APRIL 



Newspapers on cremation More about Suffolk Maund on flowers 

 that close Asparagus- growing on the seacoast Peacock 

 feathers for firescreens Dining-room tables Petroleum tubs 

 in gardens Neglect of natural history Cactuses again Old 

 mills Mr. Burbidge on sweet -smelling leaves Florist 

 Auriculas Seed - sowing Kitchen garden Poultry . 



April 1st. This book is the last bit of work of the 

 kind I shall [ever do, and I am anxious to state, as I 

 think of them, any views I may happen to have on 

 various matters. 



I am deeply interested in watching the gradual 

 development of public opinion on cremation. I casually 

 alluded to this before, in reference to Mr. Robinson's 

 well-known book on the subject. So far as I can judge 

 from the newspapers, cremation is making a little way 

 among the rich and well-known, who alone seem in this 

 country to have the power of influencing the majority. 

 But if what I read is true, a terrible fashion is growing 

 around this excellent, clean, practical way of being dealt 

 with after death, and that is that instead of one funeral 

 there are to be three one the cremation, another the 

 funeral service in London, a third (and worst of all) the 

 burying of the ashes. The newspapers gave an account 

 of a cremated peer who, by his own wish or his family's, 

 had the box with the collected ashes deposited in an 

 ordinary -sized coffin, in order that the tenantry might 

 have the honour of carrying the coffin in the usual way 

 to the vault. This kind of thing, I think, tends to 

 make the process ridiculous. And as only those are 



(274) 



