Statistics of grave-yards in Scotland / by John Webster.

  • Webster, John.
Date:
[1855?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistics of grave-yards in Scotland / by John Webster. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/24 (page 9)
    'A «*£ P* 7 J per cent. These varied statements are curious, and have now been quoted to illustrate the important question brought under discussion. Arbroath.—This manufacturing town lies on the sea-coast, near the embouchure of the river Tay. The place is densely peopled for its size, having about 17,000 inhabitants; and as the staple manufacture consists chiefly of flax, many residents follow occupa¬ tions often not very salubrious. Certain peculiar features cha¬ racterising this locality merit special mention; first, the num¬ ber of tall, huge, smoking chimneys, belonging to factories— upwards of thirty—which are crowded together almost like a forest, within a very limited space; and secondly, the singular phe¬ nomenon of a river of boiling water, the Brothock, running into the sea, while giving out volumes of steam, only a moment before condensed by the engines at work in various establishments. I have never before witnessed such an occurrence, and the fact is now mentioned chiefly on account of its great rarity, rather than from any known effect produced upon public health. In the old and very crowded burying-ground, near the mag¬ nificent remains of the ancient abbey, destroyed, like St. Andrew’s, at the Reformation, many gravestones shew that the ages of parties interred were from 70 to 80; numbers from that age to 85; and not a few from 85 to 90; whilst several ranged betwixt that period and 94, which were the highest figures seen on any monu¬ ment. The majority of these very old people were females. One man. however, should be mentioned; namely, a late gravedigger in this cemetery, who lived till he attained 93 years, having, like the same official dignitary at Stirling, followed his calling during the third part of a century. These data, besides the fact that there is now living, near this locality, a female in her 94th year, whom I know personally, shew that Arbroath stands well in reference to longevity ; and that, if not on a par with St. Andrew’s, it is far superior to several other manufacturing maritime towns, especially Glasgow. The reference just made to the great age of the respective grave¬ diggers at Stirling and Arbroath, notwithstanding the admitted insalubrity of their occupations, deserves notice; especially as other instances of a somewhat similar kind have been remarked else¬ where. Of this fact I will, however, only now mention one instance which came to my knowledge, viz., that of a man named Barton, who had acted as sexton at Horsely, in Derbyshire, during seventy years ; whilst his wife practised as a midwife for the long space of eighty years, and died at the age of 107. Of these rural function¬ aries, it is said, that she had twice brought into the world, he had twice buried, the whole parish. Coupling the above-cited cases with that of Watt, the St. Andrew’s gardener, Shakespeare’s well known saying, uttered by Hamlet, “ There is no ancient gentle¬ men but gardeners, ditchers and grave-makers,” seems completely verified. Anxious to procure additional facts illustrative of longevity, I c