146 Principles of Landscape- Gardening 



A much better system, in our opinion, is to lay out the ground in what may 

 be called double beds with green paths between, in the manner to be described 

 in a future paragraph, which has an orderly appearance, admits of a permanent 

 system of surface drainage, requires no mapping, and enables the friends of 

 the deceased to recognise the grave they wish to see without troubling the 

 sexton or any one else. This laying out of the ground in double beds need not 

 be so executed as to have a formal appearance, though it should be sufficiently 

 distinct to give what, in the language of art, is called the expression of purr 

 pose, and thus give the lawn of a cemetery a different character from that of 

 the lawn of a pleasure-ground. The double beds may be slightly raised in 

 the middle, so as to slope to the grass paths, and the surface of these paths, 

 if only 3 in. below that of the beds, will be a sufficient distinction, when the 

 whole is near the eye ; while, at a short distance, the difference between the 

 beds and the paths will scarcely be perceptible. We mention these things to 

 anticipate objections on account of the supposed formality of this plan. Under 

 every green path there may be a tile drain, which will render it as dry as a 

 gravel walk. The path will answer if only 3 ft. wide, because, in carrying a 

 coffin along it shoulder high, that space is sufficient ; but 4 ft. is preferable, as 

 admitting of carrying a coffin by handspokes. Where the hand-bier, to be 

 hereafter described, is used, a 2-feet path would be wide enough. 



In making arrangements for the situations of graves, regard must be had to 

 the wealth and taste of the persons who will probably use the cemetery, and 

 the proportion of situations for sumptuous tombs and monuments adjusted 

 accordingly. At the same time, we should mark no part of the ground as 

 exclusively devoted to any class of society, of graves, or of monuments* ; nor 

 should there be any part in which a monument might not be erected. In 

 general, we would form a broad, border, say from 12 ft. to 20 ft. wide, along 

 the main I'oads ; a border immediately within the boundary fence, of the same 

 width as the height of the latter; a border from 8ft. to 12ft. wide on each 

 side of the gravel walks ; and the interior of the compartments we would lay 

 out in beds or zones, straight or curved, with green alleys of 3 or 4 feet between. 

 These beds ought to be of such a width as to contain two rows of graves, 

 with the head-stones of each row placed back to back in the middle of the bed, 

 so as to face the alleys. The necessary width for this purpose is 18 ft. ; which 

 will allow 7 ft. for the length of each grave ; 1 ft. at the head of each grave, 

 on which to erect a head-stone, or other monument not exceeding 1 ft. in 

 thickness nor the width of the grave; and 1 ft. at the end next the walk, for a 

 foot-stone or number. This head-stone or monument, it may be observed, 

 should in no case be built on the soil, but on two brick piers brought up from 

 the bottom of the soil to the surface of the ground, in the manner to be here- 

 after described. 



The direction of the roads, ivalks, and green paths, is partly a matter of 

 necessity and partly of design and taste. Where the surface of the ground is 



* By the cemetery bill brought into parliament in 1842, "both in the 

 consecrated and unconsecrated ground, portions are to be set apart for the 

 poor, a hard-hearted and unchristian proposal, worthy only of barbarous 

 times. Can it be necessary or usefid, that now, for the first time, a ' distinctive 

 mark ' should be made, after death, between i-ich and poor, by the express 

 authority of an act of parliament ? When even the propriety of distinctions 

 in churches is becoming the subject of controversy, surely the good sense 

 and good feeling of society will never suffer an unfeeling innovation in this 

 respect to be formally legahsed in our churchyards. He who has had familiar 

 intercourse with the poor must have observed their sensitiveness with regard 

 to their treatment after death, a subject often of more painful interest than 

 the good or bad in store for them while living. Before the committee, the 

 Bishop of London, much to his honour, expressed the most kindly sympathy 

 with the feelings and prejudices of the poor with regard to interment : will he 

 not set his face against the proposed regulation ?" (Claims of the Clergy, \). 30.) 



