IN carlyle's country 57 



plat at last; here were the Carlyles I was looking 

 for, within a space probably of eight by sixteen 

 feet, surrounded by a high iron fence. The latest 

 made grave was higher and fuller than the rest, but 

 it had no stone or mark of any kind to distinguish 

 it. Since my visit, I believe, a stone or monument 

 of some kind has been put up. A few daisies and 

 the pretty blue-eyed speedwell were growing amid 

 the grass upon it. The great man lies with his 

 head toward the south or southwest, with his 

 mother, sister, and father to the right of him, and' 

 his brother John to the left. I was glad to learn 

 that the high iron fence was not his own suggestion. 

 His father had put it around the family plat in his 

 lifetime. Carlyle would have liked to have it cut 

 down about half way. The whole look of this 

 cemetery, except in the extraordinary size of the 

 headstones, was quite American, it being back of 

 the church, and separated from it, a kind of mor- 

 tuary garden, instead of surrounding it and running 

 under it, as is the case with the older churches. I 

 noted here, as I did elsewhere, that the custom 

 prevails of putting the trade or occupation of the 

 deceased upon his stone: So-and-So, mason, or 

 tailor, or carpenter, or farmer, etc. 



A young man and his wife were working in a 

 nursery of young trees, a few paces from the graves, 

 and I conversed with them through a thin place in 

 the hedge. They said they had seen Carlyle many 

 times, and seemed to hold him in proper esteem 

 and reverence. The young man had seen him come 



