REFORM AMONG THE GRAVESTONES.
That the state of the old churchyards in this country, down to the
middle of the nineteenth century, was a public scandal and disgrace,
is a remark which applies especially to London, where burial-grounds,
packed full of human remains, were still made available for
interments on a large scale until 1850 or later. The fact was the more
discreditable in contrast with the known example of Paris, which had,
as early as 1765, closed all the city graveyards, and established
cemeteries beyond the suburbs. One of the laws passed at the same time
by the Parliament of Paris directed that the graves in the cemeteries
should not be marked with stones, and that all epitaphs and
inscriptions should be placed on the walls, a regulation which appears
to have been greatly honoured in the breach. In 1776 Louis XVI.,
recognizing the benefit which Paris had derived from the city decree,
prohibited graveyards in all the cities and towns of France, and
rendered unlawful interments in churches and chapels; and in 1790
the National Assembly passed an Act commanding that all the old
burial-grounds, even in the villages, should be closed, and others
provided at a distance from habitations.[8] Other States of Europe
took pattern by these enlightened proceedings, and America was not
slow in making laws upon the subject; but Great Britain, and its worst
offender, London, went on in the old way, without let or hindrance,
until 1850, For fifteen years prior to that date there had been in
progress an agitation against the existing order of things, led by Dr.
G.A. Walker, a Drury Lane surgeon, living in a very nest of churchyard
fevers, who wrote a book and several pamphlets, delivered public
lectures, and raised a discussion in the public press. The London City
Corporation petitioned Parliament in 1842 for the abolition of burials
within the City, and a Select Committee of the House of Commons was at
once entrusted with an enquiry on the subject.
[Footnote 8: In France in 1782-3, in order to check the pestilence,
the remains of more than six millions of people were disinterred from
the urban churchyards and reburied far away from the dwelling-places.
The Cemetery of Père la Chaise was a later creation, having been
consecrated in 1804.]
The following were the official figures shewing the burials in the
London district[9] from 1741 to 1837, and it was asserted that many
surreptitious interments were unrecorded:
From 1741 to 1765 588,523
" 1766 to 1792 605,832
" 1793 to 1813 402,595
" 1814 to 1837 508,162
Total 2,105,112
In the same year (1842) a Export was presented to Parliament by the
Select Committee on "The Improvement of the Health of Towns," and
especially on "The Effect of the Interment of Bodies in Towns." Its
purport may be summed up in the following quotation:
"The evidence ... gives a loathsome picture of the unseemly and
demoralizing practices which result from the crowded condition of the
existing graveyards--practices which could scarcely have been thought
possible in the present state of society.... We cannot arrive at any
other conclusion than that the nuisance of interments in great towns
and the injury arising to the health of the community are fully
proved."
[Footnote 9: London was much increased in area by the passing of Sir
Benjamin Hall's "Metropolis Local Management Act of 1849."]
Among the witnesses examined were Sir Benjamin Brodie and Dr. G.R.
Williams.
In 1846 a Bill was prepared to deal with the matter, but it was not
until 1850 that an Act was passed "To make better provision for
the Interment of the Dead in and near the Metropolis." Powers were
conferred upon the General Board of Health to establish cemeteries or
enlarge burial-grounds, and an Order in Council was made sufficient
for closing any of the old churchyards either wholly or with
exceptions to be stipulated in the order. One month's notice was all
that was needed to set the Act in operation, and in urgent cases seven
days; but it was found necessary in 1851 to pass another Act for the
purpose of raising funds; and in 1852 a more stringent Act was put
upon the Statute Book to deal summarily with the churchyards. This
was, in the the following session, extended to England and Wales, the
General Board of Health having reported strongly in favour of a scheme
for "Extra-mural Sepulture" in the country towns, declaring that the
graveyards of these places were in no better condition than those of
London.
Consequently, in the years which followed 1850, a general closing
of churchyards took place throughout the Metropolis, and to a lesser
extent throughout the kingdom, and an active crusade against all
similar burial-grounds was instituted, which may be said to be still
in operation. The substitution of new cemeteries in remote and mostly
picturesque places was of immediate advantage in many ways, but it
did little or nothing to remedy the dilapidated appearance of the old
graveyards, which indeed, now that they brought in no revenues, became
in many cases painfully neglected, dejected, and forlorn. Happily, in
1883, the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association was established,
and its influence has been very marked in the improvement of the
old enclosures and their conversion into recreation grounds. The
Metropolitan Board of Works, the London County Council, the City
Corporation, public vestries, and private persons, have shared in
the good work, but the chief instrument has been the Public Gardens
Association.
Of old burial-grounds now open as public gardens in the London
district there are more than a hundred. Care is always taken to
preserve the sacred soil from profane uses, games being prohibited,
and the improvements confined to paths and seats, levelling the ground
and planting with trees and flowers. The gravestones, though removed
to the sides of the enclosure, are numbered and scheduled, and all in
which any living person can claim an interest are left untouched. No
stones are ever destroyed in the process of reformation, but previous
ill-usage and natural decay have rendered very many of them illegible,
and in another century or so all these once fond memorials will
probably have become blank and mute.
To the middle of the nineteenth century may also be assigned the
change which we now see in the character of our gravestones. Quite
in the beginning of the century the vulgar and grotesque carvings and
Scriptural barbarisms of the eighteenth century had given place to a
simple form of memorial in which it was rare to find the least effort
at ornament; but, as soon as the Burial Acts were passed and the old
churchyards were succeeded by the new cemeteries, the tasteful and
elegant designs which are to be seen in every modern burial-ground
were introduced, founded in great measure upon the artistic drawings
of Mr. D.A. Clarkson, whose manifold suggestions, published in 1852,
are still held in the highest admiration.