applied to Public Cemeteries. 



\6t 



grave, containing a coffin at bottom ; /, the basement wall to the head-stone ; 

 and m, the head-stone. 



A brick grave is a substitute for a vault, and differs only from an ordinary 

 grave in having the sides and ends of brickwork or masonry, and in being 

 covered with a large flat stone, technically, a ledger-stone. These graves are 

 generally purchased and built by heads of families. Sometimes they are of the 

 width of two coffins, but generally of one ; and they vary in depth from 10 ft. 

 to 20 ft. or upwards. When an interment takes place the stone is loosened 

 by levers, and removed by means of rollers; and, the coffin being let down as 

 in common graves, the ledger-stone is replaced and cemented. The side 

 walls are built concave next the grave, in order that they may act as arches 

 against the exterior soil ; and, in some cases, they are furnished with ledges 

 which project 2 or 3 inches from each side, for retaining a flag-stone or slate 

 between each coffin. When this flag-stone is securely cemented, the coffin 

 below may be considered as hermetically sealed, though it is not very likely 

 that this will be done so completely as to prevent the ascent of the mephitic 

 gas. In other brick graves no ledges are projected, but one coffin is pre- 

 vented from resting on another by inserting two bars of iron in the side 

 walls, so as to support each coffin. When the coffins reach within 3 or 

 4 feet of the surface, the ledger is put on for the last time ; and a putrid mass, of 

 perhaps 13 ft. in depth, is left to generate poisonous air, which will escape, 

 probably for years, through such crevices as may be left, or as may occur from 

 the action of weather or other causes, between the ledger and the side walls 

 on which it rests. The proper mode would be to fill in the uppermost 6 or 

 8 feet of the grave with earth. The names of the interred are inscribed on 

 the ledger, in the order of their interment ; or a monument of some kind 

 is erected on it, of such dimensions, and in such a position, that it can be 

 removed in one piece with the ledger, without being loosened or otherwise 

 disturbed. In the Highgate Cemetery there are ledger-stones weighing 

 with their monuments eight or ten tons, which are removed all in one piece 

 every time an interment takes 

 place. The more common mode, 

 however, is to place a head- 

 stone as a monument, as shown 

 in the section, j^g'. 31. In this 

 section, a is the side wall of the 

 grave, here shown with openings 

 to permit the lateral diffusion of 

 moisture and mephitic vapour ; 

 b is the ledger or covering 

 stone ; and c, the head-stone. 

 At one end is a common grave 

 (</) with its foot-stone (e) ; 

 and one of the two double green 

 alleys, which form boundaries to 

 the raised panel of graves, is shown at/. 



Brick graves are also used as earth graves, and filled to the surface with 

 soil every time after an interment has taken place. The openings for re- 

 interments should, as we have already mentioned (p. 9Q.)y never be sunk 

 to a greater depth than within G ft. of the last- deposited coffin; in which 

 case no very great disturbance or danger from putrescence would take 

 place, more especially in clayey or loamy soil, and when it is made a rule 

 to ram the soil hard with a cast-iron rammer, to the height of at least () ft. 

 above every coffin as it is deposited.* When the last-deposited coffin is 



Fig. 31. Section C I) in the Plan fig. 35., through a 

 Brick Grave and a common Grave. 



* Family graves, in some of the new cemeteries, are made from 12 ft. to 

 30 ft. in depth. We lately saw one in the Norwood Cemetery, which had 

 been originally 20 ft. deep, and had one coffin deposited in it, after which it 



