A remarkable instance of premature interment, is related in the case of
the rev. Mr. Richards, parson of the Hay, in Herefordshire, who, in
December, 1751, was supposed to have died suddenly. His friends seeing
his body and limbs did not stiffen, after twenty-four hours, sent for a
surgeon, who, upon bleeding him, and not being able to stop the blood,
told them that he was not dead, but in a sort of trance, and ordered
them not to bury him. They paid no attention to the injunction, but
committed the body to the grave the next day. A person walking along the
churchyard, hearing a noise in the grave, ran and prevailed with the
clerk to have the grave opened, where they found a great bleeding at the
nose, and the body in a profuse sweat; whence it was conjectured that he
was buried alive. They were now, however, obliged to let him remain, as
all appearance of further recovery had been precluded by his
interment.[409]
A writer in the “Gentleman’s Magazine” some years before, observes, “I
have undoubted authority for saying, a man was lately (and I believe is
still) living at Hustley, near Winchester, December, 1747, who, after
lying for dead two days and two nights, was committed to the grave, and
rescued from it by some boys luckily playing in the churchyard!”
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