LAYING OUT OF GROUNDS. 201 



memories or the sentiment of the place this is awk- 

 ward. Hence, it seems to me that a sheltered hill- 

 side, a glen, a protected valley, are far more appro- 

 priate than a plain, scalding in the sun, or heights 

 which invite by a great range of exterior views. 

 Tastes will differ widely in this regard ; 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 per- 

 turbed 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 prac- 

 tise 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 delay, 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 brimming 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. 



Among the requisites for a country cemetery are to 

 be named, I think, first, a distance not exceeding forty 

 minutes drive from town ; next, a feasible soil, and one 

 9* 



