128 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



carefully planned, and laid out in good taste. The field is open before us to 

 mould it at our will. How important, then, that our work be well planned and 

 judiciously executed. 



Let us see to it, therefore, that we secure the best available talent in the 

 landscape-gardeners we employ to plan and execute the future rural cemeteries 

 of the land. As these grounds are intended to be the quiet resting places of 

 our departed friends, the following desiderata should ever be kept promi- 

 nently in the foreground of all our plans respecting their arrangement and 

 management: 

 (1.) There should be perfect security and permanence in the title, and against 



intrusion ; 

 (2.) Insuring peaceful quiet and perfect repose to all who may be brought 



within the sacred limits. 

 (3.) The landscape should embrace a diversified surface of land and water. 

 (4.) The area should be covered with green turf in broad stretches. 

 (5.) Shaded by umbrageous trees, singly distributed at intervals, or in open 



groups ; 

 (6.) And reaching on either side to masses of foliage of differing hues, decidu- 

 ous and evergreen, according to the situation. At the same time, from 

 various commanding eminences, open and unobstructed vistas across the 

 demesne and to distant objects of interest should be carefully p reserved. 

 (7.) Easy access to all parts of the ground should be provided by smooth, 



hard roads and paths, kept in perfect order. 

 (8.) Of all things, we should enjoin severe simplicity and strictly good taste in 

 the decorations of the graves, and in the mementos offered to the dear 

 departed ones ; no senseless gew-gaws, nor purse-proud memorials, nor 

 gilded tombs ; no transitory and fading floral offerings should here find 

 place : much less appropriate are the flashy parterres of gaudy blooming 

 and foliage plants, that are too often seen obtruding themselves upon 

 the sacred limits of God's Acre. These tributes may have been be- 

 stowed by weeping and loving friends, whose tender sentiments are 

 entitled to our sympathy and respect, but all these things are so perish- 

 able that they soon become an intrusion and decaying offense upon the 

 quiet sanctity of the place. 

 (9.) In the modern rural cemetery we want no selfish, repellant and obtrusive 

 fences, as inclosures to our lots, ever decaying, and ever reminding us 

 of the egotistic claims and pretensions of individuals, in this common 

 meeting place of rich and poor, where all of us, from the highest to 

 the lowest, are at last reduced to a common level, and to a condition in 

 which there is and should be " no respect of persons." 

 (10.) Lastly, and in immediate connection with the sentiments already pre- 

 sented, as appropriate accompaniments and conditions of the sacred 

 precincts of the cemetery, let us carefully avoid another great danger 

 incurred in our desire to pay due respect to the memories of our dead : 

 let us avoid making such a sacred spot appear to be only one vast adver- 

 tisement of the stone-cutter's thriving trade ! * * * * Instead of 

 this constant repetition of granite and marble, shaft and obelisk, of 

 pretentious mausoleum or cenotaph, some persons will prefer to place a 

 mass of native rock, partially faced for the inscription. Others again 

 will prefer to mark the spot "most dear of all the earth beside" by 

 planting a memorial tree to show the last resting place of their departed 

 friends. 



