The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-03 00:00:00

THE BURIAL PITS OF THE SLAIN AT
MARSTON MOOR.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN

SlR,—Without straining a- point in figurative
phraseology, we may premise that the mantles of
Hippocrates and 2Esculapius, which have descended
upon the medical faculty of the land we live in, are
of a texture combining the softness of gossamer and
the toughness of whit leather ; that, instead of
waxing old as a garment, whether burnished by
the brush or scoured by the wear and tear of time,
they receive an everlasting novelty of nap and an
undying plethora of polish, before which the pana-
ceaic pretensions of the Nicol paletot pale, and
before which the symmetrical " blocks" supporting
the matchless mantles of modern Moses hide their
diminished heads, " bow abashed, and show their
face no more." 'T were going beyond bounds and
out of place here to attempt to chronicle the signs
and graces of the medical catechism ; suffice it to
say that although pharmacopceists coming the
" table-rapping dodge" on our ribs can hold cate-
chetic communion with the imps of consumption,
and call spirits from the mighty deep of decline ;
although the outer man as well as the "female
form divine" vapours in therapeutic baths, be-
lieving in the modern multiplication of the
blessings of the Pool of Bethsaida ; still the
trite axiom, of " prevention better than
cure" remains indelibly written in the popular
pharmacopoeia of common sense. Without another
word of preface, let me, in these days of sanatorial
progression, state " facts, which are stubborn
things," namely, that the mal-odorous debris of
animal matter, and especially of human bodies, may
be (pardon the phrase) subterraneanally bottled up
and hermetically sealed for more than a couple of
centuries in a clay soil, and afterwards let loose; as
from Pandora's box, upon the world. In confirma-
tion whereof, I turn at once to the burial pits of
the slain at Marston Moor, in the Ainsty of the
county of York, and without touching upon the
tug of war between Old Noll and his Round-
heads and Rupert with his Cavaliers, A.D.
160, I shall simply mention that once upon a
time (213 years after the battle ; consequently
little more than one year ago), with a view to
relieve a large waterlogged district, it became pre-
eminently necessary to drive a large leading drain
at considerable depth right through Marston Moor.
Instructions were given to avoid not only the 'tu-
muli as indicated in the old maps of the district,
but also the legendary localities of sepulture.
However, Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Cha-
rybdi»2, and long before the completion of the
work the navvies came upon the Golgotha of the
battle-field. There was nothing for it but to go
ahead. To make a detour in the drainage either
to the right or left would certainly have been " to
go farther," and probably "to fare worse." I
quote from the statement (confirmed by numerous
witnesses) of the intelligent foreman of the work :
—" We cut twelve yards long and about eight feet
wide, through the grave, and found most bodies
about four feet from the surface, but I consider that
we got to the bottom of it, as we took two draws'
(diggings) through it after, and the ground be-
low seemed untouched. At one place bodies, about
20 or 25 of them, were laid one over the other in all
directions and postures—the form of many were
left in the clay. At this place there was much of a
sort of deposit that looked like soot, not slime, but
damp ; the smell at first was intolerable, and could
be felt at some distance ; it was so bad the men
could only work short spells." The skulls had
preserved their shape, but crumbled away wlen
exposed to the air. One poor fellow's passport to
eternity was picked up by the foreman, He says
—" There was a bullet in one skull, which dropped
out when the skull fell to pieces ; the bones,
especially the large ones, did not crumble away,
but were very brittle when touched with the
spade. The teeth were quite perfect, and many of
them taken away by the drainers." This is-true with
regard to the teeth which were soundat the time of
death, but the carious teeth in many jaws gave un
mistakeable evidence that toothache was in the ascen-
dant and dental surgery at a discount in those days.
Without moralising:at this present moment, I think
it fortunate for us thin-skinned, susceptible mem-
bers of society that we have native navvies who are
ready to pay, and, pro bono publico, to:navigate a
channel through nausea itself—who, without wait-
ing for patent perfumes and pastilles, and those
powerful antiseptics which last season barely sufficed
to prevent Father Thames poisoning both Houses
of Parliament, can in an emergency hit upon and
extemporise primitive and effectual antidotes—man-
, fully eschewing epidemic by chewing pigtail 'baccy,
igniting and blowing a cloud of the same weed,
and possibly going practically and a little beyond
the behests of theoretically bashful patrons of
' nut -brown ale. In the mode of inter-
ment adopted on that day, the formularies of
parish sexton had necessarily been dispensed with,
and that the rule of clumsy, and the principle of
higgledy-piggledy," had been substituted there
' and then, as the sine qua non of human sepulture,
is demonstrated by the discovery of skeletons in
positions totally at variance with all the most ap-
proved attitudes of pose plastique—nay, in postures
which eclipse the feats of the most celebrated con-
tortionists of our own remarkably refined age ; and,
at the risk of shocking the feelings of the extremely
sensitive, it may be mentioned that the positions of
skeletons almost verged upon the grotesque; and
one navvy, who had not taken a high degree in
moralising, nor carried off honours in melancholy
in the school of Jaques, thus heralded his dis-
covery to his companion " Blow me, Bill, if
ere arn't another old skeleton a stunning on
'is 'ed." The writer aspires not to that adroitness
of pen which adorns " a tale ;" but perhaps
he may hereafter presume, in quoting the
mal-odours of Marston Moor, to point a moral,
should such preceedings as turning metropolitan
churchyards' topsy-turvy, and harrowing up the
soil of the national necropoli of densely populous
neighbourhoods be persisted in. Let us hope,
however, that no such moral need be evoked ; for,
in turning to sanitary generalities, we find Sir J.
Bull has lately established sanitary races, and
given handsome stakes to be contended for, not
only on his country estates, but also in " famous
London town," in which scampering scavengers
and all sorts of stipendiary sanitary jocks, bedi-
zened in native green, and armed with legislative
blunderbuss, " ride tilt" on the rough-shod official
hock, scattering their enemies to the winds. Wind-
mills furl your sails, lest a worse thing befal you
than another Quixotic tournament ! In the mind's
eye 'tis seen how such racers, " handicapped," with
bells to boot, draw up, impatient for the

" Burst,
Each determined to ride, each resolved to be first,"

over small stenches and stagnations, nevertheless
baulking at Father Thames, panting like

" Pussey's mortal foes,
When, pop I she starts before their nose."

But don't stand gaping and staring there, yokels,
as at greyhounds held in a leash ; these are men,
all honourable men, set together by the ears.
Stand aside, simpletons! hold your jaw, Chaw-
bacon !—" a clear course, and no favour," for Sir J.
B u 11's Sanitary 0 missioners, as you ignorantly call
them ; each

"Rides a race,
'Tis for a thousand pounds."

According to an exploded vulgar adage, there
was something said about shutting the stable door
when the steed was stolen ; but, in these delectable
days of detectives, that's a trifle—nil desperandum.
True, Pandora has opened the lid of her box ; but
mind your eye, Malady, though you always do con-
trive "to steal a march" by getting a premature
start, for sanitary sapience, like
" Post-boy, scampering in the rear,
Has raised the Hue and Cry."

Achievements of a soul—and even of a stomach
—stirring nature are said to be continually con-
summated, and though 'tis not always the pace,
but the stench, " which kills," yet even the most
sceptical has proof to demonstration—nay, even
tape ad nauseam—of the fleetness of the sanitary
race along the course of the " Fleet drain," and in
the peaceful " walk over" of pestilence at Windsor.
—Yours, &c., ANTISEPTIC.