View report page

35
Regulations.
All orders are to be given at the office, and the fees paid, before the ground
be opened or vault built.
The person ordering the interment will be required to give the deceased's
name and last residence.
Notice of interment must be given at the office by two o'clock on the
preceding day.
No interment in any vault except in coffin of lead.
In common graves no other coffins can be allowed than those of wood ; nor
can a grave stone or monument be permitted -except by special agreement.
In all cases where the exclusive right of burial may have been purchased,
grave stones or monuments may be used ; but if not erected within six months
the exclusive right will not be continued, unless further time be granted.
All grave stones and places of burial must be kept in repair by the owner;
and if not so repaired, after three months' notice, the right of interment will be
forfeited.
The friends of the deceased will be permitted to appoint the officiating
minister if notice of their intention be given at the time of ordering the
interment.
Mr. Kelday, who was a pawnbroker, himself officiated as chaplain
at first, but the Rev. T. J. E. Temple was afterwards appointed. He
acted in this capacity for many years ; indeed, until the closure of the
ground, 27 years ago. The date of the last interment was September
20th, 1855.
Mr. Temple can prove by records that he buried 17,000 persons
here, and he estimates that previously to his appointment upwards of
3,000 interments had taken place.
The soil is gravel, but very wet.
The graves vary in depth from 20 to 25 feet, and on an average
about 14 bodies of grown persons have been buried in each, or when
children have been interred about five times this number.
An undertaker tells me that the way in which they manage to get
such a large number of children into one grave is the following:—In
an ordinary-sized grave four small coffins are placed, two with their
broad ends to the head of the grave and two others with their broad
ends to the foot; this leaves room in the centre for a fifth, which is
accordingly wedged in, and then they lie like bits of a child's puzzle:
in this manner as many as 70 can be placed in one grave.
The topmost bodies lie from two to three feet from the original
surface: this surface has, however, been raised during the last few
years by earth and rubbish being deposited upon the ground.
The cemetery is so full that in most of it the bodies lie shoulder to
shoulder and head to foot.