CHAPTER XXXVII 

 PUBLIC CEMETERIES AND PUBLIC GARDENS * 



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 thistles, 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 charm- 

 ing 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 highly embellished. No sooner 

 was attention generally roused to the charms of this first 

 American cemetery, than the idea took the public mind by 

 storm. Travellers made pilgrimages to the Athens of New 

 England, solely to see the realization of their long cherished 

 dream of a resting place for the dead, at once sacred from 

 profanation, dear to the memory, and captivating 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, 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 



* Original date of July, 1849. 

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