The Corse-House

A Cumberland correspondent told Hone how, within the previous twenty years, the passing bell sent neighbours to call at the corse-house, as the house of mourning was called. For the two days and nights before the burial every room but the death chamber was kept open, and callers drank wine or spirits and smoked, so that the house was like a tavern; staying away was taken as disrespect to the dead. The custom fell away after an incomer refused to keep open house and others followed him. Still in use was the parish clerk’s round of the town with a deep-toned death bell on the evening before a funeral, calling all friends and neighbours to attend.