applied to Public Cemeteries. 143 



that the average outside dimensions of a grave are 7 ft. by 3 ft. 6 in. ; that 

 the average dimensions of a grave, where a number of them are supposed to 

 have gravestones, are 8 ft. by 4- ft. ; and that the average deaths in a healthy 

 population in the country are 2 per cent, and in crowded towns and cities 

 3 per cent, per annum. Thus, 20 graves will be required per annum for 

 a rural population of 1000, and 200 per annum for a population of 10,000. 

 An acre will give 1361 graves, which will afford a supply for nearly seven 

 years ; and three acres will serve for twenty-one years. At this latter period 

 the town will probably have increased on the side next the cemetery, when 

 the additional ground should be taken at a greater distance, and the old 

 ground, when fully occupied, may be sprinkled over with trees, to be 

 eventually used as a place of recreation for the living. The calculation, how- 

 ever, will be considerably different, if we suppose that all the graves are to be 

 without head-stones, and consequently no longer than is necessary to admit 

 the coffins. For this purpose, the average width of the grave at one end 

 may be 2 ft., and at the other 20 in., and the length 6 ft. Taking the greater 

 width, this will give 12 square feet to each grave, which will give 3630 graves 

 to an acre. These graves in the London cemeteries are dug 15 ft. in depth, 

 and ten coffins of poor persons are deposited in them. The common charge 

 is 2bs. for each coffin, or at the rate of the enormous sum of 45,375/. per acre. 

 In some cemeteries as many as fifteen coffins are deposited in one grave, 

 the depth in that case being 20 or 25 feet. We could name a cemetery in 

 which forty-five coffins, we are assured, have been deposited in one grave. 



The situation, soil, and extent being fixed on, the next consideration is 

 the boundarij fence, which ought to be such as to insure security from theft, 

 and favour solemnity by excluding the bustle of every-day life, while a view 

 of distant scenery is admitted to produce a certain degree of cheerfulness, 

 and dissipate absolute gloom. In an open part of the country, where there 

 are iew buildings or public roads, an iron railing may be employed as a 

 ring-fence; but, in a populous neighbourhood, a wall 10 or 12 feet high, 

 strengthened by buttresses carried up above the coping, so as to give 

 the wall an architectural character, may be preferable. The buttresses may 

 be of two kinds : ordinary ones, merely for strengthening the wall, or form- 

 ing piers to panels of open iron railing ; and, in the case of cemeteries 

 not laid out in beds or panels, higher and more massive piers rising con- 

 spicuously above the others, at regular distances, to receive stones having cut 

 in them the numbers and letters used as indexes to lines for ascertaining 

 the situations of graves, in the manner which will be hereafter described. 

 The numbers and letters alluded to are at present in most cemeteries painted 

 on the brickwork, which has a mean temporary appearance ; or they are put on 

 stones or labels of cast iron inserted in the soil, and rising only an inch or 

 two above it, which are liable to be disturbed by the moving of ground. 

 Though we entirely disapprove of this mode of laying out a cemetery, yet, as 

 it is generally practised, we have thought it right to keep it in view. Where 

 economy is an object, a hedge and sunk wall may be used as a boundary, and 

 the best plant for the hedge is the common holly. There ought to be one 

 main entrance ; and, if the situation admits of it, a second entrance, for the 

 admission of workmen, carts, &c., necessary for carrj'ing on the executive part 

 of the cemetery. 



In laying out the interior, the system of roads and walks, the drainage, the situa- 

 tion of the chapel or chapels, and the arrangement of the graves, and of the 

 marks which in large cemeteries, as at present laid out, are necessary at the 

 angles of the squares, require to be taken simultaneously, and also separately, into 

 consideration . There ought to be at least one main road, so as to allow of a 

 hearse having ready access to every part of the grounds ; and from this road 

 there ought to be gravel walks into the interior of the compartments formed 

 by the roads, walks, and the boundary wall ; and, from these gravel paths, 

 ramifications of narrow grass paths, so as to admit of examining the graves in 



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