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?