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TREKS FOR RURAL CEMETERIES. 



Wr r<j>oat tliat llicro can be no more fittinrj ornaniont or nicniorial jdacod beside 

 the ^lave, than suitable trees. And liere we call to mind (ikack CJrkknwoou'h allu- 

 sion to the grave of the poet Kkats, in the Protestant bwrying-ground at Home. 

 " I was pained, says she, " to find the grave of Keats in a bare and shadowless place, 

 lie, whose heart was so full of music, who loved beauty so passionately, lias not a tree 

 to shelter a bird over his lonely rest — not a flower to breathe a perfumed sigh over 

 his lonely pillow." Many a grave is in the same shadowless condition ; not from 

 necessity alone, but from neglect and choice. 



It is very painful to see the bare and desolate aspect of the quarter set apart for the 

 graves of the poor, in some of our cemeteries. The trifling expenditure of a few dollars 

 in planting a tree here and there over it, would be a wonderful improvement, and would 

 at least show that the authorities considered that these poor, who had no friend behind 

 to raise a monument or plant a tree by their grave, were nevertheless human beings. 



In what we have said we do not wish to be understood as raising objections to the 

 practice of erecting monuments to the memory of the dead ; far from it. We care 

 not how costly and magnificent they may be, provided they are appropriate to the 

 place and the purpose, and do not convey the idea of a vulgar and heartless exhibition 

 of vanity, as we regret to say they sometimes do. The finest tombstones or monu- 

 ments strike us as bare and unfinished, without the accompaniment of trees, and espe- 

 ciallv such trees as in their form and character harmonize with their style. We have 

 a very simple illustration of the elTect of trees in the vignette at the head of this article. 

 Take away the tapering trees which support it, and we would have a square block, 

 formal and shadowless, without a line of beauty. 



There is something abnut the memorials which genuine aflfection places around the 

 grave, so touching and so beautiful as to be readily distinguished from the mere dis- 

 play of wealth, or the cold, formal discharge of a duty imposed by the customs of 

 society. A handful of fresh flowers scattered over a grave — the planting of a bunch 

 of Violets, or a Rose bush — never fails to strike us as a sincere and delicate tribute 

 of affection ; while we often, though perhaps uncharitably, question the motives that 

 have raised a splendid monument, and inscribed the fulsome and flattering epitaph. 



We have said more on this head than we intended, and must come to the more 

 immediate purpose we set out with. 



The selection of trees for the embellishment of a cemetery, calls for the exercise of 

 much taste and discrimination, and should never be undertaken by persons who have 

 but little knowledge of the subject. Fitness is every where one of the chief sources 

 of beauty. The burial place has a character and expression peculiarly its own ; and 

 whoever undertakes to improve or embellish it, either with objects of nature or art, 

 should be very careful to avoid anything out of harmony^ with that expression. How 

 we would be shocked to see people visit the house of mourning in the gay costume of 

 the ball-room. So the embellishments of a lawn, pleasure-ground, or flower-garden, 

 would not be a becoming drapery for the tomb. People are very apt to select such 

 as they happen to be acquainted with ; and therefore we find Elms, Maples, 



orse Chestnuts, and other like tree?, such as are commonly planted on streets and 



