THE very evil custom of interring the dead in and near | the places devoted to public worship is, to the best of our knowledge, peculiar to Christian countries. Its introduction seems to have been very early; for we find interments within cities altogether prohibited by an edict of the Emperor Theodosius, in which it is very truly stated that such a practice is injurious to the public health, while monuments by the way-side present salutary memorials to the traveller. A person infringing this law forfeited a third of his patrimony; and an undertaker directing a funeral contrary to this prohibition was fined forty pounds of gold.

owing to the increased effluvium which was found to arise from the vaults under the church; and, in another part of the petition, the same gentleman, who has given much attention to this subject, states that, in the year 1825, he entered the vaults of St. Dunstan's church in Fleet Street, and found that the dead were there deposited in coffins of wood only, and saw the coffins below crushed by others placed upon them, and the remains of a recently-interred corpse forced in part out of the coffin, and in a state of decomposition too disgusting to be described. Even if this were a singular accident, still a system under which such accidents could occur ought not to be maintained.

The invariable use of lead coffins might, in some measure, prevent such effects as we have stated; but it has been ascertained that in the vaults of a city church, where lead coffins were always required, the air had become so vitiated, that lighted candles attempted to be carried in were immediately extinguished. It appears, in fact, that no arrangements can make it cease to be an evil to bring together the bodies of the dead where the living inhabit and congregate. Under the best arrangements which might, by careful vaulting and excluding all communication with the interior of the church, keep it tolerably free from the taint, still the surrounding air must be contaminated by the effluvia escaping through the open gratings made to render the vaults in any degree fit for entrance; thus effecting no more than a transference of the nuisance from the church to the church-yard.

But the church-yard itself is a great nuisance, particularly when closely hemmed in by houses on all sides, as is usually the case in London. The burial-grounds are of such limited extent, and have been so long in use, that instances are related in which a lighted candle will not burn when placed in a newly-opened grave, or even upon the thrown-up soil. "In large towns," says the Quarterly Review,' "and more especially in the metropolis, it has become more difficult to find room for the dead than the living. The Commissioners for the Improvements in Westminster reported to parliament, in 1814, that St. Margaret's

But when churches were built over the bodies or ashes of saints and martyrs, or their remains were translated to the churches, a strong desire began to be felt that the dead should receive the protection and benefit of such sacred neighbourhoods. Therefore, first the clergy, then kings and persons of rank, and at last the common people, were interred at first round about the church, then in open places attached to the outward wall, which were called " Galilees," and at last within the church itself. The facility which the proximity of the graves to the churches afforded the clergy in performing the customary rites for the dead, not a little contributed to the introduction and continuance of the custom. It is said to have been introduced into this country from Rome about the middle of the eighth century, by Cuthbert, archbishop of Canterbury, so far as churchyard cemeteries are concerned. Lanfranc, also archbishop of Canterbury, is stated to have been the first who brought in the practice of vaults in chancels, and under the very altars, when he had rebuilt the church of Canterbury, about the year 1075. But there is no doubt that graves in churches, for the clergy at least, existed at a much earlier period in this country: witness the story of the re-appearance of St. Dunstan, to complain of the annoyance he underwent from the interment of the son of Earl Harold in the same church with him. However, from the time of Lanfranc, the practice seems to have prevailed in London without interruption until the Great Fire in 1666, which effected | a very complete destruction of the churches, and, together with them, of the contents of the vaults and church-church-yard could not, consistently with the health of yards attached to them. The evil of the practice had become apparent before that event, and considerate people lamented that advantage was not taken of the calamity to introduce a better system. "I cannot but deplore," says Evelyn in his 'Sylva,' "that when that spacious area was so long a rasa tabula, the church-yards had not been banished to the north walls of the city, where a grated inclosure, of competent breadth for a mile in length, might have served for an universal cemetery to all the parishes, distinguished by the like separations, and with ample walks of trees, the walks adorned with monuments, inscriptions, and titles, apt for contemplation and memory of the defunct." That this, or something like this, was not then done cannot seem very surprising, when we perceive that, at this more enlightened day, people exhibit no great alacrity in availing themselves of advantages somewhat resembling those which the excellent Evelyn wished to afford.

Within some of the metropolitan churches there are regular graves under the aisles and the pews, the same as in church-yards; in others, " pits," or vaults, (not bricked, but of earth,) the entrance into which is from within the building. In others, the vents of the vaults are actually within the church. Thus in various ways pestilential effluvia are sent through the building. A candle will not always burn in the vaults beneath, and it is sometimes necessary to leave the entrance to them open for several hours before it is considered safe to enter. Mr. Carden, in his petition to parliament on the subject of a general cemetery, speaks of one church in which he understood that the use of fires had been abandoned,

the neighbourhood, be used much longer as a buryingground, for that it was with the greatest difficulty a vacant place could at any time be found for strangers : the family-graves generally would not admit of more than one interment, and many of them were too full for the reception of any member of the family to which they belonged. There are many church-yards in which the soil has been raised several feet above the level of the adjoining street by the continual accumulation of mortal matter; and there are others in which the ground is actually probed with a borer before a grave is opened! Many tons of human bones are every year sent from London to the north, where they are crushed in mills contrived for the purpose, and used as manure. Yet with all this clearance, the number of the dead increases in such frightful disproportion to the space which we allot for them, that the question has been started whether a sexton may not refuse to admit iron coffins into a burial-place, because by this means the deceased take a fee simple in the ground which was only granted for a term of years? A curious expedient has been found at Shields and Sunderland. The ships, which return to these ports in ballast, were at a loss where to discharge it, and had of late years been compelled to pay for the use of the ground on which they threw it out. The burial-grounds were full: it was recollected that the ballast would be useful there, and accordingly it has been laid upon one layer of dead to such a depth that graves for a second tier are now dug in the new soil." When, for the sake of gaining room, a greater depth is required, it frequently happens that

1834.]

THE PENNY MAGAZINE.

RUBENS DESCENT FROM THE CROSS.

་

[Descent from the Cross,' by Rubens.]

As the fourteenth Number of the Penny Magazine' on his style, with some account of the painting more contains a Memoir of Rubens, with some notice of the wonderful facility with which his works were executed, | we have only to append to our wood-cut of his famous picture of the Descent from the Cross,' a few remarks

In discharging the immediately under our notice. former duty, we cannot do better than avail ourselves of the general character of Rubens as a painter which has been given by Sir Joshua Reynolds. He considers

that in the works of Rubens the art of the painter is vulgar eyes; and here Rubens has selected a very frequently too apparent, and then proceeds to say-proper subject to display the gigantic boldness of his "His figures have expression, and act with energy, but pencil." After the picture had remained 200 years at without simplicity or dignity. His colouring, in which Antwerp, it was transferred to Paris, and formed one of he was eminently skilled, is, notwithstanding, too much the chief ornaments of the Gallery of the Louvre for the of what we call tinted. Throughout the whole of his twenty years previous to 1815, when it was comprised works there is a proportionable want of that nicety of among the numerous works of art which were restored distinction and elegance of mind which is required in to their original owners. The painting was executed by the higher walks of painting; and to this want it may Rubens soon after his return from his seven years' resiin some degree be ascribed, that those qualities which dence in Italy, and while the impression made by the make the excellence of this subordinate style appear in works of Titian and Paul Veronese was yet fresh in his him in their greatest lustre. Indeed, the facility with mind. The great master appeared in the fulness of his which he invented, the richness of his composition, the glory in this work--it is one of the few which exhibits luxuriant harmony and brilliancy of his colouring, so in combination all that nature had given him of warmth dazzled the eye, that, while his works continue before and imagination, with all that he had acquired of knowus, we cannot help thinking that all his deficiencies are ledge, judgment, and method; and in which he may be fully supplied." considered fully to have overcome the difficulties of a subject which becomes painful and almost repulsive when it ceases to be sublime.

Most of the works of Rubens indicate the rich and splendid tone of his imagination. He seems on all occasions to have abandoned himself almost entirely to his own feelings, and to have been guided exclusively by his own impressions, deriving less assistance perhaps than any other painter from sources out of himself. He is, therefore, eminently original; and if, in all his numerous works, a few instances can be found in which he has copied the ideas of other painters, it is evident how well they have been digested, and how skilfully adapted to the rest of his composition. His paintings abound in defects as well as beauties; but they possess the attribute peculiar to the works of true genius, that of commanding attention and enforcing admiration. It is difficult to say which branch of his art Rubens cultivated with most success. In history, portraiture, animals, landscape, or still life, his brilliant imagination and skilful execution are equally apparent. His animals, particularly his lions and horses, are so admirable, that it has been said they were never so properly, or at least so poetically painted as by him. His portraits rank with the best productions of those who made that branch of the art their exclusive study; and in his landscapes, which combine the lustre of Claude Lorraine with the grandeur of Titian, the picturesque forms of his rocks and trees, the deep tones in his shady glades and glooms, the sunshine, the dewy verdure, the airiness and facility of his touch, exhibit a charm and variety of invention which fascinate the observer. In the mechanical part of his art, Sir Joshua Reynolds thought Rubens the greatest master that ever existed. His defects, which are neither few nor unimportant, consist chiefly of inelegance and incorrectness of form; a want of grace in his female figures, of which that buxom one of Salomé, in the present picture, is an instance. All his subjects, of whatever class, are equally invested with the gay colours of spring. A very general want of sublime and poetical conception of character may also be discovered in his pictures; and the good taste of the mixture of truth and fiction presented in his famous allegorical pieces has been strongly questioned by some writers. There is, perhaps, no painter whose style has been so much described and discussed as that of Rubens; but we must now leave this for a more particular consideration of the picture before us, the following account of which is derived, with some abridgment, from the article which, in the Musée Français,' illustrates the engraving from which our wood-been established in all the principal parts. cut is copied.

When, in viewing the original of the splendid work, the general character of which alone our wood-cut can aspire to exhibit, the mind can descend to details, from the first grand impression it cannot fail to make, new beauties and perfections are discovered, and the only employment of the informed judgment is to sanction the feeling which the first impression created.

This picture is one of the most celebrated of Rubens' productions. It was painted by him for the cathedral of Antwerp; where Mr. Beckford informs us that he saw it in the year 1780, and adds:-" A swingeing St. Christopher, fording a brook with a child on his shoulders, cannot fail of attracting attention. This colossal personage is painted on the folding doors that conceal the grand effort of art just mentioned from

As the attention is directed in succession to the principal figures, that of Christ claims the strongest admiration. Death can hardly be more touchingly exhibited than in that pale, drooping, and blood-stained body. Then our notice descends to the natural action of all the characters, and the vivid expression of their love and grief. When we proceed to examine the structure and execution of this splendid work, we find that a single pyramidal group exhibits around Christ, upon a somewhat circular base, the three Maries and five of the disciples, all occupied in the same action. Two of the disciples, mounted upon the cross, let down the body of Jesus, which descends in an inclined posture, one of the disciples having just relinquished the hold which the other retains. Joseph of Arimathæa, a little less elevated than these two disciples, supports the declining body under the arm; `while the beloved disciple, placed on the ground, receives in his arms the descending corpse of his Lord. The Virgin, full of tears and weakened by her sorrows, raises the maternal hands which nursed him when a child, and seems to seek oue last consolation in embracing what remains of her Son and Lord. The obscurity of the horizon announces the sympathy of nature; while, notwithstanding, a light falls from the midst of the clouds upon the body of Christ, and gradually spreads itself over the immediately surrounding objects. The head, the body, and the left arm of Christ, are considered to constitute the finest work which Rubens ever executed. The vast white drapery intended to envelope the sacred body, and spreading from the summit to the foot of the cross, serves as a base to this noble figure, and relieves, by its transparent reflection, the prevailing yellowish and azure tints. This same white drapery is skilfully employed to sustain the general harmony, by fixing the most clear and vivid light on the centre of the group. By this contrivance of the painter all the colours acquire a new intensity, and an eminently picturesque opposition has

The red tint of the tunic of St. John, and the green drapery of Mary Magdalen, contrasted with the pale body of the Saviour, heighten the apparent projection of the group in front; while the blue mantle of the Virgin, half of which is in shade, the blue and purple tone of the vestments of Joseph of Arimathæa, and of the disciple who is seen in the right, serves to round off the sides. In painting this picture Rubens seems to have determined to try by a grand experiment the rule