Tom Doig gave us a light hearted view of the ‘Victorian Way of Death.’ Whereas Death is the great taboo today, the Victorians gave it much attention, with unexpected death so common. The Victorians didn’t have manuals about sex, but did for death. Death was something that had to be carefully prepared for.
Many old superstitions about death survived into the Victorian era. Numerous precautions had to be taken to shut out the spirit of the deceased and avoid Death quickly taking another victim. Windows and curtains must be opened briefly and then firmly shut; and mirrors and pictures turned to the wall. As for the body, string, not a measure, must be used to size it for a coffin. To avoid the deceased being punished in the afterlife, ‘sin-eaters’ were used to eat food and thereby take the sins upon themselves.
Funerals were often very elaborate, even to ‘mutes’ paid to wail. But most were ‘walking funerals’, with long processions to the cemetery.
Michael Lucas