Yesterday we were invited to the funeral of an old lady, the
grandmother of a gentleman in this neighbourhood, and found
ourselves in the midst of fifty people, who were regaled with a
sumptuous feast, accompanied by the music of a dozen pipers. In
short, this meeting had all the air of a grand festival; and the
guests did such honour to the entertainment, that many of them
could not stand when we were reminded of the business on which
we had met. The company forthwith taking horse, rode in a very
irregular cavalcade to the place of interment, a church, at the
distance of two long miles from the castle. On our arrival,
however, we found we had committed a small oversight, in leaving
the corpse behind; so we were obliged to wheel about, and met the
old gentlewoman half way, being carried upon poles by the nearest
relations of her family, and attended by the coronach, composed
of a multitude of old hags, who tore their hair, beat their
breasts, and howled most hideously. At the grave, the orator, or
senachie, pronounced the panegyric of the defunct, every period
being confirmed by a yell of the coronach. The body was committed
to the earth, the pipers playing a pibroch all the time; and all
the company standing uncovered.
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