hearse

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hearse, herce, herse.
1. Falling door of grated construction, i.e. portcullis.

2. Horizontal grating, flat or curved, fixed with prickets for candles to commemorate the dead.

3. Open metal framework over a sepulchral memorial, usually to support the pall, as in the Beauchamp chapel, St Mary's Church, Warwick. An iron hearse, with prickets, survives over the Marmion tomb in St Nicholas's Church, West Tanfield, Yorks. (c.1387).

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