Rev. John Houghton. St. George's, Southwark

"Health of towns":
an examination of the report
and evidence of the Select Committee:
ofcMr. Mackinnon's Bill: 
.... for establishing
cemeteries around the metropolis.
(p:22 1843)

"The Rev. John Houghton, Rector of St. George's, Southwark, with reference to the vaults under his church, says......

"I never perceived any unpleasant effluvia to arise from what had been interred there; I have one of my own children buried there; had there been any thing of the kind, I certainly should not have done that. There is not the least smell."

"Health of towns" 1843

"Health of towns":
an examination of the report
and evidence of the Select Committee:
of Mr. Mackinnon's Bill: 
.... for establishing
cemeteries around the metropolis.
(p:22 1843)

The Rev. J. C. Abdy, of St. John's, Southwark, says,

" My opinion decidedly is, that funerals, in certain churchyards in the metropolis, should not be, without qualification, prohibited. I can imagine very serious evils to arise, if there be any law which shall, without certain restrictions and qualifications, prohibit funerals in certain churchyards; and I do sincerely hope and trust such a stringent law may not pass. In my own parish we have a very large spacious churchyard, and we have no inconvenience arising from the interment of the dead: we have a number of vaults; there are many of them with scarcely more than one or two tenants, and they may hold from ten to twenty more".