Lifting (The)

In Scotland means lifting the coffin on the shoulders of the bearers. Certain ceremonies preceded the funeral.

“When at the funeral of an ordinary husbandman, one oʹclock was named as the hour for ‘lifting,ʹ the party began to assemble two hours previously.”—Saladin: Agnostic Journal, Jan. 14, 1893, p. 27.

At the first service were offered meat and ale; at the second, shortbread and whisky; at the third, seed-cake and wine; at the fourth, currant-bun and rum: at the last, sugar-biscuits and brandy.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.