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120
distance of the Mortuary. With a view to enable him to be
always at hand when wanted, the Works, Sanitary, and
General Purposes Committee negotiated a preliminary
agreement with the Churchwardens, for obtaining a site on
the Churchyard adjoining the Mortuary, whereon to erect a
lodge for the keeper. A faculty would have been necessary
to give effect to this agreement, and this the Churchwardens
were willing to apply for. Nothing, unfortunately, came of
the matter, your Vestry having declined to accede to the
terms of the Churchwardens which involved a payment of
money by way of compensation for the land. The money
was to have been expended in placing the Churchyard in
proper order. It is to be desired that an arrangment should
yet be made with the Churchwardens, to secure the site if the
matter is still open to negotiation. The Churchyard, however,
has been put in order by a charge upon the Poor rate,
which the parishioners pay, and it is probable that the rate
will be further charged with the cost of keeping it in decent
condition. Nothing, therefore, has been saved, but much
has been lost, in point of public convenience, by the failure
of the negotiations with the Churchwardens. These gentlemen
approached the consideration of the subject in so
friendly a spirit that I would fain hope they will still be found
willing to co-operate with your Vestry for the public advantage
in this matter, especially as the improvement they were
so desirous of effecting has been brought about at the public
cost, although not out of the rates controlled by your Vestry.
CORONER'S COURT.
It is now very generally the practice to provide in connection
with a mortuary, a building in which the Coroner
can hold his Court, thus rendering it unnecessary for the holder
of that ancient and dignified office, to have to resort to a
public house for the needful accommodation. But this step
seemed unnecessary in Kensington, as there are rooms