The Wonders of the Grave.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 579, 5 February 1876, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Wonders of the Grave.

THE TiODY PRESERVED FOE IIFTFEX HUNDBED TEARS. Ibe tomb of Kdward 1 , wlio died in 1307, was opened Jan. 2nd, 1770 alter 4t>3 years had elapsed. His body was almost perfect, t anute (the i ane) •■roho crossed over to England 1017 was found in 177- by the workmen who repaired Winchester Cathedral, where his body had reposed n arly 750 years, perfectly fresh. In 1569 three homan soldiers, fully equipped with warlike instruments, were dug out of a bed of peat in Ireland where they had lain probadly 1,500 yenra. Their bodies were perfectly fresh and plump. In the reign of James 11, of England, after the fall of the church at > stley in j "Warwickshire, there was taken up the cor°,pe of Thomas Gray, Marquis o Dorset, who was buried there Oct. 1(J, t 1530, in the twenty second year of; Henry VIII ; and although it bad lain j their seventy-eight years, the eyes, hair, flesh, nails, and joints remained as though it had been newly buried. Robert Braybrook, who was consecrated Hishop of London 1381, and who died in 1401 and was buried in Paul's was taken out of his tomb after the great fire in HSGG, duriug the repairs of the cathedral and although he had Jain there no less than 2G2 years, his body was found firm as tothe skin,hair, joints and nails. Pietro Rodriguez, a Portugese jeweller, while pursuing his occupation in the City of Mexico, was, in 1595, accused before the tribunal of the Inquisition, and after suffering a variety of tortures, \ras condemned to be buried alive in a vault in the ( onvent de St. Domingo, in that city He wss then 38 years old The Convent de i*t. Domingo was lately demolished in search of treasure supposed to be concealed there, and the body of Rodriguez taken out of the vault exactly as wh^n placed there 270 years before, his dauuhter, two and a half years of age, was lying i under her father's feet and as perfectly preserved as himfielf. These lastmentioned bodies are now in the above city. The evidences of toiture on the body of the jeweller are fearfully apparent. In one respect, however, the appearance does not coincide with the record which we have given Ihe miserable man must have di^d in the hands of his tormentors. The position j of his hands show that he was | usp ended by the body and neck until be died. Marks of the cord and binning iron are deeply recorded on various parts of the body. His hair and be;.rd are firm, his skm natural in hue and texture, without the least trace of decomposition In any part