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
Something likewise must be added for such mainways as will be wanted
along various lines of the burial-ground, for the carriage traffic which
belongs to funeral ceremonies among the richer classes of society, and
for other like purposes.
Further, I dare say you would think it inexpedient that your Cemetery
should be entirely without decoration and elegance. Fifty-four acres of
head-and-foot stones, or the same extent of bare mounds, might vulgarise
even the aspect of death. By the judicious introduction of trees and
turf and shrubs, of bends and undulations, you would probably seek to
interrupt the long perspective of so many tombs, and, by these
artificial resources of planning and planting, to enhance the native
solemnity of the spot. Amid such ornamental portions of your ground
might be scattered irregularly the various sites of exceptional
interment,--family graves, personal graves in perpetuity, long leasehold
graves, and the like; and the interposition of these large portions of
comparatively un-occupied soil, with as much appropriate vegetation as
could conveniently be introduced, might not only allow much tasteful
decoration of the ground, but would likewise conduce to the healthful
accomplishment of those purposes for which the Cemetery is established.
In respect of these and many other details of your plan, you will
doubtless be guided by the direct and responsible advice of men
specially skilled in the subject. I have, therefore, confined myself to
the mention of those points which may determine your judgment merely as
to the quantity of land required for your purpose.
Without offering any opinion as to the possible claims of non-resident
parishioners, on which liability I would again suggest your obtaining a
legal opinion; and without pretending to advise what allowance should be
made for purely decorative purposes; I may yet conclude from such
information as I have collected, that, with a hundred acres of suitable
soil at your disposal, you would be amply able to meet all legitimate
burial-requirements of your population in perpetuity, and would likewise
(for many years at least) have a considerable excess which might be
applied to the uses of ornamental arrangement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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