xiv DOMESTIC SCENEKY OF NEW ENGLAND. 



and the conversion of independent farm laborers into menials. 

 Therefore do we with the more satisfaction recur to these ves- 

 tiges of New England simplicity, where the farmer is still a 

 yeoman, and look with delight upon the single workshops in 

 many parts of our land, still scattered among the neat and 

 humble cottages, a smithy in the heart of a little settlement, 

 a saw-mill turned by a brook, and other buildings devoted to 

 independent labor. 



You will seldom pass a country village without seeing 

 a graveyard in its vicinity ; but the old grounds in which 

 slate has not been displaced by white marble are the only 

 picturesque objects of this kind. Our ancestors selected 

 as their burial-place a quiet spot not far from the village, 

 and did not plant it with trees because it was surrounded 

 by them. Their intention was to preserve the relics of the 

 dead by returning them to the dust, and to commemorate 

 their life by a simple record of their name and age. The cus- 

 tom of making the graveyard a pleasure-ground is of modern 

 origin. At the present time these old enclosures are shaded 

 by a few trees that came up there without planting. The 

 most common are the locust, the wild cherry, the velvet 

 sumach, and the Lombardy poplar ; and we have learned by 

 habit to associate their' rugged and homely appearance with 

 the venerable objects that accompany them. 



You can hardly conceive how much of the beauty of these 

 ancient resting-places of the dead is due to the slate that 

 forms the gravestones. Being of a dark color it harmonizes 

 with nature ; it is sober, but not sombre, and, unlike marble, 

 it is often incrusted with lichens, and has no offensive glare. 

 These are our only "rural cemeteries." Modern burying- 

 grounds are but conservatories of sculpture and other works 

 of decorative art. The use of white marble, be it ever so plain 

 and simple, is incompatible with any idea of the picturesque. 

 But when it is carved and embellished in the highest style of 

 ornate art, we look upon the monuments as expressions of the 

 vanity of the living under an ostentatious display of reverence 

 for the dead. 



