he smallest crack or
crevice in which a pin could be thrust. The roof was an arch of brick,
surmounted by flagstones; the sides were solid masonry, bearing no
appearance internally of decay; and the position of the vault was very
near the centre of the church: so that I was much puzzled to account for
the occurrence of the Bat in a place apparently hermetically sealed for
above a hundred years; and knew not how to combat the opinion of the
workmen, that it must have been entombed there alive since the year
1748.

"I now proceeded to institute inquiries regarding the vault in which the
Bat was found. The marble monument above, recorded the names of an old
Wiltshire family long since extinct in these parts, and the dates of the
three coffins below, corroborating the statement of the brass plate,
that the individual last buried died A.D. 1748. Several old men in the
parish remembered an adjacent vault being opened, when they were boys,
nearly sixty years since: but all positively denied that the vault in
question had ever been opened in their lives: and one, a very old man,
formerly clerk, and whose then residence abutted on the churchyard, was
very emphatic on this point. So that I am constrained to believe that
the vault has remained untouched since it received its last occupant, a
hundred and six years ago: and I am the more convinced of this from the
excessive freshness of the last coffin, the brass plate and nails of
which are as bright, and its whole appearance as new, as if it had been
placed there but yesterday, which would not have been the case had the
external air been admitted at any time since the vault was closed.

"During the time of the examination of the vault, the Bat was held in my
hand, and above an hour must have elapsed since its capture before I was
enabled to take it to the Rectory, and place it under an inverted glass:
by this time the warmth of my hand had considerably revived it, and it
wandered round its prison, snuffing about with its curious nose, and
standing up, and trying to hook itself on to the smooth glass, which
baffled all its attempts. As it obstinately refused to eat small pieces
of chopped meat, with which I tempted it to break its fast, which may
have continued a hundred and six years, and after which I should have
imagined it to be ravenous; and as it lay on its side, apparently in a
dying state, humanity urged me to give it a chance of life, by restoring
it to liberty, and I acc