_Indignities on the Bodies of Suicides._--We are all aware of the
popular repugnance to permitting the bodies of suicides to be interred
within the "consecrated" or "hallowed" precincts of a churchyard. Burial
at cross-roads was the usual mode. In many parts of Scotland such
burials had to take place under cloud of night, to avoid the
interference of the rabble. But it would appear from the extract given
below, that public indignities were inflicted upon such corpses, to
testify public detestation of this crime. The extract is taken from the
_Diarey of Robert Birrel_, Burges of Edinburghe:
"1598, Feb. 20. The 20 day of Februar, Thomas Dobie drounit
himself in the Quarrel holes besyde the Abbay, and upone the
morne, he wes harlit throw the toune backward, and therafter
hangit on the gallows."
Perhaps some correspondent of "N. & Q." may be able to point out similar
instances of such a revolting procedure.
The "Abbay" referred to was the Abbey of Holyrood.
The "Quarrel," or Quarry holes, seem to have been fatal, in many cases,
both to "man and beast;" for Sir David Lyndsay, in one of his poems,
says:
"Marry, I lent my gossip my mare, to fetch hame coals,
And he _her drounit into the quarry holes_."