The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-10-06 00:00:00

SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS.

(From a paper read before the Archceological Society, of
Sussex, by Edwin Keet, Esq.)
The consideration of the various modes of sepulture,
and the forms and ceremonies of different nations used
in the interment of the dead, is a subject, if not the most
Pleasing, yet replete with interest to the Antiquary and
lover of the history of past events. " After life's fitful
fever, we sleep well ;" and Shakspere says " our little
life is rounded with a sleep." Volumes have been written
upon marriage ceremonies, funeral processions, and the
modes of interment of the dead by different nations. I
shall, in this brief paper, enumerate a few of the most
striking impressive modes of sepulture, beginning with
the Cromlech, Cairn, and the Barrow, as most peculiar to
the islands of Britain. The Cromlech, of Stonehenge, on
Salisbury Plain, Kit's Coty House, in Kent; those in
Cornwall, Wales, in Ireland, Scotland, and many parts of
the Continent, are probably the most ancient modes of
sepulture of which we possess any relics. A variety of
opinions are, however, indulged in regarding their origin
bnd end. One affirms they are altars from Druidical sa-
crifices; another avows they are sepulchral monuments,
where the once mighty now repose in death. A third as-
serts that they are, more particularly that at Stonehenge,
immovable observatories for astronomical observations.
These conflicting opinions, like those entertained upon
the uses of the Round Towers, will probably never be
fixed satisfactorily to all parties ; and if we consider how
vague and uncertain many of our conjectures are upon the
ancient Etruscans, their monuments, sepulchral caves,
and Cyclopean walls, I know not why our gigantic Crom-
lech may not be part of their history, power, and majestic
skill, now passed away for so many ages. The Cairn is
more open to satisfactory elucidation than the Cromlech :
these abound more in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland than
in England. Some of these vast heaps, these monumen-
tal piles, upon which the passing traveller casts his solitary
stone in token of respect for the dead, had one flat slab
upon their apex, upon which sometimes fires were kindled
as beacons ; at others, sacrifices offered to the manes of
the deceased. Warlike instruments, ornaments of the
dress, urns containing bones and ashes, have been fre-
quently discovered on Cairns, as well as in the vicinity of
Cromlechs. And when Messrs. Rolfe, Roach, Smith,
Fairholt, and myself, explored in the Isle of Thanet,
some Saxon graves, which had been cut into by the Can-
terbury and Ramsgate branch of the South-Eastern and
Dover Railway, we came across a small Cairn of great
antiquity. Around the head of the horse, the antlers of
the deer, and many other bones, fragments of many urns,
&c., were placed a vast number of huge boulder stones of
flint, in a circular form, enclosing the urns, fragments of
which had the Romish potters' names upon them, mixed
up with the bones of the animals which bad probably been
immolated upon this rude shrine. Up to the present
time, the Scottish Highlander repeats the'old proverb in
token of respect, " I will add a stone to your Cairn ;"
but the Welshman says, when he imprecates, "May the
stone of your cairn lay heavy on your head." Some au-
thors have supposed Cairns to have been rude temples or
mounds for religious worship and sacrifice, as well as for
monumental tombs. Barrows were used by the ancient
Greeks. Homer alludes to those erected as tributes of
affection to the memory of departed heroes!!
Herodotus describes the barrow of Croesus, King of Ly-
dia, as a vast mound of earth raised on a lofty basement
of many huge stones. This grand monumental barrow
was 200 feet high, and three-quarters of a mile in circum-
ference. Many smaller ones were in its vicinity ; some
ornamented with the figures of animals, and others with
pillars with inscriptions. Mr. Jefferson discovered some
very large ones in America, with multitudes of human
bones. Stackhouse, from his extensive observations,
thought barrows in England and Scotland were admirably
adapted, from their situation and eminence, for direct and
speedy communication, without impediment or interrup-
tion. This favours the opinion of their being also used
as beacons, with materials kept ready on their tops for
ignition. Sir Walter Scott vividly describes the firing of
these beacons from hill to hill. The Egyptians, Greeks,
and early Christians buried their dead in catacombs.
Those in Egypt, near Thebes, have a prodigious number
of entrances, and a countless number of catacombs.
When I was in Egypt I witnessed the blasting by gun-
powder of many Greek and early Christian catacombs ;
this idle destruction was for the purpose of procuring
masses of stone to finish the fortifications of Alexandria.
These explosions laid bare a most beautiful Greek sarco-
phagus, which was got out with slight damage; and my
son took a sketch of it—the figures were male and female
gracefully reposing under the palm tree, with heads of
Apollo and other deities. The catacombs, without the
walls of Rome, by the kindness of Mr. Gibson, the sculp-
tor, I have also explored. I was under ground with a
party of ladies and gentlemen nearly two hours, the en-
trance being so small that only one person could proceed
at a time. We soon found, as we advanced, long streets
or passages full of catacombs, the bones completely turned
into earth, literally, when we touched them, to dust ;
these streets of catacombs we supposed to have extended
more than a mile.and-a-half, indeed they appeared like a
small city of refuge for the early Christians, where the
living and dead alike escaped persecution and destruction
by the tyrants of Rome. The subjects of tombs is full of
interest. The Persian tomb is a circular building, open
at the top, about sixty feet diameter, within this is a well
of eighteen or twenty feet diameter ; around this well the
earth is piled up 25 feet in height. There are three par-
titions in the Persian tomb—one each for men, women,
and children, the bodies are left to feed the vultures, af-
terwards the bones are collected and thrown into the well
by the friends of the deceased. Subterranean passages
leading to the well allow of the occasional removal of the
bones to prevent its filling.
The ancient sepulchres of Russia and Siberia are per-
fect tumuli of great height—they are encompassed with a
high wall of large stones placed in an erect position. The
+cmbs of the Turks and Moors are generally of a simple

form, except the shiek or priest's tomb, which is a hum-
ble imitation of the Caliph's tomb; the city of Caliph's
tombs, near Grand Cairo, are objects of great majesty and
interest. I climbed a tower of one of these magnificent
tombs, and the prospect was quite enchanting, the whole
city of Cairo, Boulac, the Pyramids, the hills were all be-
fore me in vast perspective. No traveller should cross
the desert on the overland route to India without seeing
the Caliph's tombs, but they are generally so hurried off
from Alexandria on their overland route to India, that
they get but a passing glimpse of the obelisk of Cleopa-
tra, and Pompey's majestic pillar, with its nearly defaced
Greek inscription. At Anchiale was once seen this in-
scription upon the tomb of Sardanapalus, which king, with
his luxuriant magnificence, called forth the genius of our
Byron,—" Sardinapalus built Anchiale and Tarens in one
day ; go, traveller, eat, drink, and be merry, the rest is
nothing." The catacombs of Syracuse are full of recesses
and chambers, with a flat circular roof and opening to
admit light at the top. In Malta they are cut out of the
rock in galleries ; and in Syria and Palestine massive.stone
doors, moving on pivots, close in the dead. Various also
are the opinions of the learned regarding the Pyramids of
Egypt. It is certain that they have contained sarcophagi.
Herodotus thought the form emblematical of human life,
certai❑ it is the pyramidal shape is best calculated for
length of duration ; some have thought them to be erected
for astronomical purposes, while some French philoso-
phers have been of of opinion they are mere standards of
measure. Denon favoured the latter opinion, while Vol-
ney thought the ancient Egyptians acquainted with elec-
tricity, and that as Egypt suffered from drought, and as

immense masses of vapours pass from the Mediterranean

to the mountains of *Abyssinia, these gigantic artificial
mountains might interrupt their passage, and cause rain
to descend upon the parched plains. The conjecture
might in some degree receive sanction from the immense
figure of the Sphinx, which not being a commemorative
monument, more connected with the rites of sepulture,
was probably intended to denote the two signs of the Zo-
diac, the Virgin and the Lion, through which the Sun
passes during the innundation of the Nile.
But among all the various modes of sepulture I have
witnessed abroad, perhaps next to the almost unimpaired
grandeur of the Egyptian Pyramids and catacombs should
be considered the Etruscan sepulchres hewn out of a rock,
which are seen only by torch light, outside the walls of
Voltera. Here, in this rock, closed in by a single slab of
stone at the narrow entrance, with a pillar of the natural
rock left standing in the centre, you see three tiers of sar-
cophagi, composed of alabaster, marble, and stone, all
with rudely carved, but bold figures of the deceased, de-
scribing his profession, or her loving, amiable and water-
, nal quality. The poet is gracefully reclining, with his el-
bow leaning on a pile of books; the lawyer and senator
pleading, with divers other alegorical and illustrative de-
signs. In these rich, but externally unnoticeable and
humble burial eaves, the Etruscans' last historical monu-
ments escaped the ravages of the haughty Romans, who
little knew, as they strode over the subjugated soil of

their more humble predecesEors, the monumental trea

sures that were tranquilly reposing beneath their warlike
and world conquering tread. It is something to have
been at the top of that—the loftiest pyramid—to have
gazed from the top of St. Peter's upon the vast Campagna
where the tombs of Crecilia, Metellu of Plautus, the Eo-
ratii and Curatii, and a number of other vast sepulchral
monuments, stand in their lovely grandeur, like giant
skeletons of a departed world ; but you cannot gaze on
the tomb of Nero, the pyramidal monument to Caius
Cestius so near the strangers' burial ground, where Shelly
and Keats, with so many other noble English, take their
last rest in a foreign soil, without feelings of awe and hu-
mility, and how little our modes of perpetuating a recol-
lection of the venerated dead, compared with these, ap-
pear in our churches and churchyards. It is a subject of
congratulation that the custom of interment in Christian
churches, which began in the fourth century, by deposit-
ing the clergy there, is now falling, happily, into disue-
tude ; and it is a consummation devoutly to be wished,
that our churchyards may, like that remarkable and pic-
turesque one of Dartford, in Kent, be made yet more
beautiful and solemn, by planting cypress and other trees,
laying out walks, fixing seats, erecting monuments, like
those of Pere le chaise, Kensal Green, St. James's at Li-
verpool, and the new cemetery at Gravesend, and many
others. This is by far the preferable mode, than that our
deceased friends should lie incold obstruction and to rot
within the walls of populated cathedrals and churches, a
most unhealthy mingling of the quick with the dead.
Never shall I forget the impression felt at visiting the
grand sublime cemetery, without the walls of Belogna, the
Campo Santa at Pisa, and the last resting place of Smol-
lett in the interesing necropolis at Leghorn—requiescant
in pace.