of the Toion of Southampton. 591 



second bed or compartment is filled with coffins, from 18 in. to 

 2 ft., not in general more ; because there is not only the surface 

 of the grave to be covered, but the space between the graves, 

 and also the common path between the two compartments. The 

 head-stones, if any, will be somewhat earthed up ; but they can 

 always be raised at a moderate expense. Besides, in a well- 

 planned and conducted cemetery, we think there ought to be no 

 head-stones or monuments allowed, except in the borders Avhich 

 accompany the roads and walks, and in such other parts of the 

 cemetery as may be exclusively devoted to that purpose. 



It is obvious that this mode of alternately earthing-up and 

 burying may be carried on for an indefinite number of years, 

 even till the surface of the compartments is raised 20 or 30 feet 

 above the natural surface, and consequently above the surround- 

 ing borders and walks. The burying part would in that case 

 require to be ascended to by forming a portion of the 4 ft. 

 path at each end of the beds into inclined planes of easy ascent. 

 In the Southampton Cemetery, we have, in addition to 16 ft. 

 beds of the kind described, designed large squares, exclusively 

 for graves which are to have no monuments of any kind ; and 

 these, we have shown in our Report, may continue to be buried 

 in till the ground is raised as high as an Egyptian pyramid, or 

 until the custom of burying, and suiferiug bodies to be decom- 

 posed in the soil, gives way to the practice of burning them. 

 We are persuaded that the latter mode of disposing of the great 

 mass of the dead will be adojjted in this country much sooner 

 than even the most enlightened people at present imagine. The 

 truth is, that very few persons indeed are aware of the diseases 

 caused by crowded churchyards and vaults in churches ; partly 

 from the effluvia which they diffuse in the atmosphere, but prin- 

 cipally from the contamination of the wells. Every large town 

 will then have a funeral pile, constructed on scientific principles, 

 instead of a cemetery ; and the ashes may be preserved in urns, 

 or applied to the roots of a favourite plant. 



An intermediate improvement, and one required without 

 delay for Southampton, is, authority to compel corpses to be 

 buried several days sooner than they are at present ; and what 

 would be a valuable addition to this enactment, would be the 

 establishment of one or two receiving-houses for the dead, such 

 as those we have described p. 298., and to which every dead 

 body, where the master of the house would not undertake to 

 inter it in four days, should be carried in four and twenty hours 

 after life was extinct. This is more imperiously demanded for 

 Southamj^ton than for any other town that we know, owing to 

 the low situation of a great part of the town, and the great heat 

 and moisture of the atmosphere. While Ave resided in the town, 

 there were six successive days during which a thermometer 



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