As a rule in West Wales, coffins are made of oak, but poor people are satisfied with elm, and the corpse is placed in it, covered in a white shroud, but good many are buried in their best clothes, both at present and in the past, and a writer in "Bye-Gones," 1888, says that in an old book in Tregaron Vestry, dated 1636, he found that it was the rule of the Parish at that time to bury paupers without a coffin, and they were to wear their best apparel, and best hat; the charge for burial was two-pence; if any were buried in a coffin they also were to don their Sunday best, and the charge for their burial was 2s. 6d.
To bury the dead in their best clothes instead of a shroud is a custom that has been continued in Wales till the present day by some, but not without a coffin; but it seems to have been a common practice to bury paupers, and those who were in very poor circumstances, without a coffin till about 200 years ago and even at a later date, as the registers of some of the old Parish Churches prove. It was also customary in former times to "bury in woollen"--that is, in a shroud made of woollen material, and the eminent Antiquarian, Mr. John Davies, of the National Library, has found out "that this was the practice in the Parish of Llandyssul in the year 1722. Undoubtedly, burying in woollen was in vogue for some generations and a statute of the time of Queen Elizabeth provided that it should be done in order to encourage the flannel industry; and an Act of Parliament was passed in the reign of Charles the Second to promote the sale and use of English wool, and there was once a penalty of £5 for burying in a shroud not made of wool.
On the appointed day for the funeral, a large concourse of friends and neighbours come together at the house of the deceased, and all are welcomed to partake of food, as the Welsh people have always been remarkable for their hospitality on melancholy as well as joyful occasions.
In former times great preparations were made, for the day of the funeral was in reality a regular feasting day for those who attended. Meyrick, in his "History of Cardiganshire," writing about a hundred years ago, observes:--"A profuse dinner, consisting principally of cold meat, fowls, tongues, etc., is spread on several tables, and a carver placed at the head of each, whose sole business is to carve for different parties as they alternately sit down. As the company are too numerous to be all accommodated within, the poorer people are seated on stools round the outside of the house, and are presented with cakes and warmed ale, with spice and sugar in it."