578 Recollections of a Gardening Tour. 



clusively devoted to graves having no tombs, or to persons who, 

 or whose friends, preferred a tablet put up on the walls of the 

 church, as a writer in the Quarterly Review for September, 1842, 

 judiciously recommends. Figs. 57. and 58,, borrowed from our 

 Suburban Gardener^ will show what is meant without further 

 explanation. We are advocates for the American mode, of 

 allowing every man to bury on his own property, with or with- 

 out a tombstone, or other mark of remembrance, as he might 

 choose, but simply under such restrictions and regulations as 

 public health and decency might require. We are persuaded 

 that it will ultimately come to this, and that public grave-yards 

 will only be resorted to by those who have no garden or field 

 that they can call their own. Few will deny that the public 

 health would incur less risk of being injured by such a change, 

 and in many cases, we believe, the feeling of respect for the 

 memory of parents and relations, and the good consequences of 

 that feeling, would be kept more alive than is now the case 

 under the churchyard system. The clergy alone would be the 

 sufferers, and it would be but justice that the existing race should 

 have a compensation. 



Dryburgh Abbey; the Earl of Buchan. Great pains were 

 taken with this place by a former earl, who planted an extensive 

 orchard, many cedars of Lebanon, and other ornamental trees, 

 and erected some ornamental buildings. We regret to say that 

 the whole place appeared to us in a state of neglect, and no part 

 more so than the grounds about the ruins. The sheep were 

 injuring the fruit trees and the cedars, by rubbing against their 

 stems, and the cattle breaking down the fences. The ruins are 

 extensive, but they are too much encumbered with trees and 

 shrubs, and, what is worse, with dug ground and flowers. Dug 

 ground about an old building, when carried to any extent, 

 always gives the idea of yesterday, and checks the feeling of 

 veneration which would otherwise predominate. The floors of 

 the interior of these ruins are heaped up with rubbish, and 

 overgrown with rank plants, and there is a damp vault set 

 round with busts of stucco, such as are sold in the streets, which 

 are shown by the guide, who evidently thinks them of far more 

 importance, and more deserving of attention, than the ruins them- 

 selves. The poor woman who shows these busts and gives them 

 names knows no better ; but what are we to think of the pro- 

 prietor of the place, who permits such things? By nature, Dry- 

 burgh Abbey has immense advantages, and these ruins are 

 objects of intense interest, which might be turned to good 

 account in rendering the place worthy of respect and admi- 

 ration, instead of creating, as it now does, feelings of an oppo- 

 site nature. 



Thirlstane Castle; the Earl of Lauder. After passing a 



