214 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



July 9, 1831.. 



SELECTIONS. 



MASS. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

 At a meeting of this Society, held June 

 18th, the following report was made by the 

 Committee on a garden of Experiment and 

 Rural Cemetery. 



Concluded from page 206. 



The establishment of a Cemetery in 

 connexion with the Gardfn of Experi- 

 ment, cannot fail of meeting public appro- 

 bation. Such rural burial places were com- 

 mon, among the ancients, who allowed no 

 irave yards within their cities. The Pot- 

 ter's Field without the walls of Jerusalem, 

 and in the Twelve Tables, it was prescribed 

 'that the dead should neither be buried or 

 burned in the city' of Rome. Evelyn 

 states, ' that the custom of burying in chur- 

 ches and near about them, especially in 

 great cities, is a novel presumption, inde- 

 cent, sordid and very prejudicial to health ; 

 it was not done among the Christians in the 

 primitive ages;' was forbidden hy the Em- j 

 perors, Gratian, Valentian and Thendosius, 

 and never sanctioned until the time of Greg- 

 ory the Great. The Eastern Christians do 

 not now inter the dead within the churches. 

 During the age of the patriarchs groves were 

 selected as places of sepulchre. When Sa- 

 rah died, Abraham purchased ' the fields of 

 Ephron, in Machpelah, with all the trees 

 that were therein and the borders rounda- 

 bout, as a burying place,' and there he buri- 

 ed his wife; 'and there they buried Abra- 

 ham, Isaac, Rebekah and Leah;' and when 

 Jacob had blessed his sons, 'he said unto 

 them, I am to be gathered unto my people: 

 bury me with my fathers in the cave that is 

 in the field of Ephron.' Deborah ' was bu- 

 ried beneath Beth-el under an oak,' and the 

 valiant men of Jabesh-gilead removed the 

 bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall 

 of Bethshon and 'buried them under a tree.' 

 Moses was buried in 'a valley in the land of 

 Moab;' Joseph in 'a parcel of ground in 

 Shechem :' Eleazer, the son of Aaron 'in a 

 hill that pertained to Phinehas,' and Man- 

 assah with Annon ' in the garden of Uz- 

 za.' 



The planting of rose-trees upon graves is 

 an ancient custom : Anacreon says that 'it 

 protects the dead ;' and Propertius indi- 

 cates the usage of burying among roses. 



Plato sanctioned the planting of trees over 

 sepulchres, and the tomb of Ariadne was in 

 the Arethttsian Grove of Crete. The Cat- 

 acombs of Thebes were excavated in the 

 gorges of the forest clad hills, on the oppo- 

 site bank of the Nile, and those of Memphis 

 were beyond the lake Acherusia, from 

 whence the Grecian mycologists derived 

 their fabulous accounts of the Elysian fields. 

 There it was supposed the souls of the vir- 

 tuous and illustrious retired after death, and 

 roamed through bowers, forever green, and 

 over meadows spangled with flowers, and 

 refreshed by perennial streams. In the 

 mountains near Jerusalem were located the 

 tombs of the opulent Israelites; and in a 

 Garden, near the base of Calvary had Jo- 

 seph, the Aramathean, prepared that mem- 

 orable sepulchre in u hich was laid the cru- 

 cified Mesiah. The Greeks ami Romans 

 often selected the secluded recesses of wood- 

 ed heights and vales, as favorite places ol 

 interment, or the borders of the great public 

 highways, where elegant monuments were 

 erected, and surrounded with Cypress and 

 .other ever verdant trees. Many <>t the rich- 



ly sculptured sarcophagi and magnificent 

 tombs, reared by the once polished nations 

 of Asia Minor are still to be seen in the vi- 

 cinity of the numerous ruined cities, on the 

 deserted coast of Karamania. 



The Athenians allow no burials within 

 the city. The il ustrious men, who had ei- 

 ther died in the service of their country, or 

 were thought deserving of the most distin- 

 guished honors, were buried in the Cerami- 

 cus, — an extensive public ceinetry on the 

 road to Thria. Tombs and statutes were 

 erected to their memory, on which were re- 

 counted their praises and exploits ; and to 

 lender them familiar to all, to animate eve- 

 ry citizen to a love of virtue and of glory, 

 and to excite in youthful minds, an ardent 

 desire of imitating those celebrated worthies, 

 the spacious grounds were embellished with 

 trees and made a public promenade. With- 

 in the Ceramicus was the Academy where 

 Plato and the great men who followed him 

 met their disciples and held assemblies for 

 philosophical conference and instruction. — 

 Connected with the Academy was a Gym- 

 nasium and a garden, which was adorned 

 with delightful covered walks, and refresh- 

 ed by the waters of the Cephisus, which 

 flowed, under the shade of the plain and va- 

 rious other trees, through its western bor- 

 ders. At the entrance and within the area 

 of the garden were temples, altars and stat- 

 utes of the gods. 



The bodies of the Athenians, who had 

 fallen in battle, were collected by their 

 countrymen, and after they were consumed 

 on the funeral pile, their bones were carried 

 to Athens ; there they were exposed, in cy- 

 press coffins, under a large tent, for three 

 days, that the relations might perform those 

 libations, which affection and religion en- 

 joined ; then they were placed on as many 

 j cars, as there were tribes, and the process- 

 ion proceeded slowly through the city, to 

 the Ceramicus, where funeral games were 

 exhibited, and an orator publicly appoin- 

 ted for the occasion, pronounced an eulogi- 

 nm. 



Even the Turks, who are so opposed to 

 the cultivation of the fine alts, embellish 

 their graveyards with evergreens. With 

 them it is a religious duty, to plant trees a 

 round the graves of their kindred, and the 

 burying ground of Scutari, is one of the 

 most interesting objects in the environs of 

 Constantinople. Situated in the rear of the 

 town and extending along the declivity of 

 the Asiatic shore, towards the sea of Marmo- 

 ra, it present a vast forest of majestic trees ; 

 and thither the inhabitants of the imperial 

 city generally resort, during the sultry 

 months of summer, to enjoy the cool breez- 

 es, of the Euxine, or are wafted over the 

 waves of the Propontis. Throughout Italy, 

 France and England, there are many ceme- 

 teries which ate ornamented with forest trees 

 and flowering shrubs. Pere La Chaise, in 

 the environs of Paiis, has been admired, and 

 celebrated, by every traveller, who has visit- 

 ed that beautiful garden of the dead. 



In Liverpool a similar burying ground 

 was completed three years since, and a meet- 

 ing has recently been held in London for 

 forming one, in the vicinity of that city, of 

 a size, and on a scale of magnificence, 

 ! which shall quadrate with the wealth and 

 vast extent of the mighty capital of a gi eat 

 nation. Within the central arena arc to be 

 exact models of the superb temples, trium- 

 phal arches, columns and public monuments 



of Greece and Rome, as receptacles, or 

 memorials of the departed worthies of the 

 empire. 



The establishment of rural cemeteries sim 

 ilar to that of Pere La Chaise, has often 

 been the subject of conversation in this 

 country, and frequently adverted to by the 

 writers in our scientific and literary publica- 

 tions. But few years since, a meeting 

 was held in Boston, by many of its most 

 respectable citizens, for the purpose of ma- 

 turing a plan and forming such an establish- 

 ment, in the environs of the city. No oik 

 can be indifferent to a subject of such deep 

 and universal interest. In whatever point 

 of view it is considered, who is there, that 

 does not perceive numerous and powerful 

 inducements, for aiding in its accomplish 

 ment ? How consoling and pleading is the 

 thought that our memories shall be cherish- 

 ed after death : that the spot, where our ash 

 es repose, shall be often visited, by dear am 

 constant friends; that they will there linger, to 

 call up the soothing, yet melancholy remin- 

 iscences of by gone times ; that the sod 

 which covers us, will be kept ever verdant; 

 that a magnificent forest will be reared to 

 overshadow our graves, by those truly kind 

 hands, which performed the last sad offic< 

 of affection; that flowers will fringe the path- 

 ways, leading to our lowly resting place, 

 and their fragrance, mingled with the holi- 

 est aspirations ascend towards the throne of 

 the Eternal. 



To those who mourn, what a consolation 

 to visit the bower-sequestered monument of 

 a much loved friend, under circumstances 

 and with associations, so favorably calcula 

 ted to revive agreeable recollections of the 

 past ; and when these revolting ideas are 

 excluded, which obtrude upon the mind, 

 while standing in the usual dreary, desolate 

 and ruinous repositories of the dead. 



In a Rural Cemetry the names and vir- 

 tues of the departed would live in perpetual 

 freshness, and their souls seem to commune 

 with those who come to do honor to their 

 manes. Thus would all like to repose in 

 death ; and who would not deem it a bless- 

 ing, to be able to confer that favor on a pa- 

 rent, child, wife, husband, or friend? — 

 How can this object be so successfully ac 

 complished as in connexion with an Experi- 

 mental Garden? That part of the lam! 

 which has been recommended for a Ceme- 

 tery, may be cireuinvallated by a spacious 

 avenue, bordered by trees, shrubbery and 

 perennial flowers; rather as a line of de- 

 marcation, than of disconnexion ; for the 

 ornamental grounds of the Garden should 

 be apparently blended with those of the 

 Cemetery, and the walks of each so inter- 

 communicate, as to alYord an uninterrupted 

 range over both, as one common domain. 



Among the hills, glades and dales, which 

 are now covered with evergreen, and deci- 

 duous trees and shrubs, may be selected 

 sites for isolated graves, and tombs, and 

 these being surmounted with columns, ohe 

 lisks, and other appropriate monuments of 

 granite and marble, may be rendered inter- 

 esting specimens of art; they will also vary 

 and embellish the scenery, embraced within 

 the scope of the numerous sinuous avenues, 

 which may be felicitously opened, in all di- 

 rections, and to a vast extent from the di- 

 versified and picturesque features, which 

 the topograph y of the tract of land present! 

 Besides the great public advantages, 

 which will result, from the Horticultural 



