EXHUMATION OF HAMPDEN.
TOPICS OF THE DAY.
LORD NUGENT, wishing to settle some "historic doubts' which prevail with respect to the wound of which the patriot Hampden died, procured leave of the clergyman of the parish of Hampden, Bucks, in the church of which he lies buried, to search for his remains. On the 21st of July, after several coffins had been ex- amined, one was selected for particular investigation : the plumber cut the lead, the sexton disrobed the body of its bandages, the gravediggers raised the shell, and Lord Nugent descended for a
• minute inspection. A very long and very solemn account of each of the steps of this singular act of " resurrection " appeared in all the newspapers of Monday and Tuesday ; which was, however, quickly followed by a disclaimer, on the part, we presume, of the chief resurrection-man—the noble lord who instituted the inquiry. He states, that there is reason to believe that the body examined was not that of John Hampden, but of some other person. If this be the case, the report loses the interest it possessed, and which we could not but feel in reading it, although grossly disfigured by the pseudo-eloquence so much in vogue in newspapers at the pre- sent day. It was certainly not a material question whether Hamp- den died of a bullet in the shoulder received in the battle of Chat- grove field, or from the injury sustained from the bursting of a pistol in the same engagement- but we cannot join in the censures which have been freely passed upon the investigation. The only argument against the surgical resurrectionist, of any weight, is, that the act may hurt the feelings of friends : but what feelings can historical resurrectionists aggrieve, now that friends, who once might have felt, have long since been reduced to the state of the
mouldering Hampden ? It is idle to talk of the sanctity of the dead in this case : there is more respect for the memory of the patriot, in discussing minutely the nature of the wound of which he died, than there is disrespect in disturbing the "worm on his feed," to use the expression of the reporter already mentioned ; or in putting to flight "the rat and the spider" from their work upon the shrinking and blackening -corpse, and overturning "the mush- room springing fresh in the midst of corruption," to use the still more highly-coloured phrases of Forsyth in his description of the models of the Italian artist Zumbo.
Previous page
