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Victorian Death Writing Practices
Mourning culture within Victorian society, while extensive and lavish by preparing the deceased loved ones and holding long funeral processions in remembrance, introduced the medium of writing to others of a loved one’s passing. Death notices and letters provided family and friends with the necessary means to grieve and cope with the loss and death of those they loved. However, prior to the institution of the Uniform Penny Post, recipients often did not have the means to pay the postage of death notices, since the cost of such letters were far too high for the middle and working classes of Victorian society. Without payment for these letters, family and friends would not know of a loved one’s passing. Catherine Golden includes in her book Posting It: the Victorian Revolution in Letter Writing an instance in which a man could not pay to receive a death notice; examples such as this were common, especially among the poor. However, after the reform of the postal system, receiving death notices came at a cheaper price, only costing a penny and affording those of lower socioeconomic class the ability of receiving such notices. This communication of a loved one's death was now evident in the appearance of such letters.

The appearance of a death notice conveyed grief in a direct, yet subtle manner. Both the envelopes and letters containing grievances of the deceased were rimmed with black-edging, allowing those at a distance to recognize what laid within the bounds of that envelope. This element of mourning practices was important for Victorian culture due to the fact that as society grew, individuals and families moved away, making it harder to communicate. Golden writes that “the black edged letter is a formal signal of loss that permits the writer to announce his or her despair without the disorderly or disruptive articulation of private emotions. Mourning could last months, even years, and the width of the black edges of the envelopes identified the time of mourning, such as wider black-edging indicated the contents were within in one year of the death; the edging grew thinner and thinner as the years went on (Hall, 99).