The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-06-05
PRACTICAL CREMATION.
ShCIIey's Body CTemated i'm Presence of
Lord Byron.


of cremation no account has been given
of the most notable instance of burn
ing the dead in modern times. We re-
fer to the burning of the body of the
poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, on the
shore of the Mediterranean in the sum-
mer of 1922, in the presence of Lord
Byron, Mr.. Leigh Hunt and Mr.. E. J.
Trelawny. Shelley, like Byron, was
fond of the sea, and loved
to talk of ships and sailors and of the
adventures of the early navigators in
their small craft. While in Leghorn
he would visit the vessels of all nations,
and take notes of their shape, build,
rigging and decoration. His friend,
Lieut.. E. E. Williams, half-pay officer
of the eighth dragroons, recently from
India, was his constant companions
genial man, fond of books and the sea.
His family occupied the same house
with Shelley, on the Gulf of Spezzia.
After much talking and planning,
Williams, who had been three years in
the navy, assisted Shelley in building
boat, according to his own cherished
model, which the happy owner chris
tened the "Don Juan" She vas fast
and strong, but it took two tons of iron
ballast to bring her down to her bear
ings, and the Genoese sailors considered
her ticklish craft to manage. 1t was
pleasant to behold Shelley's boyish
eagerness at the possession of this new
toy, anticipating never-failing pleasure
in gliding over the blue sea, beneath
the clOudless sky of an italian summer.
Shelley and Williams were in ecstasies
over their boat, and were hardly ever
out of her. Their only assistant was a
boy, quick and handy and used to boats
Trelawny advised them to add to their
crew a Genoese sailor accustomed to the
coast, such an one as he had on Lord
Byron's boat, the Bolivar, but thinking
their seamansh p scandalized, they re-
PEELED the suggestion. Toward the end
of June, 1922, Leigh Hunt and his
family arrived by sea from England.
Hunt Anticipated great literary projects
in conjunction with Byron and Shelley,
and the pleasure which surpassed all
the rest was of meeting and commun-
ing with his friend, Shelley. Alas for
the brevity of their union.
On the Sth of July, 1922, Shelley and
his friend Williams left Leghorn in the
Don Juan, to go to Spezzia, where their
families awaited them. Trelawny ac-
companied them to the ofing in the
Bolivar. They were fretting and FUN
ing to be off; it was getting late, and
there was very little wind. Trelawny
watched the progress of his friends
boat through glass, while his Genoese
mate observed: "They should have
sailed this morning; they are standing
too much in shore the current will set
in there" But" said Trelawny,
"they will soon have a land breeze"
Their gait topsail," continued the
mate, sis foolish in a boat with no
deck, and no sailor on board" Then,
pointing to the southwest, "Look at
those black lines, and the dirty rags
hanging on them out of the sky-they
are a warming. Look at the smoke on
the water-the devil is brewing mis-
chief" Shelley's boat was soon after
enveloped in a sea-fog, and was never
seen again. A furious storm ensued !;
when it abated Trelawny watched every
speck that doomed on the horizon, but
in vain the boat had gone down with
its precious freight.
After three days of horrible suspense
Trelawny rode to Pisa and told his fears
to Byron and Hunt On the third day
two bodies were found on the shore
one at Via Reggie, the other three miles
distant. The tall, slight figure, the
Jacket, the volume of Sophocles in one
pocket and Keats poems in the other,
doubled back as if just read, were suf-
ficient to identify the body of the poet;
the other was identified as the body of
Williams. They were Immediately
buried in the sand beyond the reach of
the waves.
1t then became the melancholy duty
of Trelawny to carry the sad news to
the lone house on the sea shore where
the widows of his deceased companions
lived. Mary, the wife of Shelly, was
the daughter of William Goodwin and
Mary Woolstonecraft, and herself a
woman of genius; Jane, the lovely
widow of Lieut.. Williams. had Just re-
turned from India. These young moth
ers were left by their husbands on a
veranda, singing merry tunes to the
guitar, the happiest and most united of
families. 1t was now determined by
those most interested that Shelley's re-
mains should be removed t. Rome, and
laid beside his child and his friend
Keats, while those of Williams should
be taken to England.
state of decomposition was almost i'm
possible, and the ancient custom of
burning ana reducing the bodies to
ashes was resorted to. The Lucchese and
Florentine governments having granted
the request ms de by the British legation
Ito be allowed to remove the mortal
remains of Mr.. Shelley and his com
panion, cast ashore by the waves of the
10
be made in Leghorn of strong sheet
iron, with iron bands around it, and
also collected such articles as Shelley's
much loved Hellenese used on their
funeral pyres.
An officer of the quarantine, with a
squad of soldiers. accompanied the expe-
dition, armed with long-handled toDgs,
nippers, poles with iron hooks, and di-
vers other implements. Lord Byron
and Mr.. Hunt Joined them on the beach,
with the health officer and some dis
mounted dragons. There was also a
considerable gathering of spectators
froGl the neighborhood, and among them
many ladies richly dressed. A morbid
curiosity drew most of these, but it is
almost beyond belief that personal
friends, men of birth, culture and gen.
scene which followed. We copy Ire
lawny's account:
On the removal of a layer of brush
wood all that remained of our friend
Williams was exposed-a shapeless
mass the head had fallen from the
trunk on being touched. els that a
human body exclaimed Byron.
why, it's more like the carcass of a
sheep or any other animal this is a
satire on human pride and folly" and
he pointed to the letters E. W. W. on
the black handkerchief tied sailor fash
ion which had fallen with the head.
Byron looked on and muttered, 1.-The
sntruls of a worm hold together longer
than the potters' clay of which man is
made"
The remains were removed piecemeal
into the furnace. Don't repeat this
with me" said Byron "let my carcass
rot where it falls" The funeral pyre
was now ready. The materials being
dry and resinous burned furiously and
turned us back. As soon as the tiamesbe-
came clear, and allowed MS to approach,
we threw frankincense and salt into the
furL ace, and poured flask of oil and