocks only as cloaks to cover their designs against the Queen's person or government. And this was especially the case during the period when Philip of Spain was secretly planning, for the second time, an invasion of this country, and inciting the disaffected English Catholics to rise in arms in his favour as soon as, by making himself master of France, then apparently opened to his ambition by civil war, he should be able to pour in his forces from a base of operations within a few leagues of our shores. The document now under notice is an original Order, in the handwriting of the time, issued in pursuance of a proclamation made by Elizabeth in the circumstances I have attempted thus shortly to sketch. The date of the proclamation was Oct. 18, 1591, but it was renewed for the County of Buckingham on Jan. 14 following. It may be interesting to know the terms in which it was expressed, and I therefore quote verbatim the entry relating to it in the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, 1591-1594, pp. 112115: "Oct. 18. 42.-Proclamation by the Queen for remedy of the treasons which, under pretext of religion, have been plotted by seminaries and Jesuits, who have been sent secretly into the kingdom. Hoped that, being now in the 33rd year of her reign, the malice of her enemies, especially the King of Spain, would have weakened, and he would have lived in concord with her and other Christian Princes; but finds the contrary by his present attempts. But as God permits the ruin of those who do not content themselves with peace, so now He permits this King, who possesses already more kingdoms and riches than any of his progenitors, or any other Christian Prince, to begin a war against the present King of France, as he did two years ago against her, when assaulting England at the same time that he treated of peace; but God caused him and his Armada to repent. "1st. He has now, to strengthen his cause, seated a Milanese, his subject, in the Papacy, and induced him, without consent of the College of Cardinals, to exhaust the treasures of the Church in raising the Italians, under the Pope's nephew, to make war in France, which has always defended the Church in its calamities. This war with France is most dangerous to Her Majesty's dominions, and this preparation of force the greatest ever made. To advance this he has, by authority of this Pope, practised with certain heads of sedition, her unnatural subjects, and many dissolute youths, |