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 CHAPTER VIII TOLD BY THE TOMBS

HEN Begum Johnson was laid to her last rest in St, John's Churchyard in 1812, that old burying-ground had been closed for interments for half a century. One of the earliest of the changes which, after Plassey, marked the transition of Calcutta from a fortified settlement to a town, was the formation of a new burial-place for the dead, away from the dwellings of the living, since there was no longer the need to keep it sheltered under the guns of the Fort. The proceedings of the Board for September 29, 1766, record—

"The present burying-ground, situate in the middle of the town, is very detrimental to the