gs 
tints Vivaldus) wére of old interred in 
churches 5 afterwards the privilegés grew 
Jarger'to other eminent benefactors unto 
the charch, and none but them’: and now 
that it is-grown fo common beth in our 
enurches and the Roman, we may thank 
partly fuperftition, partly ambition and 
covetoufneffe ; fuperfition of them that 
think the holineffe of the place doth not a 
little avail the foul ; ambition of thofe 
that love thefe gputovririas both living 
and dead; covetouinefle of thofe - greedy 
huckfters of the Church of Rome, who, 
upon the fale of their fuffrages, noife the 
prifes of their holy ground to their un- 
reafonable advantages. But. to fneak 
freely what I think-concerning this fo 
common practife, I muft needs fay, I can- 
not but hold it very unfit and inconvenicnt, 
both, firft, in refpe& of the majeity of the 
Place 5 it is (xopiexn) the Lord’s Houfe, 
the Palace of the King of Heaven; and 
what prince would have his court made a 
charnel-houfe ? How well foever we loved 
our deceafed friends, yet when their life 
38 diffolved, there isnone of us but would 
be loth to have their corpfes inmates with 
us if our houfes: and why fhould we 
think fitto offer that to God's houfe which 
we would be loth to endure in our own — 
Secondly, in regard of the annoyance of 
the living ; for the air (kept Gofe within 
Wallis) arifing from dead bodies, mutt 
needs be offenfive, as we find by daily 
experience, more offenfive now than of old 
to God’s people: they buried with 
odours, the fragrancy whereof wasa good 
antidote for this inconvenience: (** She 
did this to bury me,”’ faith our Saviour.) 
Wot fo with us ; fo as the air receives no 
other tin@ure than what arifes from the 
_ evaporation of corrupted bodies. But 
though I approve not cominen biryings 
within the church, as not deeming that a 
fit beftowage for the dead ; yet forafmuch 
as the church is a place cf moft publick 
yefort and ufe, I cannot miflike that in 
fome meet parts, whether floores, or pil- 
Jars, or wails, (efpecially of the fide-chap- 
pels pertaining thereunto) there be me- 
moriais or mcnuments of worthy and 
well-deferving Chriftians, whereby their 
knowledge and precious remembrances 
may be perpetuated to pofterity.”’ 
Thus far the worthy Bifhop on this 
indecent and unwholefome practice ; to 
whieh I fhall only add 2 quotation from 
Mr. Strutt, who informs us, “ that before 
the time of Chriftianity it was held un- 
Jawful to bury the dead within the cities, 
but they ufed to carry them out into the 
fields hard-by, and there depofited them. 
Defence of ‘the aécount of Lard Somerville’s Shew. [Aug. 1, 
towards the énd of the fixth century, Au- 
guftine obtained of King Ethelbert 4 
temple of idols, (where the King uf-d to 
worlhip before his converGon,) and made a 
burying-place of it; but St. Cuthbert 
afterwards obtained leave to have yards 
made to the churches, proper for the re- 
ception of the dead.”—Antiquities, vel. 
I. p. 69. Iam, Sir, your's, &c. 
Fun2 11, 1803. 
—— oe 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. - 
SIR, . ie at 
OBSERVE, Sir, im your Magazine of 
the prefent month, an article which af=. 
fumes to be a mifreprefentation deteéted 
in the account of Lord Somerville’s thow. 
As the Author of that Account, it behoves 
me-either to acknowledge my error and 
return thanks to the dete&or, Or to prove 
that i had exhibited nought in my ftate- 
ment, but truth, to bé dete&ted. It is in 
my power to do the latrer, and I requeit 
the favour of you to afford mé the oppor- 
tunity. ; 
Your Corréf{pondent E.N. fays it would 
be much better if the writes of communi- 
cations of this kind would confine them- 
felves to a plain ftatement of facts. I 
furely had a juit title to his approbation in 
this refpe&t ; for on the two fubjeGs to 
which he has confined himfelf, I adhered 
merely to fa&: not an iota of fheculation 
in either of them. Firft, of the compa- 
rifen ef the Glamorgan with Hereford 
and Devon oxen, I merely remarked thai 
which the butchers who flanghtered them 
will vouch, namely, the great inferiority of 
weight in the former, although age, la- 
bour, food, and other circumftances, were 
perfectly fimilar, excepting, indeéd, that 
the iofertor oxen were of the higheft fta- 
ture. JT acknowledged that the Glamor- 
gan were by no means a favourable fpe- 
cimen of that. country produce, and I 
thought the jame of the Devons ; but had 
it heen otherwife, who ever expedts to fee 
a Glamorgan equal in weight of beef an 
Hereford or a Devon. Iam {peaking of 
them individually, without at all entering 
into the queflion of fize, to the intricacies 
of which indeed the wifeft of us feems to 
want a clue. I, however, forbear, any 
thing farther on a fubjéét of which E. N. 
candidly owns he knowsnething ; another 
exercife of his candour will, perhaps, cen- 
vince him, that for fuch good reafon he 
had better have left it untouched. 
‘The next thing on which E. N. pretends 
to fet me right, is, the informatiOn that 
Mr. Gibbs is not the firft who pagel 14 
the 
Ww. 
