^4 Principles of Landscape-Gardening 



With respect to the first and most important object, the decomposition of 

 the dead, witliout the risk of injury to tlie living, there is, as we think, but 

 one mode in which this can be effected, to which there can be no objection on 

 the part of the living ; and that is, interment in a wooden cofiin in the free 

 soil, in a grave 5 or 6 feet deep, rendered secure from being violated, in which 

 no body has been deposited before, or is contemplated to be deposited there- 

 after. 



Various circumstances, however, into which it is needless to enquire, have 

 given rise to burying several bodies in the same grave in the free soil, and 

 to modes of sepulture by which the decomposition of the body, or at least 

 its union with the earth, is prevented ; such as the use of leaden or iron 

 coffins, and depositing them in vaults, catacombs, and other structures, in 

 vphicli they can never, humanly speaking, except in the case of some great 

 change or convulsion, be mingled with the soil, or, in the beautiful language 

 of Scripture, be returned to the dust from which they sprung. Though 

 we are of opinion that the modes of burial which prevent the body from 

 mixing with the soil; which, for the sake of distinction, we shall call the sepul- 

 chral modes, cannot, on account of the danger to the living, be continued 

 much longer in a highly civilised country, yet, in considering the conditions 

 requisite for a complete cemetery suited to the present time, the various 

 modes of sepulchral burial at present in use must be kept in view. The 

 expense of the sepulchral mode, however, confines it to the comparatively 

 wealthy ; and hence by far the greater part of burial-grounds always 

 was, and is, necessarily devoted to interments in the free soil. In some 

 churchyards where there is abundance of room, only one coffin is deposited 

 in a grave ; but in most cases, and particularly in the burial-grounds of 

 large towns, the graves are dug very deep, and several coffins, sometimes as 

 many as a dozen, or even more, according to the depth of the grave, are 

 deposited one over another, till they reach within 5 or 6 feet of the surface. 

 Interments in this manner are of two kinds. The first are made in family 

 graves, in which the different members of the same family are deposited in 

 succession, in the order of their decease ; and to such graves there is always 

 a grave-stone or some kind of monument. The second are what are called 

 common graves, to which there is no monument, and in which the bodies of 

 the poor and of paupers are deposited, in the order in which they are brought 

 to the cemetery ; probably two or three in one day, or possibly as many in 

 one day as will fill the grave. Unless this mode were adopted in the public 

 cemeteries, they would, from their present limited extent, very soon be 

 filled up. Such graves, whether public or private, in the newly formed ceme- 

 teries, when once filled with coffins to within 6 ft. of the surface, are under- 

 stood never to be reopened ; but, in the old burial-grounds, they are in many 

 cases opened after being closed only four or five years, and sometimes much 

 sooner. 



When the parties burying cannot afford to purchase a private or family 

 grave, the practice is, in some burial-grounds, to bury singly in graves of the 

 ordinary depth of 6 or 7 feet, and these graves are reopened for a similar 

 purpose in six or seven years ; but, as this is attended with the disinterment 

 of the bones, it is a very objectionable mode. In a burial-ground properly ar- 

 ranged and managed, a coffin, after it is once interred, should never again be 

 exposed to view, nor a human bone be disturbed. At present this is only the 

 case in the cemeteries of the Jews, where there is a separate grave for every 

 coffin, and where the graves are never reopened. It is also the case in the 

 cemeteries of the Quakers ; though not, we believe, from religious principle, 

 as in the case of the Jews, but rather from that general regard to decency and 

 propriety which is a characteristic of that sect of Christians, and perhaps, as 

 in the case of the Moravians, in consequence of their comparatively limited 

 number. 



As data to proceed upon with reference to interments in the free soil, it is 

 necessary to state that the muscular part of the body either decays rapidly. 



