Altogether unique was the whim of a rich old bachelor, who, having endured much from “attempts made by my family to put me under the yoke of matrimony,” conceived and nursed such an antipathy to the fair sex as to impose upon his executors the duty of carrying out what is probably the most ungallant provision ever contained in a will. The words are as follows: “I beg that my executors will see that I am buried where there is no woman interred, either to the right or to the left of me. Should this not be practicable in the ordinary course of things, I direct that they purchase three graves, and bury me in the middle one of the three, leaving the two others unoccupied.”
The late Lord Newborough, an Englishman, made the following curious provision in his will: he gave most explicit directions that, after a certain period had elapsed, his body was to be exhumed and reinterred in Bardsey Island. This island, it will be remembered, lies to the north of Cardigan Bay, and it is reputed to have had no fewer than 20,000 saints buried in its soil.
Another individual desired to be buried in the space between the graves of his first and second wives; there are numerous instances of such an adjustment in American cemeteries, and wills are not uncommon which provide for such last resting places.
The Duchess of Northumberland, widow of the Protector, concluded her will as follows:
“In nowise let me be opened after I am dead; I have not used to be very bold before women, much more would I be loth to come into the hands of any living man, be he physician or surgeon.”
The very reverse, we may remark, of the instructions given by Katherine of Aragon on her deathbed.
In one of the wildest gorges of the Blue Ridge in western North Carolina, there lived, a few years ago, a man who was a violent infidel; when he died, it was discovered that in his will he directed that he should be buried on the summit of one of the loftiest peaks of the Blue Ridge, and that his epitaph should disclose that he died reviling Christianity. Instead of carrying out his wishes, his relatives buried him in a Christian cemetery, and on the spot where he desired to be buried, placed a large white cross.
John Fane, of Tunbridge, England, died April 6, 1488; his will runs: