The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-08-29 00:00:00

THE FUNERAL.

The remains of the thirty-two bodies were interred on
Tuesday morning at ten o'clock, with impressive solemnity,
and amid such unostentatious demonstrations of sorrow and
sympathy as the townspeople could manifest. Every shop
was closed. The silence of death reigned in Abergele anti
Pensaen. There was not even the tolling of a funeral bell to
break the stillness. By the early trains from Chester and
Rhyl a large number of the relatives and friends of the dead,
many from distant places, came into Abergele. All were in
deep mourning. Precisely altos o'clock the mourners took
their places in the churchyard near the door of the Vestry-
room, under the tower of the old Church, the coffins having
been piled there.
On such an occasion it was impossible to ascertain the
names of all who were present; but of the relatives of the
late Lord and Lady Farnham there were the present Lord
Farnham, the lion. Richard S. Maxwell, the Hon. William
Maxwell, and Mrs. Hotham, wife of Captain Hotham, and
niece of the late Lady Farnham.
11l the relatives of the late Captain Edwards, there were
his survivicg children, Mr. Lea l'riestly Edwards and Mr.
Alfred Delaponte Edwards; Sir Henry Edwards, M , Ids
brother ; Major Waterhouse, M.P., his brother-in-law ; two
sons of Sir Henry's, his son in-law, Captain Bearden, and Mr.
Norris.

Of the i datives of the late Judge Berwick, Miss Berwick,
Mrs. Symes, and Miss Ingram, Mr. Edward Lerwick and Mr.
John Berwick.

Of the relatives of the late Misses Lea, the Rev. S. Simcoa
Lea. Of the relatives awl friends id the late Mr. awl Mrs.
Aylmer and Mi. Franks there were Mr. Franks, Mr.
J. Franks, Mr. T. Greene, Mr. Charles Eagle, Sir J. J.
Of the relatives and friends of the late Mr. Whismore
&oven and Miss seovell, there were Mr. Dance and Mr. It.
D. Kane.
Of the relatives and friends of the late Mr. William T.
Lund, William B. Parkinson, and Chastopher Parkinson
there Mr. Thomas Limit and Mr. Robert Parkinson.
ililt,' relatives of the late Mr. W. IL Owen there were Mr.
J. William Owen and Alfred Owen ; Thomas Oaten, brother
of the late Edward Outen ; T. J. Smith, brother-in-law of
the late Mary Anne Kellet ; Sarah Eroded, sister ot the late
Elizabeth Strafford; Maria Cripps, Lucretia Buchanan, and
Henry Cripps, the wife, mother, and brother of the late
charles Cripps ; and Mr. Davis, butler of the late Lord
la.r2tham, also attended the funeral.
. . .

When the relatives and friends hail assembled in the
churchyard the Rev. James Meredith, the Rector, and the
Rev. James Taylor, of Bamberbridge, near Preston, himself
a mourner, came out of the church to meet them. When
the rev, gentlemen had reached the vestryd-oom, the door
was opened, and Mr. Taylor commenced the first sentences
of the Burial Service, lie continued the service while
returning into the church, and the mourners, two and two
walked after hint and Mr. Meredith. Both reverend
gentlemen having reached the reading-desk, and the
niourners awl a large number of the parishioners
of Abergele having taken their places in the pews
Mr. Taylor read the psalms and the beautiful lesson
from the 12th chapter of St. Paul's First Epistle to the
Corinthians. While he was so doing the coffins were being
conveyed on meit's shoulders from the vestry-room to the
grave, which had been dug close to the wall at the opposite
extremity of the churchyard to that in which the vestry-
room is situate. When the clergyman hail reached the close
of the lesson, awl it was announced that all the coffins had
been removed, the pr,icession was reformed. It was, as on
the entry into the church, headed by the two reverend
gentlemen. Next followed Lord Farnham, supporting
on his arm Mrs. llotham Outside the churchyard,
all round, was a large crowd. People stood or sat
on the walls, and men and buys were grouped
In the trees which from outside overhung the grave- The
conduct fof these Welsh peasants was exeinplary. Not a word
escaped them, and all of them gazed on the scene within the
graveyard with a respect nothing short if reverence. No-
thing could well have exceeded the severe solemnity of the
proceedings. When the mourners reached the huge grave
they found there side by side, at a depth of some seven or
eight feet, thirty-two coffins. There were the relimiliS of
thirty-three persons there for interment ; but in one
ease so little had been left of a human body—only what
had been gathered into a very small paper parcel—that the
remains were put with those of another person. All the
coffins were covered sr ith black cloth, lout there were no in-
scriptions. At the foot of each coffin was tacked on a card
with a number written upon it, corresponding to the num-
bers lathe surgeons' report of the post-mortem examination.
The mounters ranged themselves on three sides of the vast
grave. The Rev. J. Meredith read the conclusion of the
Burial Service. Every passage was uttered in faltering
accents, anti the responses were given amid heartrending
lamentations. Proloahly no more painful scene was ever
witnessed in any churchyard.
After the burial a fleeting of the mourners was held. Mr.
Cawkwell, general manager of the London and North-
Western Railway Cormunty, present. A communication
was made to them that the railway company would purchase,
as is private grave, the ground in which the interment hail
been effected, and would rail it in. A conimittee, consisting
of Lord Farnham, Sir II Edwardes, Major Waterhouse, and
others, Was appointed to make arrangements for the erection
of a tablet with a suitable inscription.

The London correspondent of the Birmingham Port says
that the dreadful holocaust reopens a question between
Railway Accident Assurance Companies, which has of late
dropped out of sight. The secretary to one of these com-
panies was at the outset of such undertakings examined
before a Parliamentary Committee, as to the possibility of
the defacement and destruction of the assurance ticket in
the event of a railway collision. Ile replied that there had
never been, and could never be, a collision in which the
bodies of the victims could he so mangled that an assurance
ticket could he defaced and destroyed no as to become un-
recognisable. The answer was accepted, and the company
obtained its Act. No such statement could now be repeated.
There may have been in the fated train a dozen lint-class
passengers wills assurance tickets in their pockets, in which
case the assurance company will save £12,000 by the confla-
gration, which destroyed the clothing and fbarred the re-
mains of the unfortunate travellers. The loss to the families
of the possible insurers may be, in some cases, ruin. When
a railway passenger takes an assurance ticket he gives in no
IMMO, and identification is impossible. His only security,
if the assurance should become a sleuth claim, is in
the finding of the ticket upon his body. It is
possible, no doubt, to take a ticket and post it
at the railway station, directed to some member
of the assurer's family. Some leisurely old gentleman,
who is always in a fidget to do everything ten minutes
before the proper time, may take this precaution. A rail-
way traveller may take a stamped and directed envelope
with him, allii leave his luggage to take care of itself while
he looks about for the Post-office box its which to drop lila
assurance. As a matter of fact, however, not one person
in ten thousand takes this precaution.

At the inquest on Monday Mr. liarrison, surgeon, Chester,
and Mr. Loch, pi,vincial superintendent of the Railway
Passengers' Assurance Company, attended on behalf if that
company to ascertain whether any of the bodies were those
of persons haling policies of assurance in the company, in
which case, they say, a prompt settlement of claims would
then and there be made to the representatives of the de-
ceased. It is known that no assurance tickets were taken out
at Chester by the passengers of this train: but a great number
of persona front all parts of the United Kingdom hold
annual policies in the company, and it has not yet
been ascertained what the company's liabilities are on
account of this accident. Four insurance tickets were issued
at Euet.,,, station snortly before the departure of the train.
The only case of injury to anyone who joined the train at
Chester is that of Mr Silk, the clerk in charge of the mails.
He was somewhat bruised and shaken, but, being rescued
from the mail van before the tire hail obtained a full Mild of
of it, Ile returned to Chester the same evening. Mr. Silk was
the holder of a general accident policy in the Railway Pas,
sengers' Insurance Company, and has been visited by their
local surgeon, 31r. HalTiSoll.