BOSTON AND VICINITY. 81 



mental culture which has taken place in our own vicinity 

 during this period. Then we had no such splendid 

 villas and grounds as Messrs. Hun ne well's, Payson's, 

 Sargent's, Gray's, Hayes's and others, which are sucli 

 an honor to our Commonwealth and country. 



We should also record the fact, in connection with 

 the , history of horticulture, that although we live in 

 a comparatively cold and uncongenial clime, and labor 

 under great disadvantages, yet the enterprise, energy, 

 and perseverance of our cultivators, has more than coun- 

 terbalanced all obstacles, and compels our reluctant soils 

 to yield rich rewards for our toil. Horticulture as an 

 art is carried to as high a state of perfection here as in 

 any other part of our country, and we delight to repeat 

 this sentiment, so happily expressed by our poet Holmes : 



"So on our rude and wintry soil 



We feed the kindling flame of art, 



And. steal the tropics' blushing spoil 



To bloom on Nature's icy heart." 



Another strong evidence of improved taste is the 

 establishment and adornment of our Cemeteries. 

 Mount Auburn at Cambridge, Forest Hills at Roxbury, 

 and Woodlawn at Chelsea, are happy illustrations of 

 refined taste and culture. The neglected and gloomy 

 resting-places of the dead, which once cast horror and 

 terror on the minds of children, and even those of 

 older years, are fast giving way to the shady retreats 

 and sylvan scenes of the garden and forest. Where 

 formerly only decaying grass, tangled weeds, and moss- 

 covered tablets were generally to be seen, may now be 

 witnessed beautiful sites, natural scenery, and embel- 

 lished lots, that awaken sensations which no language 

 can describe, where the meandering path leads 

 to the spot in which rest the remains of the loved 

 and lost, where the rustling pine mournfully sighs 



