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SECTION II 8 TheMenwriaM OUR WORK ON EACH memorial was in three phases. The inscription was deciphered and inked in with Chinese brush, its stones were measured, and photographs were taken. Information for the biographical entries of the persons buried in the Old Cemetery and about their families and related companies, societies, services, and ships, was sought from newspapers of the period, from libraries, and from family records. All these findings were then collated and recorded. MEMORIAL DESIGN AND INSCRIPTIONS RECORDING THE DESIGN of the memorials presented its problems. In the large and varied literature on British churchyard memorials there seems to be no generally accepted nomenclature. For example, some writers regard table-, altar-, high- and chest-tombs as being of the same kind; we have used the classification ofFrederick Burgess. Any memorial not being a slab, a headstone, or a 71 chest-tomb, we have classified as a monument, whether its main feature is a pillar, a column, a pedestal, a figure or any of many other designs. More than half of the memorials in this cemetery are chest-tombs, all conforming to a common pattern with small variations, so that in our descriptions only special differences are noted. I The chest-tomb is heavy and, like other stone monuments ofany size, is built on foundations laid underground and not visible. On these rests the granite slabbing, the podium that supports the visible tomb. The podium invariably consists of four steps forming a rectangle, generally with mitred corners but occasionally butt-jointed. Where there appears not to be a podium, it has been obscured by undergrowth or turf. In some cases it is multi-layered, each layer stepped back. The top layer of this stepped podium supports the main part of the tomb. A stepped podium is more frequently associated with taller monuments than chest-tombs. There are several examples in this cemetery of chest-tombs surmounted by funerary AN EAST INDIA COMPANY CEMETERY ornaments such as an urn, each invariably carried on a small stepped podium and often carved from one piece of granite. The main part of the tomb is its rectangular box, of which the ends and sides are often cut with the inscription in whole or part. The box may be plain or ornamented, vertical or splayed outwards. Mostly, each corner where a side meets an end is disguised by a vertical moulding or beading , the edge-roll, which may be carried either on the side or the end, so that it rolls in and is flush with the surface of its mate. Only in one or two examples in this cemetery are the edge-rolls patterned . The commonest form of embellishment on sides and ends is the panel, either recessed by a surrounding moat or carved in low relief; the severity of the rectangular shape may be relieved by incised corners, and of course by an inscription. The base of the box, where it rests on its podium, is surrounded with a low, moulded skirting or plinth, which in this cemetery is usually cut in two Ushaped pieces ofgranite, joined at the middle ofthe box's ends or less commonly at the middle of its sides. The lid of the box is the table-top, a cap, ledger or slab, and invariably overhangs its sides and ends. The bed-mould, the under-surface ofthis overhang, is frequently carved with a simple moulding . Ofthe upper surface of the table-top, the outer edge may be taken up by a raised border, a chamfer or an over-mould; the large surface thus enclosed may be left free, be cut with an inscription or carry an ornament, the most frequent ornament being a funerary urn mounted on a pedestal in the form ofa three-tiered stepped podium. Other memorials in this cemetery are the headstone , the monument, and the ledger or slab. The headstones are nearly always rectangular, though many have arches or gables as the top edges. The arch or gable is often adorned with a 72 device carved in low relief, a device which may be either simply ornamental or symbolic. Unless very old, they generally mark actual burial places, but have been the most liable to displacement. Some of them have been brought in from unrecorded sites and incorporated in the cemetery walls. It is a matter of conjecture whether headstones were carried out to the East as ballast, ready-cut in part, for use in the event ofa shore burial; this could explain...

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