142 Principles of Landscape- Gardening 



much greater danger to the health of the living from burials in 

 old burying-grounds than interments in new ones. 



II. The Laying out, Building, and Planting of Cemeteries. 



Having shown the uses of cemeteries, we shall next consider the mode in 

 which the ground should be laid out or arranged, with reference to these uses. 



The situation of cemeteries, as they are at present used, that is, interring 

 several bodies in one grave, and placing coffins in vaults, ought always to be 

 at a distance from human dwellings ; but if only one coffin were to be placed 

 in each grave, and that grave never again opened, but the cemetery when 

 filled used as a public garden, its situation might be regulated solely by con- 

 venience ; and, in general, the nearer the town, the more desirable it would 

 be, both as a burial-ground and a promenade. Cemeteries, as at present 

 used, ought to be in an elevated and airy situation, open to the north, but 

 with a south aspect, that the surface may be dried by the sun ; rather than 

 with a north aspect, where the surface would be moist during the winter months. 

 If the surface be even, it will be more convenient for interments than if it were 

 irregular, whether by broken ground, rocks, or undulations. It should be as 

 near the great mass of the population for which it is intended, as a due regard to 

 their health will permit, in order to lessen the expense of carriage, and shorten 

 the time of the performance of funerals and of visits by the living to the tombs 

 of their friends ; it ought to be conspicuous at a distance, because, from its 

 buildings and tombs, it will generally be an ornament to the surrounding 

 country, and an impressive memento of our mortality ; and the outer boundary 

 ou"ht to be regular and simple, in order that it may be short, and consequently 

 less expensive than if it were circuitous. 



The soil, for reasons which we have already noticed, ought to be dry to 

 the depth of 20 or 30 feet, or capable of being rendered so by underground 

 drains. It ought not to be generally rocky, at least where deep gi'aves are to 

 be dug. As in decomposition a considerable quantity of moisture (sanies) is 

 exuded, the greatest care ought to be taken not to form a cemetery over a stra- 

 tum of soil which contains the water used in the neighbourhood for drinking. 

 Not to mention numerous instances in London, as noticed in the Report on the 

 Health of Towns, there is a churchyard near Kirkaldy in Fifeshire with a per- 

 petual spring immediately without the boundary wall, the water of which, pass- 

 ing through a stratum under the graves, is said to be contaminated ; and the 

 burial-ground of St. Peter's Church, Brighton, cannot be used as such, on 

 account of the proximity of the chalky stratum which contains the water 

 that supplies the wells of the lower part of the town. 



In situations where, from the flatness of the country or the nature of the soil, 

 there is not an opportunity of draining to a great depth, care ought always 

 to be taken to carry off as much as possible of the surface water by shallow 

 underground drains placed under the roads, and under the gravel walks and 

 green paths which separate the lines of graves. No drains can be made under 

 those parts of the surface in which graves are to be dug, for obvious reasons. 

 Many details of this kind, which need not be entered into, will readily occur 

 to the practical man. 



The prejudices of the living, in every country, are in favour of a gravelly, 

 sandy, or chalky soil j and in such soils draining is not required. In strong 

 clayey soil, like that of most of the London cemeteries, decomposition does 

 not take place for a \ery long period, the fleshy part of the bodies being 

 changed into adipocere. 



The extent of a cemetery must, of course, depend on the population 

 for which it is intended ; the probable increase or decrease of that popu- 

 lation; and whether one, or more than one, interment is to be made in 

 the same grave. The data on which to form the necessary calculations are, 



