violation of the sanctity of the grave is
said to be needful, for the instruction of the medical pupil, but let each
one about to inter a mother, husband, child, or friend, say shall I devote
this object of my affection to such a purpose; if not, the only safe
coffin is Bridgman's PATENT WROUGHT-IRON ONE, charged the same price as a
wooden one, and is a superior substitute for lead. Edward Lillie Bridgman,
34, Fish Street Hill, and Goswell Street Road, performs funerals in any
part of the kingdom, and by attention to moderate charges insures the
recommendation of those who employ him. Twenty-five private grounds within
the Bills of Mortality receive them; dues from seven shillings to one
guinea. Patent cast-iron tombs and tablets, superior to stone."

The advertisement is headed by a rough cut, showing the coffin[16] and the
iron clamps by which it was fastened. There was another maker of patent
coffins, who is mentioned by Southey in his ballad called _The Surgeon's
Warning_. The ballad represents the fear of a dying surgeon, lest his
apprentices should serve him after death as he, during his life, has
served many other persons:

"And my 'prentices will surely come
And carve me bone from bone,
And I, who have rifled the dead man's grave,
Shall never rest in my own.

"Bury me in lead when I am dead,
My brethren, I entreat,
And see the coffin weigh'd I beg,
Lest the plumber should be a cheat.

"And let it be solder'd closely down
Strong as strong can be, I implore,
And put it in a patent coffin
That I may rise no more.

"If they carry me off in the patent coffin
Their labour will be in vain,
Let the undertaker see it bought of the maker,
Who lives in St. Martin's Lane."

[Illustration]

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,