The question of putting a stop to burials in overcrowded churchyards was also taken up by the Board. Their report on "A General Scheme for Extra-mural Sepulture" was published also in the same year (1850), and proved very clearly the evils arising from the crowded state of churchyards at that time. The Board proposed that a Government department should be established which should be intrusted with the care of the whole question of the burial of the dead; that, in future, interment should take place only in ground remote from large towns; and that everything should be arranged decorously and reverently. My grandfather, personally, was much interested in adding an element of beauty in the form of exquisite and appropriate cemetery churches and chapels. But only the preventive part of the scheme was carried out. What was actually achieved was the closing of the overcrowded churchyards; the provision of other grounds has been left for private enterprise. Thus, for six years, earnest men, at the head of a Health Department, spread information and gave advice. The newspapers of the period contained many notices of the various practical measures devised by this department, together with comments and leading articles on its reports on such large and pressing questions as cholera, quarantine, extra-mural sepulture, and water-supply. The newspapers, indeed, began to devote much space to the discussion of health questions in all forms, so that at last a widespread interest was aroused. Then came a time when the chief question was, _not_ as to the principles, but as to what machinery could best be employed to carry out those principles. The fear of "centralisation," and the desire for local self-government, which is strong in the English people, caused opposition in Parliament to the continuance of any Government department having such large control over the expenditure of public money on local objects; so that in 1854 the original Board of Health ceased to exist, but did not cease till sanitary principles and sanitary science, once unknown or despised, were acknowledged throughout the country, and recognised as one of the fundamental needs lying at the root of all efforts to benefit the community. With the ending of this department my grandfather's official life came to a close. From a personal point of view this cessation of his public work was somewhat softened by the following letter, written at the desire of the Prime Minister:-- WHITEHALL, _12th August, 1854_.