a right of way may be claimed through them by prescription.
The right to burial may be subject to the payment of a fee to the
incumbent, if such has been the immemorial custom of the parish, but not
otherwise. The spirit of the ancient canons regarded such burial fees as
of a simoniacal complexion, inasmuch as the consecrated grounds were
among the _res sacrae_--a feeling which Lord Stowell says disappeared
after the Reformation. No person can be buried in a church without the
consent of the incumbent, except when the owner of a manor-house
prescribes for a burying-place within the church as belonging to the
manor-house. In the case of _Rex_ v. _Taylor_ it was held that an
information was grantable against a person for opposing the burial of a
parishioner; but the court would not interpose as to the person's
refusal to read the burial service because he never was baptized--that
being matter for the ecclesiastical court. Strangers (or persons not
dying in the parish) should not be buried, it appears, without the
consent of the parishioners or churchwardens, "whose parochial right of
burial is invaded thereby."

In Scotland the obligation of providing and maintaining the churchyard
rests on the heritors of the parish. The guardianship of the churchyard
belongs to the heritors and also to the kirk-session, either by
delegation from the heritors, or in right of its ecclesiastical
character. The right of burial appears to be strictly limited to
parishioners, although an opinion has been expressed that any person
dying in the parish has a right to be buried in the churchyard. The
parishioners have no power of management. The presbytery may interfere
to compel the heritors to provide due accommodation, but has no further
jurisdiction. It is the duty of the heritors to allocate the churchyard.
The Scottish law hesitates to attach the ordinary incidents of real
property to the churchyard, while English law treats the ground as the
parson's freehold. It would be difficult to say who in Scotland is the
legal owner of the soil. Various opinions appear to prevail, e.g. as to
grass growing on the surface and minerals found beneath. The difficulty
as to religious services does not exist. On the other hand, the
religious character of the ground is hostile to many of the legal rights
recognized by the English law.

See also BURIAL AND BURIAL ACTS; CEMETERY.

CHURL (A.S. _ceorl_, cognate with the Ger. _Kerl_ and with similar w