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The bodies in the wooden coffins were dry and mummified, consisting
of withered skin and bones, the whole of the intermediate flesh
being converted into a brown coffee-like powder. In the very few
leaden coffins, of which we had an opportunity of inspecting the
contents from accidental bursting, the organs of the body were moist
and saponified, preserving their form and position, and easily recognizable
in a coffin which had been deposited under the church for
half a century. The teeth and hair were always perfect, and the
tissues of linen and cotton, in which the corpses had been wrapped,
were generally in good condition.
In a private vault, we found a coffin one hundred and twenty
years old; in the public vault, one ninety-nine years old; and,
against the wall of the northern vault, a tombstone clamped with
iron, and bearing date July, 1712.
It was not without some emotion, that, when perusing the inscriptions
on the coffin-lids, we read the names of families formerly
flourishing in this parish, nearly all whose members had become
extinct; and we recognized the last narrow resting-place of men
known to us in our childhood, who, as inhabitants of this parish,
walked honourably and uprightly in their day, with credit to themselves
and benefit to their fellow-parishioners.
During the progress of the work, the vaults were frequently
visited by strangers and parishioners, and they one and all expressed
their satisfaction at the quiet and masterly manner in which the
whole was executed. The Churchwardens were assisted in their
duty by a committee of gentlemen, who were most assiduous in
their attendance.
Many complaints have been made to me by the inhabitants of
the Deptford Lower-road, of the crowded state of the cemetery
attached to All Saints' Church. About four hundred bodies have
been buried there since my last Report on the subject to this Board,
in November, 1858.
As a measure of sanitary precaution, I should recommend that
the cemetery be at once closed; and I must express, at the same
time, the conviction, that to keep it open any longer would be an
outrage upon public feeling.
A gully on the east side of Clarence-street exhaled noxious effluvia;
trapping would effectually remedy the evil.
My attention has been called to the linseed oil boiling carried on
under and near the Railway Arches. The locality is frequently
visited by your officers, and in due time measures will be taken for
the suppression of the nuisance.
Notices have been served in the other cases mentioned in the
Agenda Paper.
Thirty-eight deaths were registered in Rotherhithe during last month.