PARK AND CEMETERY. 
1 66 
a concise history of the modes of interment among 
different nations from the earliest periods, and a 
detail of dangerous and fatal results produced by 
the unwise and revolting custom of inhuming the 
dead in the midst of the living.” 
* * ♦ 
As the result of the agitation thus started, 
London petitioned parliament in 1842 for an act 
abolishing burials within the city. A committee 
of inquiry was appointed which worked faithfully 
even if slowly and cautiously. In 1846 an act was 
prepared (and was passed four years later), “To 
make better provision for the Interment of the 
dead in and near the Metropolis.” This act re- 
ceived supplements in 1851 and 1852, and was in 
1853 extended in its operations to all the cities and 
towns of England and Wales. Under its pro- 
visions the urban burial places were closed to a 
large extent and new suburban cemeteries were 
opened. Some of these, however, were located so 
close to the “city” as to be soon overtaken by the 
expanding metropolis. 
* * * 
The frightful revelations made by Dr. Walker in 
his book and pamphlets were supposed at first to 
be gross exaggerations of facts. It must have 
seemed impossible for the Londoners to believe all 
that he told was being tolerated by them. Who 
could believe, for example, that wells sunk in the 
midst of graveyards generations before were still in 
use ? Dickens, in his forcible way, called attention 
to one of them and depicted the occupants of a 
London graveyard saying, as they heard the pump 
at work directly over them, “Let us lie here in 
peace; don’t suck us up and drink us!” But then 
Dickens was a novel writer, and those who read 
these words cared not to see that they were called 
forth by the actual drinking, every day in the year, 
by hundreds of people, of water filtered through 
overcrowded graveyards, And during a cholera 
scare, many years ago, a clergyman hung a placard, 
bearing the words “Deadmen’s Broth,” upon a 
pump in his churchyard to which his parishioners 
used to resort for drinking water. 
♦ ♦ * 
The results of the parliamentary investigations 
fully corroborated the statements of Dr. Walker, 
For the purposes of these papers the gross evils 
exhibited in the course of the investigation may be 
reduced to two; the overcrowding of the burial 
places and the utter neglect of such as fell into dis- 
use. In regard to the former certain “private 
cemeteries’’ were found to be the worst offenders, 
and one in particular furnished an example of how 
far the practice of overcrowding burial places 
might be carried without exciting a popular revolt. 
It was that of a small chapel with vaults under it 
built as a speculation by a certain minister. The 
burial fees were small, which induced patronage. 
As many as nine or ten burials often took place on 
a Sunday afternoon. The space available for coffins 
was 59 X 29 X 6 feet, yet no less than 20,000 coffins 
were deposited there. To make this possible tlie 
destruction of the older ones was constantly going 
on, and this was accomplished in the fire places of 
the minister’s house. The vaults were directly 
under the board floor of the chapel, and long after 
it became impossible to hold services in the chapel 
because of the intolerable stench arising from the 
vaults, the latter continued to be used for inter- 
ments, and “more money was made from the dead 
than from the living” for the speculative min- 
ister. 
* » « 
In one burying ground capable of holding 
1,000 graves, at least 80,000 bodies had actually 
been interred. The gravestones were moved about 
from time to time to give an appearance of empti- 
ness to certain parts of the ground; bodies were 
burned behind a brick wall; coffins were destroj ed 
and vast quantities of quick-lime were used to 
accomplish this end. In another private burial 
ground pits were dug and disinterred coffins and 
bodies were “chucked” (such the word used in the 
official reports) into them in order that the graves 
might be used again. Thus 1,400 were interred in 
that ground in one year after the ground had been 
already filled more than once. The grave diggers 
in such grounds were in constant peril of their 
lives. They were accustomed while at their work 
to hold rue or garlick in their mouths, or to fill 
themselves with grog. The more experienced, 
when they “bored” or “tapped” a coffin in the 
course of their digging, fled immediately to a dis- 
tance and remained away until the harmful exhala- 
tions had been sufficiently dissipated for them to 
resume their work with some degree of safety. 
But with every precaution deaths often occurred. 
Even sheep grazing in these overfilled churchyards 
were known to die from the poisonous air. 
L. Viajero. 
* * * 
In connection with the above we have received 
through Mr. Joseph Meehan, of Philadelphia, the 
following note from London: “In the playground 
of Christ’s Hospital, (Blue Coat School), that por- 
tion called the garden is another ancient burial 
place, part of the suppressed monastery of the 
Grey PTIars. In the centre still in use is a pump, 
the water of which, strange to say, (frequently 
tested) is found to be absolutely pure. 
