26o 



The Country Gcntkinan's ^lagazine 



from infancy, to associate grave-yards with 

 all that was gloomy, hideous, and repulsive; 

 instead of considering them places for pleas- 

 ing contemplative resort, and who looked 

 upon the introduction into them of anything 

 like gardening as a species of modern sacri- 

 lege. Such could have no sympathy with Mr 

 Loudon in the following opinion, which was 

 deemed among the wildest of his innovating 

 allusions :— " A church and church-yard in the 

 country, or a general cemetery in the neigh- 

 bourhood of a town, properly designed, 

 laid out, ornamented with tombs, planted 

 with trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, all 

 named, and the above, properly kept, might 

 become a school for architecture, sculpture, 

 landscape-gardening, arboriculture, botany; 

 and in those important parts of general 

 gardening, neatness, order, and high keeping." 

 Some residents in obscure country places, 

 where cattle and sheep have still the run of 

 the church-yards, and where in consequence, 

 neither flowers can be planted to bloom on 

 the graves of departed loved ones, nor ivy 

 trained to cover the bare stone walls, may 

 still be found disposed to deride the opinions 

 here expressed. But they will be acquiesced 

 in by all who have the privilege of frequent- 

 ing modern city cemeteries where most of Mr 

 Loudon's ideas are now carried out. Such 



THE DEAN CEMETERY AT EDINBURGH, 



situated in the western suburbs of the city, 

 on the picturesque banks of the once limpid 

 and salient, but now sewerage- and factory- 

 defiled Water of Leith. The principal por- 

 tions of these grounds command views of the 

 leading features in the romantic scenery for 

 which the Scottish capital has always been 

 famous. Near by, the towering Castle rock 

 rears its embattled summit ; more distant 

 Salisbury Crags present their rugged western 

 face, backed by the lion-couchant ridge of 

 Arthur's Seat, while the vistas in other direc- 

 tions are terminated by^the Pentland Hills, 

 Corstorphine Hill, the ' summits and south- 

 lying slopes of " the Kingdom of Fife," the 

 fertile hills and plains of East Lothian, and 

 the wide-expanded Firth of Forth, with its 



islands "like emeralds chased in gold." Nor 

 are the prominent features in the architecture 

 of the city less conspicuous, for while the more 

 objectionable of these are hidden by the sur- 

 rounding trees, openings have been formed 

 through which most of the city spires can be 

 seen, as well as some of the finest examples 

 of street dwelHng-house architecture ; and 

 most of those many palatial " hospitals " for 

 charitable education, for which " Modern 

 Athens " is celebrated beyond all other 

 cities. 



On a recent visit to the Dean Cemetery we 

 noticed the following particulars in relation 

 to the gardening department of its manage- 

 ment. We may premise that it consists, 

 first, of the burial ground portion, and, 

 secondly, of a steep river bank, covered with 

 old trees, having a flattish belting along its 

 base, which may hereafter be partly devoted 

 to cemetery purposes. In the first, or cemetery 

 portion proper, the whole was in excellent 

 keeping, the grass being short and neatly 

 edged ; the walks free from weeds, and well 

 compacted ; while the flowers and the earth- 

 surface among them were all that could be 

 desired in the best-managed flower-garden. As 

 should be the case in all such establishments, 

 there is here a small greenhouse for the winter- 

 ing of tender plants to be planted out in sum- 

 mer, and a small piece of nursery ground for 

 the propagation and rearing of hardy kinds. 

 Tender plants are not, however, allowed to 

 predominate in summer; hardy ones, and 

 especially such as show in winter, being pre- 

 ferred. The collection here catalogued con- 

 tains about 1500 names of hardy plants, of 

 which we can only merely mention some of the 

 most marked kinds. Among trees and shrubs, 

 the leading conifers are well represented, and 

 among them are large handsome specimens 

 of Deodar cedar, the Weeping Himmalayan 

 spruce, Wellingtonia gigantea, Cupressus 

 Lawsoniana; Abies Clanbrasiliana, fully 4 feet 

 high by 5 feet in width, &c. Those who 

 affirm that the mistleto will not grow well in 

 Scotland would be surprised to see how it 

 thrives and spreads itself here, where we ob- 

 served it on all the following trees — the 

 American weeping lime, crab apple ; common 



