Page:Calcutta, Past and Present.djvu/215

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CHAPTER VIII

TOLD BY THE TOMBS

Burying Ground Road (Park Street)—The Cemeteries—Tomb of Sir W. Jones, with contemporary account of his death and funeral—Col. Kyd, his will, details of his funeral, and site of his gave—Tombs connected with English literature: Richmond Thackeray, Col. Kirkpatrick, Rose Aylmer—Chambers' child, with some account of the loss of the Grosvenor East Indiaman.

WHEN Begum Johnson was laid to her last rest in St, John's Churchyard in 1812, that old burying-ground had been closed for interments for half a century. One of the earliest of the changes which, after Plassey, marked the transition of Calcutta from a fortified settlement to a town, was the formation of a new burial-place for the dead, away from the dwellings of the living, since there was no longer the need to keep it sheltered under the guns of the Fort. The proceedings of the Board for September 29, 1766, record—

"The present burying-ground, situate in the middle of the town, is very detrimental to the

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