214 Domestic Notices : — England. 



desire to possess of his land. It would be exceedingly interesting to see 

 such a model of a parish, on such a scale as to show the form of every 

 house, and the plan of every garden. The model of a county would be 

 highly interesting ; and, still more so, that of the whole of our island : but 

 the most interesting model of all would be that of the whole of our earth, 

 about the same scale as the model of Germany in this exhibition ; or in 

 the form of two semiglobes, as suggested in a former volume, each semi- 

 globe containing several acres, and planted in correct imitation of the actual 

 distribution of the vegetable kingdom ; the whole of the tropics being of 

 course under glass, and all the tropical lakes and rivers of water heated by 

 steam-pipes, from the fires which would produce the imitations of Vesuvius, 

 iEtna, &c. To preserve the necessary curvature in the surface of the imi- 

 tations of the ocean, it would be necessary to compose all the extensive 

 surfaces of water of a great number of separate vessels placed close to- 

 gether; or perhaps it would be better to have the imitation on a flat sur- 

 face, by which the water, being on a level, would be perfectly natural. The 

 most suitable part of the British Islands for such a garden would be the 

 south of Ireland, because less glass would be required there than in England, 

 and because 200 acres, which would be required to do justice to such a 

 garden, might better be spared there than in the coal district of the south 

 of England. 



A Metropolitan Sepulchre. — One of the most extraordinary, and, if it 

 were possible to say it without giving offence, we should add, absurd pro- 

 jects we ever heard of, is that for a metropolitan sepulchre, of which a 

 section is exhibited in the National Repository, and a circular published, 

 addressed to the Lord Mayor. The design is a pyramid, with a base, to 

 occupy an area as large as Russell Square, and to be raised nearly four 

 times the height of St. Paul's. It is to be laid out in 152 stages, which are 

 to contain about 900,000 catacombs for ten millions of coffins, " which are 

 to be closed up and sealed for ever when interment takes place, with stone 

 tablets on the face, explanatory of name, age, place, &c." The prime cost 

 will be about seven millions, and the profit upwards of sixteen millions ster- 

 ling. After answering the principal objections that he supposes will be made 

 to it, the projector says, in answer to the^question, " From whence are the 

 tenants to come?" " Not many centuries will pass away before it will not 

 only be completely filled, but that another one will be required." 



No public improvement is more wanted than the removal, in Britain, of 

 burial places from the cities to the country. We would turn all the church- 

 yards in London into flower-markets, and all those in the country towns into 

 public gardens. For London we would establish two or three burial-grounds, 

 of some hundreds of acres each, a few miles in the country, on the poorest 

 soil, and planted as an arboretum, according to the natural system. But even 

 this we do not think adequate to the wants of an increasing population. 

 We would pass a law, rendering it legal, under certain regulations, for every 

 man who had land, either in perpetuity or for a certain number of years, to 

 be buried in his own grounds in any manner he chose. We would allow 

 every cottager to make use of his own garden, and every farmer of his own 

 farm, if they chose to do so; always, of course, smoothing the way for such 

 an innovation by taking care of existing interests in the rites of burial. The 

 idea of closing up dead bodies in sepulchres is to us disgusting, and crowded 

 churchyards, which, have been used for centuries, little less. After death, 

 the sooner we are resolved into our primitive elements the better. It is 

 surely a purer and more'noble idea, to contemplate the union of our bodies 

 to the whole of nature, than their separated existence in a musty wooden 

 box, or in a mass of putrid mould. 



Dammara orientalis Lamb., the A'gathis loranthifolia of Salisb. — I have 

 succeeded in striking cuttings of this plant, by keeping them in a gentle 



