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All the surgeon’s wishes were duly carried out as regards his coffin; money was also given to watchers to keep guard every night over the grave. The “’prentices,” however, were able easily to buy the watchers, and so

“They burst the patent coffin first,
And then cut through the lead,
And they laugh’d aloud when they saw the shroud,
Because they had got at the dead.
“And they allow’d the sexton the shroud
And they put the coffin back,
And nose and knees they then did squeeze,
The surgeon in a sack.
······
“So they carried the sack pick-a-back,
And they carved him bone from bone,
But what became of the surgeon’s soul,
Was never to mortal known.”

The following extract from a Scotch paper shows the alarm felt for the safety of the newly-buried:

“Resurrection-men.—Curiosity drew together a crowd of people on Monday, at Dundee, to witness the funeral of a child, which was consigned to the grave in a novel manner. The father, in terror of the resurrection-men, had caused a small box, inclosing some deathful apparatus, communicating by means of wires, with the four corners, to be fastened on the top of the coffin. Immediately before it was lowered into the earth, a large quantity of gunpowder was poured into the box, and the hidden machinery put into a state of readiness for execution. The common opinion was, that if any one attempted to raise the body he would be blown up. The sexton seemed to dread an immediate explosion, for he started back in alarm after throwing in the first shovelful of earth.”

Friends and relatives often placed objects on the newly-made grave, such as a flower or an oyster-shell, so that they might be able to tell if the earth had been disturbed. These objects were generally carefully noted by the resurrection-men, and were put back in their exact places after the body had been removed and the grave re-filled.

In some burial-grounds, houses were built in which the bodies could be kept until they were putrid, and therefore useless to the resurrection-men. Such a house is still standing in the burial-ground at Crail.[17]

HOUSE AT CRAIL (Described on page [80]).
Over the door is the following inscription: “Erected for securing the Dead. Ann. Dom. MDCCCXXVI.”