MAIDENS’ GARLANDS

It was the custom in parts of England for a young girl to carry a wreath of white roses before the coffin of a virgin. The wreath would be hung in church after the funeral, above the seat that she had used during her life, till the blooms faded. But if the wreath was made with artificial flowers, when it is known as a “maiden’s garland”, it could be kept in church for a long time. The church at Abbot’s Ann, in Hampshire, has its walls hung with these “maidens’ garlands” of paper or linen roses; the earliest of them dates from 1716 (Mayhew).