For many people today cemeteries and
graveyards are an unpleasant reminder of our inevitable fates. Most
of us would rather not be near them let alone in them. However, they
do provide a window into a culture's attitude towards life and it is
when we are confronted with death that we are forced to examine what
it means to be alive. Perhaps we have the luxury of being able to
ignore death for much of our lives today and that is why we have the
luxury of ignoring it. Despite the advances in medicine, those
living in the 19th century were still frequently reminded
of death the presence of fatal diseases such as cholera and
'consumption' as well as high infant mortality rates, death was far
more present then than it is today.
Attitudes towards death change from
period to period and culture to culture. In the early medieval period the
christian church began changing the practice of burying the dead in
consecrated ground ie a graveyard. Previously the dead were buried
in clan based locations. This gave the church more control over
funerary rites. In the UK this practice dominated until the early 19th century. At this time graveyards were so over crowded that there was no knowing how long a love one would remain in the ground as a corpse might be removed to make room for a new occupant. The over crowding was such a problem that the graveyards were literally overflowing causing problems that were not just unpleasant but a health risk to the living.
The solution was the cemetery hundreds of which were opened in 19th century Britain. The most famous of which were 'The Magnificent Seven' including Highgate Cemetery which I was able to visit. Cemetery's were not just designed to alleviate overcrowding. They also were a sign of the weakening power of the church. Members of the Church of England would still be buried in sacred ground dedicated to that religion, people outside of that faith could be buried in a 'nonconformist' cemetery.
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| I saw several collections of white rocks like the one pictured in Highgate. Their purpose is unknown to me. Perhaps they represent an improvised and personal funerary rite. |
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This time also represented the
commercialization of the mortuary business. Many pieces of funerary
furniture could be bought ready-made and having elaborate graves was
one way the burgeoning middle class sought to distinguish themselves
from the rabble. Brookwood Cemetery was intended to be the last and
only resting place for Londoners. It was set in a vast area so far
from London that it would never be absorbed by the metropolis and was
accessible by its own dedicated rail line dramatically called the
London
Necropolis Railway and they drafted themselves a suitably
dramatic great seal depicted on right. The company wanted to have a monopoly on London
burials but Parliament blocked the measure. Again, we see control of
funerary rites passing from the control of the church into the realm of
business and politics.
England, usually known for its 'Sang
Froid or cold-blooded lack of emotion changed in the 19c and the
evocative monuments of the period, including those in Highgate,
demonstrate this. It is not just the amount of money that people
spent on the monuments but the dramatic nature of funerary furniture
that indicates an abundance of emotion. It seems that those in the
19th century embraced the reality of death and the
emotions that come with it rather than attempt to ignore or srpress them.
The marker of Karl Marx is an
interesting illustration of how the living see death. Despite being
an atheist and therefore having no stake in an eternal soul, he still
has a substantial monument. Additionally, a number of his followers
have chosen to have their remains brought to Highgate to be near
those of their inspiration.
But not every monument is as well
preserved as Marx's. Despite the intention that graves would be
maintained in perpetuity, many graves are completely overgrown. So
much so that Highgate is a nature preserve as well as a resting place
for the dead. Much of the cemetery is off limits to visitors, even
on guided tours, for safety reasons. Some graves of notable people
such as Elizabeth Siddal's
are inaccessible, no matter how much
you sweet talk or beg your guide. Like the monuments of Egypt,
Highgate is a reminder that regardless of our best intentions,
planning and expenditure of resources, nothing is permanent.
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| This is not the edge of the cemetery. There are many more graves behind the one in the foreground. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnificent_Seven_cemeteries
RUGG, JULIE. "Cemetery."
Victorian Review 34, no. 1 (2008): 43-47.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41220396
Kleinschmidt, Harold, Understanding the
Middle Ages. Weedbridge: Boydell Press, 2000
By http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Burn_the_asylum - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Karlmarxtomb.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1195770
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