On the occasion of a death,
the old people made it a point to drape the flowers
with mourning and tell the news to the bees.
Mrs. Pascoe of St.
Hilary relates that in 1838 she saw a bit of black
flag attached to a church woman's flowers. She
explained that since her son had died being burnt to
death, the flowers had begun to wither away and were
only revived after she put on the piece of mourning.
A man in 1888
mentioned that as a boy he had seen thirty beehives
belonging to Mr. Joshua Fox of Tregedna tied up in
crepe because of a death in the family.
Another man at the
same time said that recently he saw at the First and
Last Inn in Land's End, at the death of its landlady,
all of the flowers and birdcages creped in order to
prevent their deaths.
