156 



Principles of Landscape- Gardening 



within 6 ft. of the surface, the grave should be finally closed. Graves of this 

 kind are not necessarily covered with a ledger-stone ; they may be finished with 

 a raised mound of earth, like a common earth grave, or the side and end walls 

 may be finished with kerb-stones a foot above the surface, and the interior 

 left level or planted with flowers. After the last interment, a cypress or 

 other tree, or a strong-growing herbaceous plant, might be planted in the centre. 

 The walls of graves of this sort should be built with numerous openings, as 

 in fig. 31., to permit the lateral diffusion of the products of decomposition, 

 and of the natural moisture of the soil. 



Earth graves are of two kinds : private graves, in which only one body is 

 deposited, with or without a monument ; and coinmon graves, in which several 

 bodies are deposited, of poor persons, or paupers, for whom no monument is 

 ever put up, except a mound covered with turf, but which ought always to 

 be marked with a stone number for reference, and to prevent all risk of their 

 being opened again at any future period. 



Sepulchral monuments, whether mausoleums (which is a term only applied to 

 the most sumptuous description of tombs), square tombs, ledger -stones with 

 inscriptions, sarcophagi, pedestals, vases, urns, columns, obelisks, pillars, crosses, 

 &c., to have the appearance of security and permanence, ought to exhibit two 

 features ; they ought to be perfectly erect or perpendicular, and they ought to 

 rise from an architectural base. These features it is easy to exhibit when the 

 monument is newly put up, but to continue them, even for a year, it is neces- 

 sary to have a foundation of masonry under ground, as well as a basement 

 above it; and, in order that this foundation may be permanently secure, it must 



be as deep as the adjoining grave or graves. In the case of vaults and brick 



graves, this secure foundation is furnished by the 



structure itself; but in the case of common earth 



graves a foundation requires to be built up, and the 



problem is how to effect this in a jnanner at once se- 

 cure and economical. In most cemeteries and church- 

 yards, and even in Pere la Chaise and Kensal 



Green, the greater part of the monuments have no 



other foundation than the moved soil, and only 



comparatively few are placed on the firm soil. The 



consequence of this is, that, in two or three years after 



the monuments are put up, they are found leaning to 



one side ; or, if they are composed of several pieces, '^ 



they are seen with the joints rent, and conveying 



ideas the very reverse of permanence. Our remedy 



for the evil is, two brick or stone piers at the head 



of each grave, carried up from the bottom, and 



from 9 in. to 2 ft. square, according to the depth. The 



two piers should be brought up at the same time, 



and tied together by building in pieces of iron hoop ; 



and, when within a short distance of the sur- "'""""' ' 



face, they should be joined by a semicircular arch, ^l%!liJunrcrfroTJ%",^ 



/f* 



was filled in to the surface with soil. It was, at the time we saw it, being opened 

 to the depth of between 18 ft. and 19 ft., and the smell proceeding from the 

 earth brought up was to us intolerable. This, and numerous other cases 

 which we have witnessed, or which have come to our knowledge altogether 

 independently of the Parliamentary Report on the Health of Towns, for 1842, 

 or Mr. Walker's Gatherings from Graveyards, have strongly impressed us with 

 the necessity of a law to limit the proximity of one coffin to another in graves 

 in which more than one interment is made , unless, as before observed, the 

 coffins are put in on the same day. (See p. 96.) 



