Reports Relating to the Sanitary Condition of the City of LondonSimon, John
History
Reports Relating to the Sanitary Condition of the City of London
Simon, John
Cemeteries -- England -- London; Mortality -- Statistics; Sanitation -- England -- London
[94] In regard of these exceptional burials, it will be requisite to
fix certain regulations; especially for the construction of family
graves, wherein it will be desired that many who during life have been
united, shall after death have their ashes mingled together in the
soil. A frequent custom in private Cemeteries for fulfilling this
purpose has been, for graves to be dug to a considerable
depth--sometimes such that twelve coffins could be piled there, one on
the other; and these deep pits have commonly been provided with brick
walls. Now, for the same reason as determined my opinion against the
multiple burial of the poor, I would argue against this arrangement,
as one which might occasion excessive accumulation in single spots of
your Cemetery, and as being in principle bad. In preference, I would
venture to recommend the endeavour to introduce an interment-custom,
which is prevalent abroad, of _family plots of ground instead of
family pits_. Under ordinary circumstances, all the accommodation
heretofore sought in the one arrangement would be found superiorly in
the other; and in a well-projected suburban Cemetery the larger
superficial extent could probably be afforded at much less cost than
is usually paid for the pit. Persons familiar with the details of
Cemetery-burial would easily devise an arrangement of such plots,
whereby they should be separate and secluded, admitting of appropriate
decoration, and altogether likely to prove more acceptable to public
opinion than many existing arrangements. In regard of such plots, too,
there might be conceded a privilege which I believe has not been
allowed in private Cemeteries; namely, an hereditary right to refill
the ground for any successive number of times, subject only to such
restrictions as will determine the succession of interments in other
parts of the Cemetery.
In thus selling portions of your land for private and privileged
employment, you would be satisfying what has become a habit, and may be
considered a legitimate claim of the wealthier classes. Beyond this, it
is also evident, that you would virtually be competing with the ordinary
Cemetery-companies of the metropolis, in the most lucrative department
of their trade. It would probably be easy for you, by varying your fees
according to circumstances, either on the one hand to diminish, and
almost prohibit, the frequency of applications for exceptional
interments; or, on the other hand, to attract such applications. Even,
if you thought it desirable, you might admit purchasers from other
classes than those having right of burial in your municipal
Cemetery;--in short, you might manage it commercially, with a view to
profit, looking to its proceeds for covering many expenses of the
general establishment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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