Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. 617 



the name, natural order, and other particulars attached to each. 

 This would be all well, if burying-grounds were intended to be 

 places for the study of botany or of floriculture merely, or as 

 places of amusement or recreation ; but surely this ought not to 

 be the case. As a contrast to the above, how much lovelier is 

 the simple country churchyard, with its church and spire, and 

 neat gravestones, and its broad gravel walk leading up to the 

 church-door, with a row of lime trees on each side, and here and 

 there upon the graves a modest flower peering out, planted by 

 the hands of the relatives of the departed ! The surrounding 

 wall is low, and no iron railing is seen on its top to prevent the 

 solitary wanderer from climbing over and sauntering awhile 

 among the remnants of the dead. On the north side, the yew 

 and the cedar and the spruce fir shelter the place from the blasts 

 of winter, and here and there without the wall stands a gigantic 

 elm, whose branches must be taught, however, not to overhang 

 the graves, so as to keep the ground in a state of moisture. 

 Every gravestone is inscribed with a lesson to the spectator. 

 One tells him that he too must die ; and on another he is re- 

 minded that death is only the door to everlasting life. 



How simple, and yet how grand, are the memorials of the 

 places where our ancestors of old lie entombed ! A huge stone, 

 up in yon wild glen, was all that was left to mark the grave of 

 Ossian, that prince of Highland bards, that grey-haired de- 

 scendant of the mist. It is known to this day as Clach-Oisean, 

 or Ossian's stone. And on yon muir, to the westward of Loudon's 

 Howe, stands a cairn which is computed to contain one hundred 

 and forty cart-loads of stones, all thrown together, one by one, 

 in passing, by those who wished to show their respect for the 

 memory of their departed clansman. And on many a hill-side 

 in Scotland, looking out among tufts of heather, and grey with 

 moss, are to be seen the memorials of those who, in later times, 

 sealed with their blood their testimony in the cause of truth and 

 righteousness. Such are the burying-places among which I love 

 to wander ! 



Perthshire, Sept. 20, 1842. 



Art. V. Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. In a 

 Series of Letters to the Conductor. By James Barnes, Gardener 

 to the Right Honourable Lady Rolle. 



(Continued from p. 567.) 



Letter III. The Heath-house. Potting in rough Soil and Training. Use of 

 Fragments of Freestone and Pebbles. List of Heaths. 



According to your particular wish, I shall now give you a 

 description of the Heath-house here, which is span-roofed, 47 ft. 



