EUEAIi CEMETERIES. 



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1111 NE of the most beautiful traits in the character of a civilized and 

 christian people is that respectful and affectionate remembrance of 

 the dead which manifests itself in setting apart quiet grounds for 

 the burial place, and in beautifying them with appropriate works 

 of art and with such trees and shrubs as are most expressive of the solemn purposes 

 to which, they are dedicated. Nothing that we can point to in this country reflects so 

 much credit upon the public taste and liberality as our rural cemeteries. Whatever 

 the stranger may say of our indiiierence on other matters, it certainly can not be said 

 that we are inditierent as to the resting places of the dead. The lamented Downing 

 wrote, three years ago, that — 



" 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 liigh grass, and 

 a chance sprinkling of weeds and thistles, was to be found in the Union. If there were one 

 or two exceptions, like the burial ground at Xew 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 

 eighty acres of laud, and admirably clothed by groups and masses of native forest trees. It 

 was tastefully laid out, monuments were buiJt, and the whole highly embellished. aSTo 

 sooner was attention generally roused to the charms of this first American cemetery, than 

 the idea took the public mind by storm. Travelers made pilgi'images to the Athens of 

 Kew England, solely to see the realization of their long cherislied dream of a resting-place 

 for the dead, at once sacred from profanation, dear to the memory-, and cai)tivating to the 

 imagination. 



" 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, and Boston, have, each of them, 

 besides their great cemeteries, — Greeenwood, Laurel Hill, and Mount Auburn, — many 

 others of less note; but any of which Avould have astonished and delighted their inhabit- 

 ants twenty years ago. Philadelphia 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 aU.*" 



Since this was written, there has been no abatement whatever of the public taste 

 for rural cemeteries ; on the contrary, it has grown stronger, and spread wider, until 

 not only the large cities, but hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of country villages have 



We made a rough calculation from some data obtained at Philadelphia lately, by which we find that, inch 

 of the lots, more than a million and a hall of dollars have been expended in the purchase and decoration ^ 

 cemeteries in that neighborhood alone." 



Ji"v 1, 1858. 



No. VII. 



