LAYING OUT OF GROUNDS 



scape design and not by the memories or the 

 sentiment of the place — this is awkward. Hence, 

 it seems to me that a sheltered hill-side, a glen, 

 a protected valley, are far more appropriate 

 than a plain, scalding in the sun, or heights 

 which invite by a great range of exterior 

 views. Tastes will differ widely in this re- 

 gard; but it certainly does appear as if the 

 whirl of lively and clattering equipages day 

 after day along the edges of the graves of 

 quiet men would make a terribly perturbed 

 sleep for them; and if real grief ever stalk 

 thither to pay a last melancholy tribute, it must 

 needs make a sad public exhibition of itself, or 

 practise a galling reticence. 



In dealing with the question of a public 

 cemetery, adequate to the needs of a growing 

 population — as in the question of a public 

 park, — our larger towns show a provoking de- 

 lay, blinding themselves year after year to the 

 necessities of the case, and deferring positive 

 action, until the needed investment assumes 

 gigantic proportions. There are scores of 

 towns whose cemeteries are absolutely brim- 

 ming with the dead, who yet take no decisive 

 measures for an increase of the privilege we 

 all sigh for at last— of a quiet sleep under 

 trees, 



221 



