Quotes from Catharine Arnold

Paucis notus, paucioribus ignotus, Hic jacet Democritus Junior, Cui vitam dedit et mortem Melancholia Known to few, unknown to even fewer, Here lies Democritus Junior, To whom Melancholia Gave life and death.

The Anatomy of Melancholy was regarded by Sir William Osler, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford (1905–19), as the greatest medical treatise every written by a layman.

In the same year, looking for a diversion from ill-health and overwork, Loudon reviewed a three-volume romance entitled The Mummy's Tale – A Novel, for The Gardener's magazine. Set in 2126, in an England that had reverted to absolute monarchy, this featured prototypes for espresso machines, air-conditioning and, most prophetically, 'a communication system that permitted instant world dissemination of news'.

Sir Edwin Chadwick, whose Sanitary Report proved to be a bestseller for the Stationery Office in 1842, confirmed that, every year, 20,000 adults and 30,000 youths and children were 'imperfectly interred' in less than 218 acres of burial ground, 'closely surrounded by the abodes of the living'.2

In February 1660, a Lady Monck visited the hospital, and received this greeting from one of the 'phanatiques': Most noble lady, now we see The world turns round as well as we. Whilst you adorn this place we know No greater happiness below, Than to behold the sweet delight Of him that will restore our right, Let George know we are not so mad, But we can love an honest lad.64

The satirical magazine Punch, at that period closer in spirit to today's Private Eye, editorialized that: 'A London churchyard is very like a London omnibus. It can be made to carry any number.

Despite the reservations of Wren, Vanbrugh and their successors, burial in vaults beneath churches had continued. The processes of decomposition, shaky foundations and the British disease of rising damp caused particular difficulties. Chadwick noted that, however solid the coffin, 'Sooner or later every corpse buried in the vault of a church spreads the products of decomposition through the air which is breathed, as readily as if it had never been enclosed.

One of the duties of a sexton consisted of 'tapping' coffins, 'so as to facilitate the escape of gases which would otherwise detonate from their confinement'.5 On occasion, the build-up of corpse gas was so intense that coffins actually exploded. In the 1800s, fires beneath St Clement Dane's and Wren's Church of St James's in Jermyn Street destroyed many bodies and burned for days.

Children were the primary victims of these filthy conditions and there were numerous anecdotes of undertakers temporarily storing the bodies of newborn infants in their own premises until there were enough dead babies to make it worthwhile giving them a decent burial.

Stressing that 'the many shall not be placed in danger by the few', the paper urged readers to wear a mask. 'Those who are not doing so are not showing their independence – they are only showing their indifference for the lives of others – for the lives of the women and the helpless little children who cannot help themselves.

But Turner was not without his peccadilloes: a magistrate, he considered it his civic duty to witness every prostitute he sentenced being flogged at Bridewell, moving one commentator to observe: 'Oh, Bridewell! What a shame thy walls reproaches. Poor Molls are whipp'd, while rich ones ride in coaches!

Horatio Nelson set the standard after he was mortally wounded by a sniper at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Nelson's body was pickled in brandy, which was replaced with wine at Gibraltar, and brought back to England, amid macabre speculation that the Admiral's crew had drunk the embalming brandy in transit.

Kate Webster had ensured her place in the murderers' hall of fame by attacking her mistress with the axe, hacking the corpse to pieces, and boiling down the remains in the copper, removing the bones. Most grisly of all was the fate of the fat. Webster had scooped the fat from the copper and sold it around the neighbourhood as dripping. One street urchin even claimed Webster had offered him a bowl

a bizarre footnote, in 2010 Julia Thomas's skull was unearthed in the garden of the broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough. A team of builders discovered the skull when they were excavating foundations for an extension, at the spot where the Rising Sun once stood. In July 2011, the West London coroner Alison Thompson formally identified the skull as belonging to Julia Thomas and recorded a verdict of unlawful killing.

London recovered, eventually, but the aftermath of the Black Death was devastating. The epidemic destroyed the economy, causing mass starvation and anarchy.

Eventually, the authorities realized that quarantine was the only way of containing the outbreak, and entire households were walled up.

In fact, Shelley was cremated in accordance with local by-laws designed to prevent the spread of plague, which ruled that anything washed up by the sea must be burned on the shore.

The aristocracy and wealthy merchants escaped to their second homes in the country, clutching the certificates of health issued by the Mayor of London that enabled them to travel.

In private, Prince Albert's rooms were immaculately preserved, a shaving jug of hot water provided every day.

his first Tory cabinet were so young they were referred to as the Who? Who? Cabinet)

One of the most painful aspects of the war was that the bereaved were left without a body to bury. Almost half the British dead were posted Missing, leaving their families with the agonized hope that they might one day return – alternating with the bitter knowledge that their remains were lost in the mud of France.

In previous campaigns, only the bodies of officers were returned for burial. The rank and file casualties of Waterloo and the Crimea had been interred in mass graves. It was not until the American Civil and Franco-Prussian wars that the concept of military cemeteries for all participants developed.

MacLaine was a model prisoner, but his courage deserted him at the end. Arriving at Tyburn, he looked sadly up at the gallows, and with a heartfelt sigh exclaimed: 'O Jesus!

One of the most shocking aspects of the Spanish Flu was that, like its predecessors the Black Death and the Plague, it struck with terrifying speed. Victims could be fine at breakfast and dead by teatime.