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JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE, 



Vol. IV. 



JULY, 1849. 



No. 1. 



One of the most remarkable illustrations of 

 the popular taste, in this country, is to be 

 found in the rise and progress of our rural 

 cemeteries. 



Twenty years ago, nothing better than a 

 common grave-yard, filled with high grass, 

 and a chance sprinkling of weeds and this- 

 tles, was to be found in the Union. If 

 there were one or two exceptions, like the 

 burial ground at New-Haven, where a few 

 willow trees broke the monotony of the 

 scene, they existed only to prove the rule 

 more completely. 



Eighteen years ago, Mount Auburn, about 

 six miles from Boston, was made a rural 

 cemetery. It was then a charming natural 

 site, finely varied in surface, containing 

 about 80 acres of land, and admirably 

 clothed by groups and masses of native 

 forest trees. It was tastefully laid out, 

 monuments were built, and the whole high- 

 ly embellished. No sooner was atten- 

 tion generally roused to the charms of this 

 first American cemetery, than the idea 

 took the public mind by storm. Travel- 

 lers made pilgrimages to the Athens of 

 New-England, solely to see the realiza- 

 tion of their long cherished dream of a 

 resting place for the dead, at once sa- 

 cred from profanation, dear to the me- 



Vol. iv. 1 



mory, and captivating to the imagina- 

 tion. 



Not twenty years have passed since 

 that time ; and, at the present moment, 

 there is scarcely a city of note in the whole 

 country that has not its rural cemetery. 

 The three leading cities of the north, New- 

 York, Philadelphia, Boston, have, each of 

 them, besides their great cemeteries, — 

 Greenwood, Laurel Hill, Mount Auburn, — 

 many others of less note ; but any of which 

 would have astonished and delighted their 

 inhabitants twenty years ago. Philadel- 

 phia has, we learn, nearly twenty rural 

 cemeteries at the present moment, — several 

 of them belonging to distinct societies, sects 

 or associations, while others are open to all.* 



The great attraction of these cemeteries, 

 to the mass of the community, is not in the 

 fact that they are burial places, or solemn 

 places of meditation for the friends of the 

 deceased, or striking exhibitions of monu- 

 mental sculpture, though all these have their 

 influence. All these might be realized in a 

 burial ground, planted with straight lines 

 of willows, and sombre avenues of ever- 

 greens. The true secret of the attraction 



* We made a rough calculation from some-data obtained 

 at Philadelphia lately, by which we find that, including- the 

 cost oi the lots, more than a million and a half of dollars 

 have been expended in the purchase and decoration of ceme- 

 teries in that neighborhood alone. 



