On the laying out, planting, and managing of cemeteries; and on the improvement of churchyards. With sixty engravings / by J. C. Loudon.

  • Loudon, J. C. (John Claudius), 1783-1843.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the laying out, planting, and managing of cemeteries; and on the improvement of churchyards. With sixty engravings / by J. C. Loudon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    11. TiiK Laying out, Building, and Planting ok Cemktekies. Having shown the uses of cemeteries, we shall next consider the mode in which the ground should be laid out or arranged, witli reference to these uses. The situalion of cemeteries, as tiiey are at present used, that is, mterring several bodies in one grave, and placing coffins in vaults, ought always to be at a distance from human dwellings ; but if only one coffin were to be placed in each grave, and that grave never again opened, but the cemeterv when filled used as a public garden, its situation might be regulated solely by con- venience ; and, in general, the nearer the town, the more desirable it would be, both as a burial-ground and a promenade. Cemeteries, as at present used, ought to be in an elevated and airy situation, open to the north, but with a south aspect, that the surface may be dried by the sun ; rather than with a north aspect, where the surface would be moist during the winter months. If the surface be even, it will be more convenient for interments than if it were irregular, whether by broken ground, rocks, or undulations. It should be as near the great mass of the population for which it is intended, as a due regard to their health will permit, in order to lessen the expense of carriage, and shorten the time of the performance of funerals and of visits by the living to the tombs of their friends ; it ought to be conspicuous at a distance, because, from its buildings and tombs, it will generally be an ornament to the surrounding country, and an impressive memento of our mortality; and the outer boundary ought to be regular and simple, in order that it maybe short, and consequently less expensive than if it were circuitous. The soil,, for reasons which we have already noticed, ought to be dry to the depth of 20 or 30 feet, or capable of being rendered so by underground drains. It ought not to be generally rocky, at least where deep graves are to be dug. As in decomposition a considerable quantity of moisture (sanies) is exuded, the greatest care ought to be taken not to form a cemetery over a stra- tum of soil which contains the water used in the neighbourhood for drinkinjr. Not to mention numerous instances in London, as noticed in the Report on the Health of Toivns, there is a churchyard near Kirkaldy in Fifeshire with a per- petual spring immediately without the boundary wall, the water of which, pass- ing through a stratum under the graves, is said to be contaminated; and the burial-ground of St. Peter's Church, Brighton, cannot be used as such, on account of the proximity of the chalky stratum which contains the water that supplies the wells of the lower part of the town. In situations where, from the flatness of the country or the nature of the soil, there is not an opportunity of draining to a great depth, care ought always to be taken to carry off as much as possible of the surface water by shallow underground drains placed under the roads, and under the gravel walks and green paths which separate the lines of graves. No drains can be made under those parts of the surface in which graves are to be dug, for obvious reasons. Many details of this kind, which need not be entered into, will readily occur to the practical man. The prejudices of the living, in every country, are in favour of a gravelly, sandy, or chalky soil; and in such soils draining is not required. In strong clayey soil, likethat of most of the London cemeteries, decomposition does not take place for a very long period, the fleshy part of the bodies being changed into adipocere. The extent of a cemetery must, of course, depend on the population for which it is intended ; the probable increase or decrease of that popu- lation; and whether one, or more than one, interment is to be made m the same grave. The data on which to form the necessary calculations are, that the averat'c outside dimensions of a grave are 7 ft. by .3 ft. 6 in. ; that the average dTmcnsions of a grave, where a number of them arc su|)posed to have rave-stones, arc 8 ft. bv 4't.; and that the average deaths m a healthy