BURY

a town, England, Lancashire, 6 miles E. of Bolton, with 37,563 inhabitants. It is weU sitaby atcd on a rising ground between the Irwell and the do- Roche, and consists of three principal streets and a the commodious market-place. By the Reform Act of 1832 it was constituted a parliamentary borougli, and returns one member to Parliament. The pariah church has a beautiful tower and spire, and aanonfz other religious edifices is a chaste Gothic chapel, with the elegant tower, belonging to the Roman CathoKai. The staple manufacture is woollens, and there are also numerous cotton mills and factories, bleaching; and printing works, dyeworks, foundries, and paper has mills. The Liverpool, Wigan, Bolton, and Buty Railway, the East Lancashire, and a branch of the Manchester and Leeds Railways, furnish ample means and of communication. The late Sir Robert Peehwaa bom at Chamber Hall in the vicinity in 1788. A monument has been erected to his memory, which was unveiled in 1852. BUKYING-BEETLE (Necrophonui), the name of a gencis of insects belonging to the order Coleoptera^ and the tribe of the SUphales, or carrion beetles. Their body is angular; the ant^ins are longer than the head, and terminated in the form of dubs with small conical knobs; the elytra or wing-cases are cut at the extremity at right angles. They are remarkable for the keenne of their scent, which enables them to discover in the course of their rapid flight, the bodies of rats, mice, moles, , recently dead. When they have discovered one several of them gather about it, and creeping under it, begin hollowing out the earth with their head, until the body giudually sinks to the depth of 6 inches or even foot They then cover it over with the earth they had dug out) and nuhke the spot leveL This labour requires not le than twenty-four hours. In the body which is thus buried the insects deposit their eggs, out of which, in le than a fortnight, the dirty white larvsB creep, and regale themselves on the store of food which has been prepared for them. Before entering into the pupa state the larvsB go somewhat deeper into the earth, and thereupon the development takes place so rapidly that, under favourable circumstances, there may be three generations in a single year. The species are common everywhere. One of the best known is the Necropkona vespUlo of Linnaeus, with red antenna, and two bright orange bands acro the back. BURYING-PLACES. The custom of burying the dead in public places prevailed among the most ancient nations. The Bomans had this custom in the earliest times. Afterwards, in the flourishing periods of the republic, thev burned their dead and only buried the ashes, collected in urns {umcB). The ancient Grennans buried their dead in the groves consecrated by their priests. With the introduction of the Christian religion consecrated places were appropriated for the purpose of general ourial; and it was regarded as ignominious not to be buried in consecrated earth. The deprivation of the rites of burial was, therefore, part of the punishment of excommunication. The Bomans were accustomed to provide their sepulchres at least with a stone, upon which was inscribed the name of the deceased, and the wish. Sit iUi terra levis (that is. May the earth rest lightly upon him). This custom was prraerved by the Christians. The sepulchres in churches originated from an inclination, common to men of all times and nations, to honour their relations, even in the grave. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Bomans erected over the graves of men of rank, or persons otherwise remarkable, pyramids, mausolea, or temples. After the introduction of Christianity little churches, called chapels f wero erocted over the dead. The early Christian martyrs wero buried in caverns, which by degrees wero enlarged to spacious subterranean vaults. And called chambers of repose. In the sequel, others considered themselves happy if their bones wero allowed to ropose near the ashes of a martyr. The sepulchres of the martyrs wero, on this account, distinguished by a white altar over them. When the Christians wero allowed the public exercise of their religion they erected churches, and the heathen temples became places of Christian worship. As early as the fourth century they built churohes over the sepulchres of the holy martyrs; and in the belief that a place was sanctified by their ashes, they anxiously sought out) on the erection of new churohes in cities, or the transformation of heathen temples into Christian churohes, the remains (relics) of the martyn, and buried them under the altar of the new chur oh to communicate to it a character of greater sanctity. It gradually came to be universally considered among the Christians a privilege to be buried in the neighbourhood of a saint. The Emperor Const an tine, who died in 337, was the first person that we know of who ordered his sepulchre to be erected in a church. This was done in the Churoh of the Apostles at Constantinople, of which he was the founder, and therefore probably considered himself as peculiarly entitled to this privilege. He was soon imitated by the bishops, and in the sequel all those who had enriched the church wero distinguished by this honour. The Emperors Theodosius and Just in i an, indeed, forbade tiie erection of sepulchres in churohes, but in vain. Leo the Philosopher again permitted them to everybody. It is only in later a times that men have become convinced how injurious it is to the health of the living to remain for a long time in the vicinity of the d^d, particularly if the corpses remain standing in simple coffins, and are not placed deep in the earth, as is commonly the case in the sepulchral vaults of churohes. From these the effluvia of putrefaction escape easily, and difihise themselves in the air. On the occasion of opening such sepulchral vaults, those who stood near them have sometimes fallen dead on the spot, and no one could venture into the church for a long time after without exposing himself to dangerous consequences. At present the burying in churches is ahnoet everywhere suppre ed, or at least permitted only under certain restrictions. Even in Naples and Bome the general practice of erecting sepulchre in churohes was forbidden in 1809, and the foundation of burial places without the dty was provided for. The custom introduced by the communities of Moravian Brothers, who form their burial-places into gardens, is now becoming general; and cemeteries, instead of exhibiting merely dull ranm of tombstones, are adorned with flower-plots and ornamental shrubbery. The celebrated burying-place of Ptre la Chaise^ near Paris, is one of the most beautiful and interesting spots in the world. BUBY ST. 490