The first of a series of lectures delivered at the Mechanics' Institution, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, Nov. 27, 1846, on the actual condition of the metropolitan grave-yards / by Geo. Alfd. Walker.

Walker, George Alfred, 1807-1884.

Date:: 1847

Credit: The first of a series of lectures delivered at the Mechanics' Institution, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, Nov. 27, 1846, on the actual condition of the metropolitan grave-yards / by Geo. Alfd. Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$had a melancholy consolation in watching the spot where they lay, and almost selfishly congratulating himself that amidst the horrible up-turniugs and desecrations he had during many previous years so frequently been compelled to witness, his own deposit had as yet escaped mutUation. I chanced to call on him soon after the occurrence, and found him in tears; his nervous system had received a violent and rude shock ; the exertion he had made had been most injurious to him, and I have no doubt the combined circumstances short- ened his passage to the house appointed for the living. In the inquiries which I have been led to make relative to the interment of the poor, I have been forced to arrive at the conclusion that poverty is regarded as a crime which pursues its object even beyond the grave. To the poor man, the house of death is no resting-place. In the month of August, 1840, a poor man died at a wretched hovel in Para- dise Row, Chelsea, and was buried in the usual loaij by the parish, A judicial inquiry was instituted, and it was necessary to exhume the body. The grave- digger opened the hole, and after searching for some time, declared his inability to find it. The Coroner (Mr. Wakley) inquired of the summoning-officer the precise number of bodies interred in the same pit ? The officer replied, to the best of his recollection, there were twenty-six bodies. The Coroner wished to be informed if they rammed them down with a rammer ? The officer said, he was not aware they resorted to such a process, but the bodies of paupers were packed together as closely as possible, in order to make the most of the space. The Coroner observed, that such a system of burial was revolting to humanity, and reflected the highest disgrace on a Christian country. Such practices, however, often bring with them their punishment. In March, 1841, another fatal proof was afiorded of the shocking condition of the soil of the London grave-yards. The gravedigger of St. Bride's, Fleet Street, and two assistants, were employed in opening a pit 20 feet deep for the interment of the dead. Two of the men, more experienced than the third, escaped ; large quantities of earth, and an entire pile of coffins, feU upon and crushed the man who was unable to get out of the grave. Such was the rotten state of the ground that as the men dug, it fell in, in masses, and upwards of seven hours were employed in the most severe and indefatigable exertions before his body could be recovered, although the labourers had every mechanical assistance that blocks, falls, pullies, hooks, &c. could afford. His head, pressed against the end of the pit, was discovered after two hours' digging. As if in revenge for the insults offered them, two dead bodies had rested themselves on his chest, whilst his legs, jammed between other coffins, and embedded in the earth, could not for many hours be extricated. Thus another grave-yard divulged to the many the secret of its condition, which had long, [however, been known to the few. So effectually, so diligently, had this ground been worked, so well charged with rottenness and corruption, so well incorporated '\\'ith the bones, flesh, and tissues of decayed and decaying human bodies, that the natural cohesiveness of the soil had been destroyed; the loose state of the ground$