* 



366 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



excited by the greatly exng^jerated tales with 

 regard to the practice of exhumation for the pur- 

 pot=es of dissection, but we must, eay that none of 

 these tales could at all equal the wholesale ex- 

 posure and dismemberment of the dead which 

 must here have been had recourse to. 



Having thus given an exlremely slight sketch 

 of the history of burial places, (lor an exceedingly 

 interesting description of which we must refer the 

 reader to the book itself,) we will now follow the 

 author in his description ol' the state of some of 

 the 



Burying-places of the metropolis. 



Burying Ground, Portugal Street.— '^The 

 soil of this ground is saturated, absolutely satu- 

 rated, with human putrescence. * * * The 

 effluvia from this ground at certain periods are so 

 oflensive, that persons living in Clement's Lane 

 are compelled to keep their windows closed ; the 

 walls even ofthe ground which adjoins the yards ol' 

 those houses, are frequently seen reeking with 

 fluid, which diffuses a most oflensive smell." 

 Typhus fever appears to be very prevalent in the 

 neighborhood, especially in Clement's Lane, 

 which isabsolutely surrounded by burying-grounds. 



Enon Chapel.— The upper part of this building 

 is devoted to the purposes of public worship, un- 

 derneath it is theburying-ground, being separated 

 Irom it only by boarded floor. From ten to twelve 

 thousand bodies have been placed here, since its 

 establishment, in pits, the uppermost of which 

 were covered only by a few inches of earth. 



"Soon after interments were made, a peculiar 

 long narrov? black fly was observed to crawl out 

 of many of the coffins ; this insect, a product ofthe 

 putrefaction of the bodies, was observed on the 

 following season to be succeeded by another, 

 which had the appearance of a common bug with 

 wings." 



A Sunday school is held in the chapel. 



" Residents about this spot, in warm and damp 

 weather have been much annoyed with a pecu- 

 liarly disgusting smell ; and occasionally, wfien 

 the fire was lighted in a house abutting upon this 

 building, an intolerable stench arose, which it was 

 believed did not proceed fi-om a drain. Vast 

 numbers of rats infest the houses; and meat ex- 

 posed to this atmosphere, after a few hours, be- 

 comes putrid." 156. 



St. ClemenVs Church, Strand.— There is a vault 

 under this church called the ^Jiector''s Fault,'' the 

 descent into which is in the aisle of the church 

 near the communion table, and when opened, the 

 products of decomposition of animal matter are so 

 powerful, that lighted candles, passed through the 

 opening into the vault, are instantly extinguished; 

 the men at different limes employed, have not 

 dared to descend into the vault until two or three 

 days had elapsed after it had been opened, during 

 which period the windows ofthe church also were 

 opened to admit the perffation of air from the street 

 to occupy the place of the gas emitted ; — thus a 

 diluted poison is given in exchange from the dead 

 to the living in one of tiie most frequented 

 throughfares of the metropolis. The other vaults 

 underneath the church are also much crowded 

 with dead. From some cause, at present doubt- 

 ful, these vaults were discovered to be on fire* 



* "This is not a very unusual circumstance; the 



upwards of fifty years ago; they continued burning 

 for some days, and many bodies were destroy- 

 ed." 15S. 



There was formerly a well by the side of the 

 church but the water became so nauseous that it 

 could not be drunk, owing to its becoming impreg- 

 nated with the putrefying matter with which the 

 ground was charged. 



Drury Lane Burying Ground. — The ground 

 is now raised to a level with the first-floor windows, 

 surrounding the place : in it have been deposited 

 some thousands of bodies. 



Whitechapel Church. — The burial-ground ad- 

 joining the church, placed, in the midst ofa dense 

 population, is so thickly crowded as to present one 

 entire mass of human bones and putrefaction. "In 

 digging a foundation for a new wall, the workmen 

 penetrated through a mass of human bones eight 

 or ten feet in thickness; these bones were thrown 

 out and for some time lay exposed to public view, 

 scattered over the ground in a loathsome humid 

 state." — These were afterwards deposited in two 

 or three pits which were filled up to within a few 

 inches ot the surface. 



Bunhill Fields City Road.— In this burial ground 

 occupying about seven acres, more than one hun- 

 dred thousand interments are supposed to have 

 taken place. 



iMr. Walker has given a detailed account of 

 many more of our metropolitan cemeteries ; but we 

 think that, from what we have ftirnished, the 

 reader will be able to form a pretty accurate judg- 

 ment of the remainder. We will, therefore, ex- 

 tract the account of only one more to show that 

 this system is not confined to the poorer parts of 

 the town, but extends even to the immediate 

 Vicinity ofthe palace. 



" Buckingham Chapel, situated in Palace Street, 

 about three minutes' walk from Buckingham 

 Palace. There are two vaults and a burying- 

 ground belonging to this chapel ; one ofthe vaults 

 is underneath very large school-rooms for boys and 

 girls,* and the other is underneath the chapel; 

 the entrance to these vaults, is through a trap- 

 door, in the passage, dividing the school-rooms 

 from the chapel ; steps lead to the bottom of the 

 building; on the right is the vault underneath the 

 schools. When I visited this place a body had 

 recently been interred, and the effluvium from it 

 was particularly aimoying. The vault is support- 

 ed on wooden pillars, and there is only one grating 

 which fronts the street, to admit light and air ; the 

 floors of the school-rooms, white washed on the 

 under surface, form the roof or ceiling ofthe vault 

 — it is no difficult matter to seethe children in the 

 lower school-room from this vault, as there are 

 apertures in the boards sufficiently large to admit 

 the light from above. This place is spacious, but 

 very low; — the vault on the left under the chapel is 

 about the same size as that under the schools, 

 though much lower. 1 was assured that the 

 ground was so full of bodies, that there was diffi- 

 culty in allotting a grave ; the roof of this vault is 

 formed by the under surface of the floor of the 

 chapel ; it is white-washed, the light passes 

 through it; the smell emitted from this place is 

 very offensive. In the vault underneath the 



vaults underneath St. James's Church, Jermyn Street, 

 many years since, were on fire." 



* " Some hundreds of children here receive their 

 daily education." 



