USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > History of the cemetery of Mount Auburn. > Part 9
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But that, which will be ever present, pervading these shades, like the noon-day sun, and shedding cheerfulness around, is the consciousness, the irre- pressible consciousness, amidst all these lessons of human mortality, of the higher truth, that we are beings, not of time but of eternity -" That this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." That this is but the threshold and starting point of an exist- ence, compared with whose duration the ocean is but as a drop, nay, the whole creation an evanes- cent quantity.
Let us banish, then, the thought, that this is to be the abode of a gloom, which will haunt the imagination by its terrors, or chill the heart by its solitude. Let us cultivate feelings and sentiments more worthy of ourselves, and more worthy of Christianity. Here let us erect the memorials of our love, and our gratitude, and our glory. Here let the brave repose, who have died in the cause of their country. Here let the statesman rest, who has achieved the victories of peace, not less renowned than war. Here let genius find a home, that has sung immortal strains, or has instructed
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with still diviner eloquence. Here let learning and science, the votaries of inventive art, and the teacher of the philosophy of nature come. Here let youth and beauty, blighted by premature decay, drop, like tender blossoms, into the virgin earth ; and here let age retire, ripened for the harvest. Above all, here let the benefactors of mankind, the good, the merciful, the meek, the pure in heart, be congregated; for to them belongs an undying praise. And let us take comfort, nay, let us rejoice, that in future ages, long after we are gathered to the generations of other days, thou- sands of kindling hearts will here repeat the sublime declaration, " Blessed are the dead, that die in the Lord, for they rest from their labors ; and their works do follow them."
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A REPORT ON THE GARDEN AND CEMETERY.
BY H. A. S. DEARBORN.
AT the Annual Meeting of the Horticultural Society, Septem- ber 30th, 1831, the Committee on laying out the grounds and forming the plan of the Experimental Garden and Cemetery at Mount Auburn, made the following
REPORT,
" That measures were promptly taken for accom- plishing those objects, and although considerable progress has been made, it will require further time to complete the work.
Alexander Wadsworth, Esq., a skilful civil engineer, was employed to make an accurate topographical survey, and to locate the numerous avenues, which it was found necessary to establish through the extensive and beautifully diversified grounds of the Cemetery and Garden, both for convenience and embellishment. The map has been so far perfected, that it is submitted for in- spection, and to exhibit the general outlines of the projected improvements ; but considerable labor is yet required in clearing out the principal carriage avenues and foot paths, before the sites of the public and private cemetery squares can be definitely established, and designated on the plan.
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Models and drawings of the Egyptian Gate- ways, and of a Gothic tower, and a Grecian tower, one of which is proposed to be erected on the highest hill, have been made, and are offered for examination.
It has been ascertained, that the most lofty eminence is one hundred and twenty-five feet above Charles River, which gracefully sweeps round its gently sloping base ; and when crowned by the proposed tower, will become a most inter- esting place of resort, as conmanding an extensive panoramic view of that richly variegated region of magnificent scenery, embraced within the far dis- tant heights which encircle the metropolis, and the waves of the ocean ; while it will present a prominent and imposing feature in the landscape, of which it becomes the centre.
At some future period, when the munificence of the citizens shall be commensurate with their debt of patriotic gratitude, this structure may per- haps give place for a stupendous monument to the most illustrious benefactor of his country ; - there will be reared the cenotaph of Washington, in massive blocks of granite or ever-during mar- ble. Should the funds hereafter justify it, a Doric Temple, to be used as a chapel, for the
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performance of funeral rites, and lodges for the gardener and superintendent of the Cemetery, are contemplated, and designs are in progress for each.
As the season for rural labor is far advanced, it is not considered expedient to commence the construction of the avenues before the next spring ; but they can be divested of the underwood, and the whole of the grounds so far cleared up, as to give them the appearance of a park, during the present autumn. It is expected that the lots may be assigned within twenty days,
The Committee has been cheered, in the dis- charge of its duties, by the deep interest which has been manifested for the success of an under- taking, so important to the prosperity of the Hor- ticultural Society, and so honorable to the country. Such is the exalted estimation in which it is held by the public, so universal is the approbation, so intense the interest, that beside the constant requests for permission to become subscribers, by the more affluent, numerous applications have been made for Cemetery lots, by farmers, me- chanics, and dealers in building materials, on condition, that they may be paid for in labor, or such articles as shall be required in the prosecution
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of the proposed improvements. Within a few days offers have been made to a considerable amount ; and as it was the intention and is the anxious desire of the Society, that every citizen should have an opportunity of participating in the advantages of the establishment, the committee has availed itself of the services thus tendered, in executing much of the work which has been per- formed; and there is not a doubt, that a very considerable portion of the expense in constructing roads, fences, gateways, and the various other edifices, may be defrayed, by a compensation in Cemetery lots. This will not only be a great accommodation to numerous individuals, who are desirous to become subscribers, but be highly advantageous to the Society. It is therefore recommended, that the Committee be authorized to prosecute such improvements as may be deemed necessary, on these reciprocally beneficial terms.
With the view of fully meeting the expecta- tions and exigencies of the community, it is considered advisable that sites for single graves should be designated, in various parts of the Cemetery, embracing all the diversified localities, to afford an opportunity for individuals, who have no families, and the friends of such strangers as
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may be wept and honored far distant from their native land, to procure eligible places of sepulture, on reasonable terms.
As the tract which has been solemnly conse- crated, by religious ceremonies, as a burial place forever, is so abundantly covered with forest trees, many of which are more than sixty years old, it only requires the avenues to be formed, the borders, for some ten feet in width, planted with shrubs, bulbous and perennial flowers, the underwood cleared out, the fences, gateways, and appropriate edifices erected, to put the grounds in a sufficiently complete state for the uses designed, and to render them at once beautiful and inter- esting. All this can be done within two years, at a comparatively small expense, and a result produced which could not have been realized for forty years, if it had been necessary to commence the establishment by planting out forest trees. There are numerous majestic oaks, pines, beeches, and walnuts, which have braved the storms of a century. Towering aloft amidst the general verdure, and extending their huge branches far and wide, they appear as the venerable monarchs of the grove, but still exhibit the vigor of their luxuriant progeny, which, in umbrageous con-
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tiguity, cover each hill and plain, and sloping vale, and form many an
" alley green, Dingle, or bushy dell, in this wild wood, And many a bosky bourn, from side to side."
The Garden also can be very considerably advanced, within the same short period which will suffice for devoloping the improvements of the Cemetery. The nurseries may be established, the departments for culinary vegetables, fruit, and ornamental trees, shrubs and flowers, laid out and planted, a green-house built, hot-beds formed, the small ponds and morasses converted into pictu- resque sheets of water, and their margins diversified by clumps and belts of our most splendid native flowering trees and shrubs, requiring a soil thus constituted for their successful cultivation, while their surface may be spangled with the brilliant blossoms of the Nymphæa, and the other beautiful tribes of aquatic plants. The excavations for deepening and enlarging the ponds and morasses will afford inexhaustible sources of manure, of invaluable consequence to the Garden, as well as for those portions of the Cemetery which will be embellished by cultivated plants.
From these favorable circumstances and the
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generous zeal which has been evinced for the energetic prosecution of the labors, which are required to perfect the details of the whole exten- sive plan, there no longer remains the least doubt, that in the summer of 1834, Mount Auburn will rival the most celebrated rural burial grounds of Europe, and present a garden in such a state of forwardness, as will be highly gratifying to the Society and the public. The work has been com- menced on an ever-during foundation, has the approbation and patronage of an enterprising, intelligent, and prosperous community, and can- not fail of progressing in a manner that must give universal satisfaction. There has Horticulture established her temple, - there will all denomina- tions of Christians surrender up their prejudices, - there will repose the ashes of the humble and exalted, in the silent and sacred Garden of the Dead, until summoned to those of eternal life, in realms beyond the skies.
Respectfully submitted by
H. A. S. DEARBORN,
For the Committee."
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A DISCOURSE ON THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD.
BY JACOB BIGELOW.
While the subject of Mount Auburn was of recent agitation, the following Address was delivered at the hall of the Masonic Temple, in 1831, before the Boston Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge : -
" THE manner in which we dispose of the re- mains of our deceased friends, is a subject which, within the last few years, has occupied a greater share than formerly of the public attention in our own vicinity. It involves not only considerations which belong to the general convenience, but includes also the gratification of individual taste, and the consolation of private sorrow. Although, in a strictly philosophical view, this subject pos- sesses but little importance, except in relation to the convenience of survivors ; yet so closely are our sympathies enlisted with it, so inseparably do we connect the feelings of the living with the con- dition of the dead, that it is in vain that we attempt to divest ourselves of its influence. It is incumbent on us therefore to analyze, as far as
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we may be able, the principles which belong to a correct view of this subject ; since it is only by understanding these, that we may expect both reason.and feeling to be satisfied.
The progress of all organized beings is towards decay. The complicated textures which the liv- ing body elaborates within itself, begin to fall asunder almost as soon as life has ceased. The materials of which animals and vegetables are composed, have natural laws and irresistible affini- ties which are suspended during the period of life, but which must be obeyed the moment that life is extinct. These continue to operate, until the exquisite fabric is reduced to a condition, in no wise different from that of the soil on which it has once trodden. In certain cases art may modify, and accident may retard, the approaches of disorganization, but the exceptions thus pro- duced are too few and imperfect, to invalidate the certainty of the general law.
If we take a comprehensive survey of the pro- gress and mutations of animal and vegetable life, we shall perceive that this necessity of individual destruction is the basis of general safety. The elements which have once moved and circulated in living frames do not become extinct nor useless
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after death : they offer themselves as the mate- rials from which other living frames are to constructed. What has once possessed life is most assimilated to the living character, and most ready to partake of life again. The plant which springs from the earth, after attaining its growth and per- petuating its species, falls to the ground, under- goes decomposition, and contributes its remains to the nourishment of plants around it. The myriads of animals which range the woods, or inhabit the air, at length die upon the surface of the earth, and, if not deyoured by other animals, prepare for vegetation the place which receives their remains. Were it not for this law of nature, the soil would be soon exhausted, the earth's surface would become a barren waste, and the whole race of organized beings, for want of sustenance, would become extinct.
Man alone, the master of the creation, does not willingly stoop to become a participator in the routine of nature. In every age he has mani- fested a disposition to exempt himself, and to rescue his fellow, from the common fate of living beings. Although he is prodigal of the lives of other classes, and sometimes sacrifices a hundred inferior bodies, to procure himself a single repast,
12
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yet he regards with scrupulous anxiety the desti- nation of his own remains ; and much labor and treasure are devoted by him to ward off, for a season, t'.e inevitable courses of nature. Under the apprehension of posthumous degradation, hu- man bodies have been embalmed, their concen- trated dust has been inclosed in golden urns, monumental fortresses have been piled over their decaying bones ; - with what success, and with what use, it may not be amiss to consider.
I have selected a few instances, in which meas- ures have been taken to protect the human frame from decay, which will be seen to have been in some cases partially successful, in others not so. They will serve as preliminaries to the general considerations which are connected with the sub- ject.
One of the most interesting accounts of the preservation of a body, the identity of which was undoubted, is that of the disinterment of King Edward I. of England. The readers of English History will recollect that this monarch gave, as a dying charge to his son, that his heart should be sent to the Holy Land, but that his body should be carried in the van of the army till Scot- land was reduced to obedience.
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He died in July, 1307, and notwithstanding his injunetions, was buried in Westminster Abbey in October of the same year. It is recorded that he was embalmed, and orders for renewing the cere-cloth about his body were issued in the reigns of Edward III. and Henry IV. The tomb of this monarch was opened, and his body examined in January, 1774, under the direction of Sir Joseph Ayloffe, after it had been buried four hundred and sixty-seven years. The following account is extracted from a contemporaneous vol- ume of the Gentleman's Magazine : -
' Some gentlemen of the Society of Antiquaries, being desirous to see how far the actual state of Edward First's body answered to the methods taken to preserve it, obtained leave to open the large stone sarcophagus, in which it is known to have been deposited, on the north side of Edward the Confessor's chapel. This was accordingly done on the morning of January 2, 1774, when in a coffin of yellow stone, they found the royal body in perfect preservation, inclosed in two wrappers ; one of them was of gold tissue, strongly waxed, and fresh, the other and outermost con- siderably decayed. The corpse was habited in a
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rich mantle of purple, paned with white, and adorned with ornaments of gilt metal, studded with red and blue stones and pearls. Two simi- lar ornaments lay on the hands. The mantle was fastened on the right shoulder by a magnificent fibula of the same metal, with the same stones and pearls. His face had over it a silken covering, so fine, and so closely fitted to it, as to preserve the features entire. Round his temples was a gilt
coronet of fleurs de lys. In his hands, which were also entire, were two sceptres of gilt metal ; that in the right surmounted by a cross fleure, that in the left by three clusters of oak leaves, and a dove on a globe; this sceptre was about five feet long. The feet were enveloped in the mantle and other coverings, but sound, and the toes distinct. The whole length of the corpse was five feet two inches.'
This last statement, it will be observed, is the only point in which the narrative appears to disa- gree with history. We are generally given to understand that Edward I. was a tall man ; and that he was designated in his own time by the name of Long-shanks. Baker, in his Chronicle of the Kings of England, says of him that he was
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tall of stature, exceeding most other men by a head and shoulders. I have not been able to find Sir Joseph Ayloffe's account of the examination, and know of no other mode of reconciling the discrepancy, but by supposing a typographical error of a figure in the account which has been quoted.
Edward I. died at Burgh-upon-Sands, in Cum- berland, on his way to Scotland, July 7, 1307, in the sixty-eighth year of his age.
Another instance of partial preservation, is that of the body of King Charles I., who was be- headed by his subjects in 1649. The remains of this unfortunate monarch are known to have been carried to Windsor, and there interred by his friends without pomp, in a hasty and private man- ner. It is stated in Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, that when his son, Charles II., was desirous to remove and re-inter his corpse at Westminster Abbey, it could not by any search ~ be found. In constructing a mausoleum at Wind- sor in 1813, under the direction of George IV., then Prince Regent, an accident led to the dis- covery of this royal body. The workmen, in forming a subterraneous passage under the choir of St. George's Chapel, accidentally made an
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aperture in the wall of the vault of King Henry VIII. On looking through this opening it was found to contain three coffins, instead of two, as had been supposed. Two of these were ascer- tained to be the coffins of Henry VIII., and one of his queens, Jane Seymour. The other was formally examined, after permission obtained, by Sir Henry Halford, in presence of several mem- bers of the royal family, and other persons of distinction. The account since published by Sir Henry, corroborates the one which had been given by Mr. Herbert, a groom of King Charles's bed- chamber, and is published in Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses.
' On removing the pall,' says the account, 'a plain leaden coffin presented itself to view, with no appearance of ever having been inclosed in wood, and bearing an inscription, "King Charles, 1648," in large, legible characters, on a scroll of lead encircling it. A square opening was then made in the upper part of the lid, of such dimen- sions as to admit a clear insight into its contents. These were, an internal wooden coffin, very much decayed, and the body carefully wrapped up in cere-cloth, into the folds of which a quantity of
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unetuous matter, mixed with resin, as it seemed, had been melted, so as to exclude, as effectually as possible, the external air. The coffin was com- pletely full, and, from the tenacity of the cere- cloth, great difficulty was experienced in detaching it successfully from the parts which it enveloped. Wherever the unctuous matter had insinuated itself, the separation of the cere-cloth was easy ; and where it came off, a correct impression of the features to which it had been applied, was ob- served. At length the whole face was disengaged from its covering. The complexion of the skin of it was dark and discolored. The forehead and temples had lost little or nothing of their museu- lar substance ; the cartilage of the nose was gone ; but the left eye, in the first moment of exposure, was open and full, though it vanished almost in- mediately ; and the pointed beard, so character- istic of the period of the reign of King Charles, was perfect. The shape of the face was a long oval ; many of the teeth remained; and the left ear, in consequence of the interposition of the unctuous matter between it and the cere-cloth, was found entire.
' It was difficult, at this moment, to withhold a declaration, that, notwithstanding its disfigure-
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ment, the countenance did bear a strong resem- blance to the coins, the busts, and especially to the picture of King Charles the First, by Vandyke, by which it had been made familiar to us. It is true, that the minds of the spectators of this in- teresting sight were well prepared to receive this impression ; but it is also certain that such a facility of belief had been occasioned by the sim- plicity and truth of Mr. Herbert's Narrative, every part of which had been confirmed by the investigation, so far as it had advanced ; and it will not be denied that the shape of the face, the forehead, the eye, and the beard, are the most important features by which resemblance is de- termined.
' When the head had been entirely disengaged from the attachments which confined it, it was found to be loose, and without any difficulty was taken out and held up to view. The back part of the scalp was entirely perfect, and had a re- markably fresh appearance ; the pores of the skin being more distinct, and the tendons and liga- ments of the neck were of considerable substance and firmness. The hair was thick at the back part of the head, and in appearance nearly black. A portion of it, which has since been cleaned and
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dried, is of a beautiful dark brown color. That of the beard was a redder brown. On the back part of the head it was not more than an inch in length, and had probably been cut so short for the convenience of the executioner, or perhaps by the piety of friends soon after death, in order to furnish memorials of the unhappy king.
' On holding up the head, to examine the place of separation from the body, the muscles of the neck had evidently retracted themselves con- siderably ; and the fourth cervical vertebra was found to be cut through its substance transversely, leaving the surfaces of the divided portions per- fectly smooth and even, an appearance which could have been produced only by a heavy blow, inflicted with a very sharp instrument, and which furnished the last proof wanting to identify King Charles the First.'
The foregoing are two of the most successful instances of posthumous preservation. The care taken in regard to some other distinguished personages has been less fortunate in its result. The coffin of Henry VIII. was inspected at the same time with that of Charles, and was found to contain nothing but the mere skeleton of that
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king. Some portions of beard remained on the chin, but there was nothing to discriminate the personage contained in it.
. During the present century, the sarcophagus of King John has also been examined. It contained little else than a disorganized mass of earth. The principal substances found, were some half decayed bones, a few vestiges of cloth and leather, and a long rusty piece of iron, apparently the remains of the sword-blade of that monarch.
The rapidity with which decomposition takes place in organic bodies, depends upon the par- ticular circumstances under which they are placed. A certain temperature, and a certain degree of moisture, are indispensable agents in the common process of putrefaction, and could these be avoided in the habitable parts of our globe, hu- man bodies might last indefinitely. I shall be excused for dwelling a short time on the influence of some of these preservative agents. Where a certain degree of cold exists, it tends powerfully to check the process of destructive fermentation, and when it extends so far as to produce conge- lation, its protecting power is complete. Bodies of men and animals are found in situations where they have remained frozen for years, and even for
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ages. Not many years ago, the bodies of some Spanish soldiers were found in a state of perfect preservation among the snows of the Andes, where they were supposed to have perished in attempting to cross those mountains, nearly a century ago ; their costume and some historical records indicating the probable period of their expedition. At the Hospice of the Grand St. Bernard in the Alps, some receptacles of the dead are shown to travellers, in which, owing to the effect of perpetual frost, together with the light- ness of the atmosphere, but little absolute decay has taken place in the subjects deposited during a lapse of years. But the most remarkable in- stance of preservation by frost of an animal body, is that of an elephant of an extinct species, dis- covered in 1806 in the ice of the polar sea, near the mouth of the river Lena, by Mr. Michael Adams. This animal was first seen by a chief of. the Tonguse tribe, in the year 1799, at which time it was imbedded in a rock of ice about one hundred and eighty feet high, and had only two feet, with a small part of the body, projecting from the side, so as to be visible. At the close of the next summer, the entire flank of the animal had been thawed out. It nevertheless required five
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