146 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



a reasonable public expense would have transformed it into the 

 grandest promenade in the world. It is melancholy to see 

 such opportunities thrown away, but their importance will 

 appear, sooner or later. 



In one respect, fortunately, we can justly claim a vast supe- 

 riority over most European cities, and that is, in our rural 

 cemeteries. This point of difference was especially impressed 

 upon my mind, from the fact that my travelling companion 

 through Ireland, England, Belgium and Germany, as far as 

 Hamburg, was Mr. A. Strauch, the Superintendent of Spring 

 Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, the finest, probably, all things 

 considered, to be found in the United States. With him, I 

 visited the cemeteries of every city on our route, and as I had 

 previously seen most of the well-known cemeteries of our Amer- 

 ican cities, the comparison was easy. But I defer, on this 

 point, to Mr. Strauch, whose intimate knowledge of the subject 

 constantly aided me. He says, in a recent communication : — 



" Neither London, Paris, nor Berlin, with their splendid public parks 

 and gardens of thousands of acres, has at this time a rural cemetery that 

 could compare with any of the principal cemeteries in the United States 

 in extent and keeping. 



"As regards monumental decoration, it must be admitted that the burial- 

 places of London and Paris possess great works of art, but their number is 

 not so large as might be expected, and the great bulk of the monuments 

 erected to the departed would admit of considerable improvement. The 

 great mistake lot-holders make there, as well as here, consists in attempt- 

 ing to do too much, whereby they destroy the general good appearance 

 of those beautiful locations usually selected for the burial of the dead. 

 We should always remember that simplicity is the foundation of true 

 beauty, and is applicable to rural burial places more than to any other 

 spot." 



When in Paris, in the month of August, I visited Pdre la 

 Chaise, the great receptacle of all classes of citizens. It was a 

 visit full of melancholy interest, not only on account of the 

 many tombs of those whose names are familiar in history and 

 poetry, but more on account of the manner of burial of the 

 poor. Several interments of these unfortunates took place 

 while I was there, and I saw more than one heart-rending scene 

 which I can never forget. 



