A supplementary report on the results of a special inquiry into the practice of interment in towns.Chadwick, Edwin
History
A supplementary report on the results of a special inquiry into the practice of interment in towns.
Chadwick, Edwin
Burial; Cemeteries -- Great Britain; Mortality -- Statistics; Public health -- Great Britain; Working class -- Great Britain
§ 46. Mr. Dix, an undertaker, who inters from 800 to 1000 persons
annually, of whom about 300 are of the class of independent labourers,
being questioned on this topic, stated as follows:—
The lowest average expense of a poor man’s burial, from extensive
evidence, is stated to be about 5_l._; but that is where it is done,
as it usually is, second or third hand. I frequently perform
funerals three deep: that is, I do it for one person, who does it
for another who does it for the relatives of the deceased, he being
the first person applied to.
The people then generally apply to the nearest person?—Yes, they do.
Everybody calls himself an undertaker. The numerous men employed as
bearers become undertakers, although they have never done anything
until they have got the job. I have known one of these men get a new
suit of clothes out of the funeral of one decent mechanic.
§ 47. The conclusions in respect to the unnecessary expense of funerals
appear to be applicable, with little variation, to the most populous
provincial towns. In the rural districts the expense of funerals of the
class of gentry appears to be even more expensive. In most of the
provincial towns the expense of the funerals of the more respectable
class of tradesmen does not appear to be much less than in London. In
Scotland, the expenses of the funerals of persons of the middle classes
appear, from a communication from Mr. Chambers, to vary from 12_l._ to
25_l._ In Glasgow the expenses of funerals of persons of the middle
class appear to vary from 12_l._ to 50_l._
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