CHAP. XII.] HIS BURIAL AT ST. MARY'S, BEDDINGTON. 141 



filled with friends who had thither repaired to show their 

 sympathy with him on the occasion of his much-loved daughter's 

 marriage, that church which received his dear grandson as a 

 member of the. Church of England, and to which his own eyes 

 had so often turned with pleasure during the happy hours spent 

 in his garden. It is thus he speaks of it in his book : " The 

 church with its churchyard is one of the most picturesque near 

 London. It has been supplied with a melodious peal of bolls, 

 which record the sorrow and declare the joy of the inhabitants. 

 The tower of the church is seen through a vista of trees from 

 my garden, and then reflected from the transparent waters of the 

 lake, as though Nature ordained that so good an object should 

 be twice seen." 



The service was choral, and the lessons were most impres- 

 sively read by the much esteemed rector, the Reverend A. H. 

 Bridges ; and after the beautiful and touching hyrnri which 

 commences 



' Christ will gather in His own 



To tlie place where He is gone, 



Where their heart and treasure lie, 



Where our life is hid on high " * 



the sad procession wended its way to the little cemetery in 

 Boddington Park; and there, after the most solemn yet most 

 exquisite singing by the choir, of Dr. Dyce's hymn 



" Days and moments quickly flying 

 Blend the living with the dead ; 

 Soon will you and I bo lying 

 Each within his narrow bed " f 



there, amidst the sobs of the multitude of high and low estate, we 

 laid in his grave all that was mortal of Alfred Srnee. In his life- 

 time flowers he loved : we covered him with flowers in his grave, 

 and left him, the investigator of Nature, he whoso thoughts 

 were ever contemplating the Author of all things, in that 

 little cemetery seen from his garden, amidst the scenes which he 

 in his lifetime had so much loved. 



The numbers of persons who came, many from long distances, 

 to pay their last respects to Alfred Srnee, and the sobs of the 

 multitude, showed how much he was beloved, and how much his 



* From a German chorale. See 'Hymns Ancient, and Modem/ No. 400. 

 f * HymriH Ancient and Modern,' No. 2J. 



