His wishes were fulfilled to the letter, and only twenty years ago, when the property, owing to litigation, was without a rightful owner, and consequently much neglected, it was said that the remains in the derelict summer-house were plainly visible. The body is still there, but a large stone slab has been placed over the remains in the bedstead, as some time ago several vandals forced their way in and disturbed them. There is now some talk of removing the bones to the churchyard.
Before railroads swept away the mail-coaches, the coachmen on the London and York stage, as they clattered through Stevenage, used to point out the barn containing within its rafters the body of a farmer named Trigg. This worthy, who died in 1805, ordered that his remains, in a leaden coffin, should rest in this curious position for a period of thirty years. As a considerable sum of money depended upon the fulfilment of this caprice, the heirs were careful to see that it was duly carried out.
CHURCH TOWER AT PINNER WITH A PROJECTING COFFIN.
Another and somewhat similar case may be seen in Pinner churchyard at the present day, where a mausoleum, raised on arches above the ground, has a stone coffin inserted through it, one end of which—utilised as a tablet for the inscription—projects through. The story goes that the descendants of the occupant, a Scotch merchant named Loudoun, who died in 1804, enjoy a large property so long as it remains in this position, plainly above ground. There are even gratings at the foot of the edifice, probably in order to prove that there is no deception.
Sepulchral vagaries—of far commoner occurrence than might generally be supposed—vary considerably both in character and degree. Some are whimsical and fantastical in the extreme; others apparently consist only in shunning the usual and appointed places of interment, while the peculiarity of others appears, not in the place, but in the mode of burial. In the majority of instances where outlandish places have been chosen for sepulture, the individuals who selected them have been marked by some peculiarities worthy of observation.
For instance, Baskerville, the celebrated printer, whose infidel opinions shocked even the hardened Wilkes, directed that his body should be buried in a tomb of masonry on the site of an old windmill in the garden of his Birmingham residence. This direction proceeded from some curious disbelief in the "Revelation," but his wish was duly carried out on his death in 1775.
More extraordinary still is the case of Major Peter Labellere, the religious fanatic, who, in the year 1800, was interred upon the summit of Box Hill as follows:—The place appointed to receive his remains was about ten feet deep, more in the form of a well than a grave. The coffin was let down and placed on its head, with the feet upright, in that situation. The eccentric Major was firmly convinced that at the resurrection the world will be turned topsy-turvy, and he took this precaution in order that he might then find himself on his feet!
But queer burials are things of the past. For county councils and parish councils now prevent these eccentric interments in cellars, haylofts, and summer-houses.