Interesting find at St. James’s Palace.

Manawatu Herald, 1 May 1902, Page 2

Interesting find at St. James’s Palace.

Excavations have been in progress for some days past in one of the oourt-yarda of St. James’s Palace says a late English paper, in connection with the preparation of one of the residences for the officials of the royal household. In the course of their operations the workmen have come across many gruesome relics of a long past age, including quite a considerable collection of human skulls and large bones of the humane frame. . The theory is held, by some of those concerned in the direction of the work, that the locality which yielded the relics was once the site of a leper hospital, and that the remains are of very ancient date indeed, and are those of lepar patients or of the pious and devoted men who undertook the care of them. The latest find was peculiarly interesting. The excavators came upon a leaden coffin of quaint and unusual shape, the shell having evidently been made to the shape of the body which it was to enclose. The lead was thin, and had apparently been buried without any protection from the weight of the superincumbent earth, for it was squeezed almost flat. Within was a fairly complete skeleton, assumed to be that of a monk. The remains have been placed in a box pending official directions as to what shall be done with them.