294 Principles of Landscape- Gardening 



or vault, without any exception whatever ; it should prohibit the formation of 

 private vaults, or private or family graves or graveyards, in towns, or any 

 where except in the country, and there they should be placed in spots at 

 least 100 ft. from any other building. The law should also, as we think, 

 enforce the clearing out of all public vaults under churches or chapels, 

 whether in town or country, and not even excepting those of the newly 

 formed public cemeteries. That the vaults and catacombs of these cemeteries 

 are liable, to a considerable extent, to the same objections as those in the old 

 burying-grounds and under churches, is a fact which can be proved by refer- 

 ence to what has taken place both in the vaults of the Kensal Green Ceme- 

 tery and in those of the London and Westminster Cemetery* ; and, in short, 

 any person walking through them will require no other evidence than that 

 of his own senses. 



We may, perhaps, be thought unreasonable in wishing to prevent inter- 

 ments in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's, or in the royal vault at Windsor, 

 but we consider that the memory of the great men of the nation, including 

 even our sovereigns, would be quite as much honoured by having their bodies 

 buried in the free soil in the country, and appropriate monumental cenotaphs 

 erected to their memory in these and other national buildings, as by having 

 their bodies buried under their monuments, or preserved in wooden or leaden 

 cases in vaults or catacombs. Surely it is pleasanter in idea, when looking on 

 the statue of Dr. Johnson in St. Paul's, to think of his remains being covered 

 by the green turf in the open ground of a cemetery or a churchyard, than to 

 think of them lying in black earth, saturated with putrescent moisture, under 

 the damp paved floor of the crypt of a cathedral. There is no doubt that 

 burying in sepulchres, by which the body is preserved from mixing with the 

 soil, is of great antiquity, and it was doubtless justified by the opinions of 

 mankind in the early ages of history ; but it may be fairly asserted that the 

 practice is not in conformity with the opinions and spirit of the present age. 

 Security from desecration was, no doubt, a main object for this mode of 

 burial, and certainly it was a protection from the hyena, the fox, the dog, and 

 other wild carnivorous animals that were common in the early stages of civi- 

 lisation ; but neither then nor now is it any permanent security against 

 desecration by the human species. On the contrary, it is a mode certain of 

 ending in desecration, sooner or later. Witness the mummies of Egypt, 

 unprotected even by the Pyramids ; or look to what has been taking place 

 for many years past in the vaults of churches in London, as given in evidence 

 in the Parliamentary Report, which we have so often quoted ; or turn to the 

 volumes of travellers on the Continent since the peace of ISl^.f The truth is, 



* Mr. Jones, undertaker, residing in Devereux Court, Essex Street, Strand, 

 placed a body in a leaden cofRn and the other usual cases, and deposited it in 

 the catacombs of Kensal Green Cemetery. It had remained there about three 

 months, when he was informed by the secretary of the cemetery company that 

 " the coffin leaked, and that he must see to it immediately." Mr. Jones, 

 accompanied by his assistants, went to the cemetery, removed the body from 

 the horizontal stone resting-place, which was sealed very carefully at the ends 

 and round the sides. It was necessary to remove the lid of the outer coffin 

 and turn out the body, enclosed, as is usual, in the shell and leaden coffin ; 

 these were reversed, when it was found that a small hole existed at the under 

 part of the leaden coffin. This hole was enlarged with a gimlet by one of the 

 assistants, Mr. Thomas Moxley ; the gas which escaped extinguished a lighted 

 candle three distinct times, and he was rendered incapable of following his 

 occupation for several weeks. (^Appendix to Report on the Health of Toivns, 

 p. 208.) 



■\ In the autunm of 1813 we passed two da\s in and about the small town 

 of Kowna, on the Niemen, celebrated for its lime trees and its honey ; and 

 looking into the vaults of the church, we observed the floor covered with 



