(_a_) In the 18th Century, the undertaker issued his
handbills--gruesome things, with grinning skulls and shroud-clad
corpses, thigh bones, mattocks and pickaxes, hearses, etc.:
"These are to notice that Mr. John Elphick, Woollen Draper, over
against St Michael's Church, in Lewes, hath a good Hearse, a Velvet
Pall, Mourning Cloaks, and Black Hangings for Rooms, to be lett at
Reasonable Rates.
"He also sells all sorts of Mourning and Half Mourning, all sorts
of Black Cyprus for Scarfs and Hatbands, and White Silks for Scarfs
and Hoods at Funerals; Gloves of all sorts, and Burying Cloaths for
the Dead."