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Subject: [MoButler] Interesting post about Victorian Era and burials...
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2003 09:28:10 EST

This post was on my Orange County, NC list:

The Victorians had a fear of being buried alive because death was not
always easy to determine.  Thus the Victorians often had graves equipped
with a bell above ground, the clapper attached to a string or wire that
went into the casket below ground and attached to a finger of the
deceased.  The idea was that if the deceased happened to awake, he could
pull the wire and ring the bell.  I think I read that for about a week
after burial, someone was stationed at the grave to listen for the bell.

Has anyone actually seen one of these bells above ground in an old
cementery? 

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