"Stinking Rich"

I went to a fascinating talk last week about family vaults, coffins and mausoleums, and thus learnt where the term "Stinking Rich" came from. To show off the family wealth, aristocratic and landed gentry families often built "wings" ( sorry what is the technical term? ) on to their parish church, and below them vaults to inter the family coffins in very smart mausoleums. This was much smarter than being buried in the churchyard, and it has even been suggested that it would enable the occupants of the tombs to leave their coffins should they have been "interred prematurely" . I don t think this was ever the case, but what was certain was that the tombs were open to the air, and the smell of the decomposing wealthy occupants wafted upwards through the floor boards, to their living relatives above whilst enjoying the Sunday sermon. Thus the term "Stinking Rich"