FLOWERS FOR THE LIVING.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18479, 5 September 1925, Page 14

FLOWERS FOR THE LIVING.

TO THE EDITOR 0? "THZ PBESS. gj r if Mr Perry will read my letter ngain, lie "vvU 1 find that I did not deprei rato tho v.so of flowers to Lv-iiour the ' dead, but I did object most strongly to tiie extravagant display of them at ! funerals. vulgar extravagance is I evident to all that bave eyes to see. jSo tar from honouring the dead, 1 ' stoutly maintain that, tuis vulgar diaj play dishonours them, aiid, tor augnt we know, grieves them. liven so lar ! its flowers are ,ai legitimate expression I of honour —for example, that patheia- ! rally solitary wreath 1.,t the Bridge of Kemembranco tho other day—taere should bo, none tho less, somo restraint in our use of them. But if there bo ai desire to hr/nour tho dead with riot of expensive wreaths, let us put it to the test. Let us ascertain, if this can bo done in a kindly and indirect way, from the sick and th& dying—which Either, flowers while they live, to c. eer them, or rJI this post-mortem cxtrava- j gance? Can anyone doubt what their verdict would be, and should not their wishes, and not ours, be decisive? In any case, Christians should set j an example of simplicity. In the seventeenth century—l quote Dr. Pullan "t Kocond-Ji;uid —"it was the swoet old English custom for each mourner to | carry a sprig of rosemary," this being a symlwl of remembranoe. According to another authority, Dr. Dearmer, the ffishion of covering tho coifin witii flowers came in when tho use of the pall was abandoned —abandoned apparently by the undertakers. Mourners naturally shrank from the sight of tho bare coffin and covered it with flowers. But with tho pall out of the way the undertaker had found his opportunity j for a display of "hideous polished wiood j and brass fittings." Demon- 1 atrably, it was not a question of honouring the dead. It was simply a tug-of-war between undertaker and florist. And the public will not be delivered from all the consequent unseemliness until they go back to the use of the traditional (and I believe primitive) pall, such as every church ought to possess—at once beautiful and costly.—Yours, etc.; F. RUTHERFURD RAWXiE. All Saints' Vicarage, Prebbleton, September 4th.