applied to Public Cemeteries. 99 



be a kind of side protection to the skeleton ; and might, together with the 

 name graven on the upper side, procure more respect from those who should 

 fall upon it accidentally in future ages, in excavating for improvements. 



The space of ground required for a single interment, and for the interments 

 incident to any given population, requires next to be taken into consideration. 

 If all interments took place in the free soil, if a grave were allowed for 

 each coffin, and the grave were never afterwards to be opened, that is, 

 not opened for several generations, then the space required for cemeteries 

 would be considerable. Thus, supposing graves without head-stones or orna- 

 ments of any kind to occupy a surface of 7 ft. by 3 ft. 6 in., and the average 

 area of those having grave-stones or monuments to be 10 ft. by 5 ft., then, 

 making an allowance for grass paths between the graves, and for gravel 

 roads, we may take 8 ft. by 4 ft. as the average space on which to 

 calculate the capacity of a garden or ornamental cemetery. This will 

 give 1361 graves to an acre; and, estimating the deaths in a town popu- 

 lation at 3 per cent per annum, this acre would suffice for a population 

 of 1000 souls for 45 years; or for a population of 45,000 for one year. 

 Taking the population of London to be 1,500,000, this would require 33 acres 

 annually, or the whole of that part of Middlesex not covered by London and 

 its suburbs (128,540 acres) in the course of 3895 years. The average number 

 of deaths annually in England and Wales has been ascertained to be about 

 336,000, which, at 1361 interments to an acre, would require 247 acres 

 annually; or, supposing three interments in each grave 82 acres per annum. 

 On the supposition that ground once occupied by graves was for ever after- 

 wards to be held sacred, and not subjected to cultivation of any kind ; the 

 mode of interment which would require so large a sacrifice of surface an- 

 nually may be considered as impracticable; and, for our present purpose, this 

 is the view that we shall take of it. We shall, however, hereafter show how 

 separate graves may be procured, not only for those who cannot afford grave- 

 stones, but even for paupers ; and these graves never again opened for gene- 

 rations. In the meantime, the mode of burying several coffins in one grave, 

 provided these coffins are of wood, and layers of soil not less than 6 ft. in 

 thickness interposed, and the graves, when once filled, not opened for genera- 

 tions, appears the best adapted for the present state of things. Supposing 

 that on an average three interments take place in each grave or vault before 

 it is finally closed, this will give upwards of 4000 interments to the acre; and, 

 as the eight public cemeteries recently formed in the neighbourhood of the 

 metropolis, and the unoccupied part of the new burial-grounds recently formed 

 by different sections of the Dissenters, contain upwards of 300 acres inclusive 

 of the space occupied by roads and buildings, this will probably supply the 

 demand for two centuries to come, even allowing the population to increase. 



The security of the grave was, till within these few years, an important 

 part of the considerations requisite to be had in view in constructing ceme- 

 teries. In some cases it was effected by surrounding the enclosure by high 

 walls, or other effective fences ; sometimes by constructing central watch- 

 towers for stationary watchmen within ; sometimes by employing perambulat- 

 ing watchmen ; at others by burying in a grave 15 or 20 feet deep ; by burying 

 in a walled grave, covered with an iron grating built into the walls all round, 

 some feet beneath the surface soil, and keeping the surface loose, and planted 

 with flowers or shrubs (which, as the grave could not be disturbed without 

 first taking these up, would by their withered state, when replanted, have told 

 what had been attempted) ; and sometimes by the very extraordinary mode of 

 letting down over the coffin a ponderous cast-iron box, to remain over it for 

 six or eight weeks, till the body was considered to be so far decomposed as to 

 be unfit for the purposes of the anatomist. The iron box, or case, which 

 had remained whelmed over the coffin, but without touching it, was then 

 disinterred, and drawn up by machinery, and the wooden coffin was covered 

 with soil, and the grave completed a second time in the usual manner. 

 Even the poorest families, in some parts of Scotland, went to this extraordinary 



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