applied to Public Cemeteries. 149 



plant only those evergreens which have naturally dark foliage and narrow 

 conical heads, or which admit of being pruned with little difficulty into such 

 forms ; because such forms not only interfere less with ventilation, sun- 

 shine, and the performance of funerals, but, more especially when of a 

 dark colour, are naturally, from their great height in proportion to their 

 breadth, more sublime than spreading forms ; as well as artificially so, 

 from their being classically and popularly associated with places of sepulture. 

 For the main avenue we should prefer Pinus taurica, P. Pallas2«K«, or P. ni- 

 gricans ; if the situation were] favourable, the evergreen cypress, or the 

 t/uniperus excelsa, found to be a very hardy conical tree ; and, if very unfa- 

 vourable, the red cedar, or the common spruce. The pines and spruce grow 

 rapidly, and admit of being cut into cones as narrow as may be desirable ; 

 but, to render this cutting unnecessary, the red cedar, and some of the rapid- 

 growing conical junipers, might be employed. Along most of the gravel walks, 

 and along the centre of the double beds, we would plant for the most part 

 only fastigiate shrubs, such as the Irish yew, Irish and Swedish juniper, Jn- 

 niperus recurva, and some other junipers, and the arbor vitse, box, common 

 yew, &c. We would not plant, as a part of the general plantation of a 

 cemetery or churchyard, weeping willows, weeping ashes, weeping elms, 

 or trees of that kind ; because we think that these trees, being of such 

 marked and peculiar forms, are best adapted for being used only occasionally, 

 for particular purposes ; and therefore we would leave individuals to select 

 such trees, or trees or shrubs of any other singular shapes that they thought 

 fit, and have them planted over their graves or tombs. Thus, while the 

 general plantations of the cemetery maintained a uniform grandeur and so- 

 lemnity of expression, the singularly shaped trees and shrubs employed by 

 individuals would confer variety of character. 



A cemetery planted in the manner described will have a distinctive character, 

 and one quite different from that of any of the cemeteries that we have seen, 

 either in London or elsewhere. These cemeteries, according to our ideas, 

 bear too great a resemblance to pleasure-grounds. That they are much 

 frequented and admired by the public is no proof that they are in appropriate 

 taste, but only that they are at present the best places of the kind to which 

 the public have access. When our public parks and gardens are extended and 

 improved as they ought to be ; when they are ornamented with fountains, statues, 

 immense blocks of different descriptions of rock (named), and with models of 

 celebrated buildings, as covered seats and places of temporary repose or 

 shelter; when they abound in singing and other birds and aquatic fowls, and 

 contain every variety of tree and shrub that will thrive, and many kinds of 

 herbaceous plants ; and when they are perambulated, during a certain number 

 of hours every summer's day, by a band of music, as in some of the public 

 gardens in Germany ; then will the necessity, as well as the propriety, of having 

 a distinctive character for cemeteries be understood and appreciated. 



The planting o^ Jlowers in cemeteries is very general, not only in the mar- 

 gin of masses and belts, and in beds as in pleasure-grounds, but on graves. 

 For our own particular taste, we would have no flowers at all, nor any por- 

 tion of ground within a cemetery that had the appearance of being dug or 

 otherwise moved for the purpose of cultivation. A state of quiet and repose 

 is an important ingredient in the passive sublime ; and moving the soil for the 

 purpose of culture, even over a grave, is destructive of repose. 



Nevertheless, as the custom of planting flowers on graves is common 

 throughout Europe, and of planting them in beds is frequent in the cemeteries 

 about London, arrangements for this purpose must be provided accordingly. 

 We would never plant flowers or flowering shrubs in the margins of masses 

 or belts, or in beds or patches that might be mistaken for those of a lawn or 

 a flower-garden ; but, to give them a distinctive character, we would plant them 

 in beds of the shape of graves or coffins, raised above or sunk beneath the 

 general siu'face, and only in situations and on spots where at some future 

 time a grave would be dug. For example, two graves are seldom dug close 



