OUR BURIAL LAWS.
In order to properly estimate the improved condition of things
during the present day, and under the present regulations as to
burial, it will be necessary to examine the state in which our
graveyards were found before these new regulations were in force.
Let us take, then, our metropolitan burying-places as they existed a
little more than twenty years ago.
A very good idea of the lamentable want of proper space for burial
in the metropolis in 1843 was furnished by Mr. Sopwith, who showed
by a plan that the extent of intramural space then provided was
just about half of what it ought to be, even at the standard of
110 burials per acre. At that time things were in a most desperate
state, the burials at the parochial yards of St. Mary's-at-Hill, St.
George's Burial Ground in Uxbridge Road, and St. Olave's, Tooley
Street, averaging 1,204 per acre. The grounds belonging to other
religionists were in some cases worse; for the interments in the
Roman Catholic yards at Moorfields and Dockhead, in the Baptist
ground at Woolwich and in the Congregationalist fields at Stepney,
averaged 1,278 per acre. But the parochial burial-grounds of St.
Giles's, St. Pancras, and St. John's Chapel of Ease, exceeded
the last-named figure by 282, and, horrible to relate in these
days--when we calculate that, to properly accommodate even 52,000
annual metropolitan dead with decennially renewed interments, we
should want at least 500 acres--the burials in the new Bunhill
General Burial Ground reached the astounding figure of 2,323 per
acre.
This was a fearful state of things, it must be admitted, but it
was even exceeded in point of hideousness by many of the yards of
our country towns, and even of our villages, where one might have
supposed no necessity for overcrowding existed. The reader who is
anxious to examine these revolting details for himself can see
them in the reports of the evidence taken before the Parliamentary
Commissions of 1842, of 1843, and of 1850. These reports were
issued by Lords Carlisle and Ashley, and by Mr. Edwin Chadwick and
Dr. Southwood Smith, and revealed horrors beyond all that could
have been imagined. Nor were some of the villages of Switzerland
better situated with regard to accommodation than our own. Read for
instance the condition of the churchyard of Schuls, as described by
Professor Reclam.[96]
[96] In the 'Gartenlaube,' No. 19, 1874.
Since 1843, however, many of the parochial and general
burial-grounds of the metropolis have been closed altogether, and
the same has been done in many parts of the country. During the
ten years which elapsed between 1852 and 1862, about 500 Orders
in Council were issued, by means of which, says the great legal
authority upon the laws of burial,[97] some four thousand old
burial-grounds have been closed or regulated. Regulation generally
means the forbidding of interments in a churchyard which has been
reported against by the Medical Officer of Health, except in the
case of family graves. A London churchyard has just been regulated
in this way.[98] During the ten years alluded to, some 400 local
burial boards were constituted. Within that period also nearly
one and a half millions were raised for the use of the parochial
cemeteries by the ratepayers.
[97] Baker, 'Laws relating to Burial,' 4th ed. London: 1874. Mr.
Baker was kind enough to read over the proof of this chapter.
[98] By Dr. Tripe.
Some cemeteries properly so called existed in 1843, but their area
in the metropolitan districts amounted to only 260 acres, and the
annual number of burials performed amounted to nearly 3,400. Of
this number the burials in the East London, in the City of London
and Tower Hamlets, and in the Kensal Green Cemeteries, made up over
two-thirds. The number of burials per acre in the East London
Cemetery, Mile End, was 154, in Kensal Green 17, and in Norwood 5.
In 1850 the Board of Health condemned the cemetery at Brompton, but
interments are still carried on there, with, it must be, anything
but satisfactory results to the houses which surround it. What
will it be twenty years hence, if the interments go on as now?
Several new cemeteries have been opened, it is true, for instance
a magnificent cemetery at Woking. Others again are being projected
for places where interments have been found difficult to obtain,
notably, one for the south of London. At the present moment a
company is being formed to work a cemetery at East Ham, two miles
nearer to the city than Ilford cemetery. As the site is upwards of
two miles beyond the metropolitan area, no sanction is required
from the Secretary of State, and yet it is adjacent to some very
populous parishes, whence, as is set forth, numerous interments
may be expected. The site occupies 115 acres, 45 of which it is
purposed to reserve for burials, the other 70 to be sold in lots for
building purposes. Then again come cemeteries of ease as they might
be called, belonging to parochial boards whose churchyards are full.
To this category belongs a burial-ground just commencing in a parish
in the Northern suburbs of London, within 500 yards of a reservoir
constructed since 1871 at a cost of 25,000_l._ The formation is
clay, and is easily drained into the main drainage system, but
the fear is that at some future time the exhalations will affect
the water in the reservoir, especially if it be uncovered. These
two last examples will show how nearly omission may be made a
non-transgression of a law.
Our burial laws specify that each dead adult shall be entitled
to four superficial yards of earth. Allowing for the predominant
deaths amongst children, this would be an average of three yards.
This thirty-six superficial feet is about the space allowed to each
body by the authorities of Stuttgart and Munich; but in Würtemberg
fifty-four feet are accorded, and in some parts of Austria as
much as ninety feet is awarded to each adult. The common practice
with us is to allow about a quarter of an acre of burial-ground
to each 1,000 head of population, where the soil is favourable;
but some authorities double this allowance, and leave room for
embellishing the ground. Wise cemetery companies also allow a space
between each alternate row of grave-spaces, in order to prevent
trampling. They, moreover, encourage the purchase of family freehold
grave-plots containing three or six grave-spaces. It is true that
the proprietors of the burial-ground profit by this payment in
anticipation; but the benefit accrues largely to the public as well,
for it does not become necessary to open the same grave should two
members of a family die with but a short interval of time between.
For the rest, a commodious grave-space presupposes a sufficiency
of soil to absorb the gases, allows the grave to be opened without
the earth of the adjoining one falling into it, dispenses with the
shoring up of the sides with planks, and provides sufficient space
for suitable monuments. As a general rule, one-sixth of the entire
acreage of a cemetery will also of a necessity be appropriated for
roads and paths, for sites of lodges and chapels, and botanical
groves.
The depth at which burial is practised varies much, but it is
usually from eight to ten feet in soil propitious to decay. Six feet
would suffice, it might be; but, as the intention is to be able
to reopen the graves fourteen years after the burial of an adult,
and eight years after the burial of a child, a fair maximum depth
is resorted to. When a burial has taken place in an allotment, the
above period of lying fallow can only be shortened should it be
necessary to open the grave to inter another member of the family.
In such a case, a foot of earth must be interposed.[99] The law
is also distinct on the point that no one shall be buried in any
unwalled grave within four feet of the ordinary level of the ground,
unless it be a child, and then not less than three feet of soil
shall lie above it.
[99] During an official enquiry held by Mr. Holland, in November
1874, into the management of the Tooting cemetery, it transpired
that four or five inches of intervening earth had been deemed
necessary by the inspector of the cemetery, instead of the twelve
inches stipulated by law. In the case of private graves the coffins
had been laid without any intervening earth at all.
When the coffin is not laid in contact with the soil, but entombed
in a vault or walled grave, the occupied space is covered by a
stone cemented down, air-tight, upon a ledge in the wall, and the
raising of which is for ever forbidden. The entombment may also be
made by an air-tight surrounding of concrete. The best practice of
vault burial is to place some charcoal or disinfectant along with
the coffin, so that no foul gas shall escape should reopening be
necessary. When old vaults underneath churches are reported upon and
found inimical to public health, the churchwardens can be compelled
to remove the contents elsewhere, and disinfect the vaults, charging
the poor-rates with the expenses. No interment is now allowed under
any new place of worship, except with the authority of the Secretary
of State. During the ten years, too, which followed the passing of
the Burial Acts in 1852, more than one hundred church vaults in the
metropolis were disinfected and sealed up.
Cemeteries, and not churchyards, are now the chosen sites for
interments. These cemeteries are permitted to be located upon
any piece of ground, provided that the usual restrictions are
not set at naught.[100] A well-chosen cemetery[101] is one whose
soil is dry, close, and yet porous, permitting the rain and its
accompanying air to reach a reasonable depth, and so expedite
decay. The formation is also well covered with vegetable mould,
which assists in neutralising any hurtful emanations and encourages
the growth of shrubs. The subsoil is also of such a kind as to
need no underdraining, and such as will prevent the water lodging
in any grave or vault.[102] It will also stand exposed to the
north or north-east winds, which are dry, and which do not hold
the putrefactive gases in solution, like the moist south or
south-westerly winds.
[100] The Congress of Hygiene at Brussels recommended an intervening
space of 400 mètres between a cemetery and any habitation.
[101] The Greek word cemetery means a sleeping-place, and the idea
of rest would be far better conveyed if only ashes were laid there,
as no further atomical change would be possible.
[102] In the Tooting cemetery enquiry, November 1874, it was proved
that although the subsoil required draining, the merest surface
drainage had been resorted to. The Burial Board admitted that in one
instance a coffin had been deposited in a grave with water in it
sufficient to cover it.
Cemeteries can be made upon clay soils, if properly drained by
deep cross-drains, and by pipe-drains laid from grave-space to
grave-space, duly conducted into the main drain, or by causing the
first interments to be made near the drain, strewing gravel at the
bottom of each grave opened out, and similarly connecting with this
porous layer each new grave with a previous one. When the soil does
not admit percolation downwards, it is necessary to get rid of the
surface water by laying a line of pipes at the upper end of each
row of graves, and so intercepting it. Or upright pipes are placed,
reaching down to the bottom of the grave and to the artificially
placed gravel then communicating with the drain. The clayey soils
of some burial-grounds have also been improved by the admixture of
sand and gravel when refilling the graves. But, even after all this
expense, the gases evolved during decay are retained very often
in the soil, and, after thirty or more years, little or no change
will have been effected. The laws of nature are thus contravened;
for she has ordained that, in good soil, all but the larger bones
shall disappear in twelve years. If interments be made in the worst
of clays, sudden heat will open up fissures in the ground with
lamentable results.
An improperly chosen graveyard, then, may be said to be one where
the soil is dense and clayey, and impervious to moisture. It will
be insufficiently drained, necessitating the use of planks to walk
upon in wet weather. It will be too close to the abodes of the
living, too small to permit proper planting, the graves covered, it
may be, with flat stones, which prevent the passage downwards of
the air and rain, and surrounded, moreover, by high walls which
exclude the fresh air. The ground will be stony and insufficiently
covered with vegetable soil. No natural outfall will exist, and
the drainage-water must be pumped up, the bare idea of which is
horrible. It will be near also to water-bearing strata, or to a
reservoir. Long before decomposition has taken place, owing to the
smallness of the site and the impossibility of obtaining any more
land except at high building prices, the organic matter hidden out
of sight will be far too large in proportion to the area. From the
foregoing we may conclude that a proper site for a cemetery is not
everywhere obtainable, and that serious mistakes must often be made.
The older burial-grounds can be closed at the expiration of a
month's notice given by duly qualified persons, on the order of the
Privy Council, and any one assisting at a burial contrary to that
order is liable to fine and imprisonment.
The Ecclesiastical Commissioners can grant, in certain cases,
a faculty permitting the erection of schools in churchyards,
especially when the grounds have been closed under the Burials Act;
and never shall I forget a school of this description in one of our
largest cities. Old burial-grounds can be converted to more common
secular purposes under certain restrictions, as may be witnessed
almost every day in London. In such cases the remains must be
decorously removed to some consecrated ground, after due notice to
the relatives. An example of this may be observed at the present
moment at the demolished church of St. Antholin, London; only in
this case the remains have not been carted away as usual to the City
of London Cemetery at Ilford, but have been placed in a monster
vault constructed at the base of the tower, which is the only part
of the church that is to remain. In this vault have been placed over
200 chests, each containing the contents of a grave.
If the closed burial-ground be taken under the Land Clauses Act
for public improvements, and converted into sites for building,
the freeholder obtains the sum at which it was valued previously
to the passing of the Act, and the building may proceed. In the
City of London the Commissioners may, with the Bishop's consent,
arrange with the churchwardens for the appropriation of any disused
burial-ground. Sometimes, as in the case of the Bunhill Fields
ground, the space may be laid out and preserved as an open space by
a corporation, and a burial board may do the like with all ancient
graveyards within their jurisdiction. The authorities, however,
I believe, provide that, in burial-places so closed, vertical
tombstones shall not be thrown down and made use of as a paving,
and, as a general rule, the growth of grass is encouraged for
sanitary purposes.
I have given an account of the past and present state of the burial
laws, because it was necessary to do so in order to estimate the
position which any better system of dealing with our dead will
occupy. It cannot be said that no pains have been taken to lessen
the horrors of the tomb, for I have taken the trouble to make a
list of the proposed improvements in the paraphernalia of death
which have appeared[103] since 1781, and everything seems to
have been considered. From 1781 to 1825 the main thing studied
was security against the rifling of the grave; and then on to
1871 followed plans for all kinds of coffins in stone, marble,
granite, slate, porcelain, earthenware, bitumen, asphalte, paper,
peat, india-rubber, iron, and glass. Glass has been the favourite
material, just as it was in old Italy, where it was mostly selected
to enshrine the ashes collected from the pyre. It is melancholy to
peruse these strivings after the impossible, and to see what fond
but unavailing attempts have been made to rob inhumation of its
terrors.
[103] Patent Office Records.