TWO CREMATIONS in ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6572, 9 December 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

TWO CREMATIONS in ENGLAND.

Mi;. William Kobinson, Manstou House, ne;ir Jil.iudforri, Dorset, writes as follows to the Daily Telegraph :—" As one of the few who witnessed the first acts of cremation in Our country iu modern times, I send you a short :u:uouiit of the facts, as inaccurate statements may be published by persons not pr.'=.ent. On last Sunday evening, October Bt:i, the body of Mrs. Hanham, wife of Captain Hanham, was reduced to its elements by fire at this place. The following evening, October 9th. the body of Lady Hanham, wife of the lato Rev. Sir James Hanham, Bart., of Dean's Gourt, in this county, and mother of Captain Hantiam, was also decomposed by fire. Mrs. Hanham died in July, 1870, of caDcer, Lady Hanham, in Juno, 1877, in her ninetieth year. Mrs. Hanham expressed to her husband and to various friends her wish that her body should not be buried, but be reduced to ashes in this manner; and Lady Hanham desired that hers should be treated in the same way. Captain Han.

h?m, respecting these wishes, determined to carry them out in the face of all difficulties. They are numerous, owing to the fact that no public body exists in England, which carries out cremation, and those who desired it were driven to seek aid in foreign countries, at an amount of trouble and expense which make it impossible for most. With a view to avoiding some of the preliminary diliiculties, the bodies were not buried in any cemetery, but kept in a stronglybuilt mausoleum of good design iu the grounds. The cremations were carried out in a simple, inexpensive furnace, not only without any nuisance to the neighbourhood, but without the slightest unpleasantness to those who stood within two fc.-t of the white ilame, which promptly resolved the bodies to their harmless elements. Though done under many difucultics, the act was quickly accomplished in each instance, nothing being left but perfectly calcined bones. The fragments ot tiie larger ones looked like frosted silver when broken, and they fell apart at a slight touch. The ashes ot each be !y were collected with the greatest car-, ami placed in a large china bowl, in which th'-y will remain until urns of an appro\ed form are rea.iy. They will be moved t.i the mausoleum among the trees on the lawn. Compared with the contents or .-uch Roniau vail other urn* as 1 have seen tin- as'.ics arc greater in amount and much more perfectly preserved. This was owing to complete and quick combustion, and to thu body hemy kept from direct contact with th-i fire. Every part ot the bony structure is represented in these ashes, but without any definite form which would nuke them recognisable by any but expert*. In size these remains rauge from pieces an inch and a half long to ashes ami tine liuat. Each body since decease—six and live years ago respectively-—was encased in a strong elm cufliu, and ttiat in a lead one. The lead was only adopted because tile eotiins were placed Jua.st.md iu tho mausoleum, audto prevent the violation of sanitary laws. The culling, kad and all, were placed in the furnace resting uii firebricks and iron plates, placed so as to allow the fumes to play treely up, but prcTcnt t:ie ashes from falling to the the below. Thus the shells had to I e cunt timed before the bodies, compelling the use of greater heat and longer time than usual. The lead soon ran through the furnace into the ash pit-*, and the white fl.iii.es played round the strong elm shell till that fell at white heat over tiie body, of which an hour afterwards only tiie ashes remained. Among the few who witnessed the process was Dr. Comyus Lvach, medical ctlicer ot health tor tho ."Muriuiuster district."