200 



proceeds : " The church, together with the church-yard, is, 

 on various accounts, an interesting object to the villagers of 

 every age and disposition ; to the old and serious, as a spot 

 consecrated to the purposes of religion, where the living 

 Christian performs his devotions, and where, after his death, 

 his body is deposited near those of his ancestors and de- 

 parted friends, and relations : to the young and thoughtless, 

 as a place where, on the day of rest from labour, they meet 

 each other in their holiday clothes ; and also (what forms a sin- 

 gular contrast with tombs and grave-stones), as the place which 

 at their wakes, is the chief scene of their gaiety and rural 

 sports." After speaking of the yew, which from the solem- 

 nity of its foliage, is most suited to church-yards, being as 

 much consecrated to the dead as the cypress among the an- 

 cients, he says that " there seems to be no reason, why in the 

 more southern parts of England, cypresses should not be 

 mixed with yews, or why cedars of Libanus, which are per- 

 fectly hardy, and of a much quicker growth than yews, 

 should not be introduced. In high romantic situations, par- 

 ticularly, where the church-yard is elevated above the gene- 

 ral level, a cedar, spreading his branches downwards from 

 that height, would have the most picturesque, and at the 

 same time, the most solemn effect." 



