Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/121

 .1-28.1. FEE 5, 1916.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

115

Dante Rossetti's wife, Elizabeth Siddal, died at 7.15 A.M., Feb. 11, 1862. She was buried at Highgate Cemetery, and in her coffin were placed Rossetti's own poems, then in manuscript. In October, 1869, Rossetti was prevailed upon to have them disinterred. The manuscript was recovered from the coffin, and consigned in the first place to Dr. Llewelyn Williams, 9 Leonard Place, Kennington, to be properly dis- infected.

I know of only one narrative of what happened at the opening of the* grave. It is found in ' My Story,' by Hall Caine, 1908, pp. 90-91 :

" At length the licence of the Home Secretary was obtained, the faculty of the Consistory Court was granted, and one night, seven and a half years after the burial, a fire was built by the side of the grave of Rossetti's wife in Highgate Ceme- tery, the grave was opened, the coffin raised to the surface, and the buried book was removed.

" I remember that I was told, with much else that it is unnecessary to repeat, that the body was apparently quite perfect on coming to the light of the fire on the surface, and that when the book was lifted there came away some of the beautiful golden hair in which Rossetti had entwined it.

" While the painful work was being done the unhappy author of it, now keenly alive to its gravity, and already torturing himself with the thought of it as a deed of sacrilege, was sitting down, anxious and full of self-reproaches, at the house of the friend who had charge of it, until, later than midnight, he returned to say it was all over."

The same story appears, almost word for word, in Caine's * Recollections of Rossetti,' issued in 1882.

Oscar Wilde died Nov. 30, 1900, and was buried Dec. 3 in the cemetery of Bagneux, Paris. On July 20, 1909, his body was taken from the coffin in which it had been originally buried, and transferred to Pere Lachaise, and buried in a new coffin. It is a curious fact that the head of this remark- able man had suffered little change after nine years' burial, and that his hair had grown considerably during nine years' interment.

On Dec. 30, 1907, the body of T. C. Druce was exhumed. The following is an account from The Times, Dec. 31, 1907, p. 10 :

" THE DRUCE CASE. "EXHUMATIOX AT [HIGHGATE.

" . . . . The coffin now lay for an hour at the bottom of the tomb, awaiting the doctor's arrival. Dr. Pepper and Sir Thomas Stevenson appeared promptly at the appointed time. Men descended, and ropes being got round the casket, it was hoisted to the surface with the utmost care. It was an old-fashioned coffin covered with cloth and

studded panel-style with brass nails. One of its

six brass handles had come off, but otherwise

all that was amiss was some fraying of the cloth

j and a little wasting of the edge of the lid. Careful

measurements were made of dimensions, and both

Dr. Pepper and Sir Thomas Stevenson mado

detailed notes of all these particulars as well as

I of the actual state of the casket. The name-plate


 * haying been washed, the inscription became

plainly visible :

Thomas Charles Druce,

Esqre., Died 28th Deer.,

1864, In his 71st year.

" Above and also below the inscription WPS a brass cross. A photograph was taken. This ended, the gravediggers left, and two workmen employed by the undertakers entered the shed, unscrewed the lid with powerful pliers, and showed the lead inner coffin, which bore on its surface the same inscription as that on the outer oaken and cloth-covered coffin, further measurements were taken and noted, A workman next cut through the lead all round the outer edge of the upper surface. The lid was removed, bringing away with it the top of the innermost wooden shell which was attached to it. Then there was displayed a shrouded human figure which proved to be that of an aged, bearded man.

" It is understood that after the Home Offico experts and the other interested persons had made all the observations and records which the circumstances of the case demanded, steps were at once taken to return the coffin "to the vault, to restore the latter to its origin? 1 condition, and to re-erect the monument. The Homo Office, it is stated, has no intention to issue any official statement as to the opening of the grave beyond that already issued."

It will be recalled that Lord Nugent caused John Hampden's grave to be opened. The body was found in such a perfect state that the picture on the staircase of the house at Great Hampden was known to be his from the likeness.

I have referred to numerous authorities, but there are others which I have not con- sulted. Among the latter are ' Receuil de pieces concernant les Exhumations faites dans 1'enceinte de FEglise de Saint Eloy de la ville de Dunkerque,' Paris, 1783 ; ' Rapport sur les Exhumations du Cime- tiere et de 1'Eglise des Saints Innocens,' par Thouret, Paris, 1790 ; 'Reflexions sur des personnes qui, sous une apparence de mort, ont ete enterrees vivantes,' par Jean Janin, Paris, 1772 ; ' Address on Premature Death and Premature Interment,' by William Hawes ; 'Report of the Post- mortem Examination of a Body exhumed Seventeen Months after Death,' by T. Barrett, Lancet, 1845, pp. 425-8.

A. L. HUMPHEEYS.

187 Piccadilly, W.