220 Principles of Landscape- Gardening 



if there is any particular reason for graves being so formed, such as a wife 

 desiring to be buried by the side of her husband, &c., the weak side of the 

 grave can be supported by grave-boards. 



The most economical mode of using the ground in any cemetery would be 

 to begin at one end or side, mark out the graves, and use only every alternate 

 one ; then, when the ground was once gone over, to go over it a second time, 

 and occupy all the blank graves. As, however, it has long been customary 

 for persons purchasing graves to have the liberty of choice, the most economi- 

 cal mode cannot often be adopted. When the interments are to commence at 

 one end of the cemetery, and the whole of the ground is to be occupied as 

 they proceed, that end ought always to be the lowest ; because, when the inter- 

 ments have commenced at the highest point and been carried down the slope, 

 considerable inconvenience has been found from the fluid putrescent matter 

 following the inclination of the ground. (See Picton in Arch. Mag. vol. iv. 

 p. 431.) 



No part of a cemetery ought to be exclusively devoted to common graves, 

 because, as a number of coffins are placed in each grave, there would in this 

 part of the cemetery be accumulated such a mass of putrescent matter as 

 would contaminate the air of the whole, and render the locality insalubrious 

 for very many years. 



With a view to preventing waste of ground, the proprietors, or director, or 

 curator of the cemetery ought to place common graves either where private 

 graves are least likely to be taken, or where a private grave with a monument 

 miglit interfere with a grave already existing. Hence it may frequently be 

 desirable to place a common grave, or any private grave to which there is a 

 certainty of no monument being erected, on each side of a grave with a 

 conspicuous monument. Even two or three intervening common graves may 

 sometimes be desirable among monuments, in order that each structure may 

 have its full effect on the spectator while approaching it, as well as while 

 directly opposite to it. 



The mound over a common grave, while it is liable to be reopened, should 

 not be finished with turf or flowers ; because, to open a grave with the 

 finished character thereby given is more shocking to the feelings than to 

 open an unfinished grave. 



Every grave, whether private or common, to which there is to be no 

 monumental stone, should still be finished with a green mound, which itself 

 is a kind of monument, and maintains respect for the spot so long as it 

 remains. 



Though levelling the surface of ground filled with graves having no stone 

 monuments, instead of finishing the grave with a raised grass mound, renders 

 the grass much easier mown, yet, as it confounds all distinction between 

 ground filled with graves and ground not so filled, we would not on 

 any account follow this practice. The Society of Friends and the Moravians 

 adopt this mode, and we admit the superior neatness of their grounds on this 

 account ; but we disapprove of it, more especially in the case of the Quakers 

 (who forbid even flat stones with inscriptions, which the Moravians admit), 

 because it exhibits nothing characteristic of a place of interment. As it 

 destroys the distinctive feature of a grave-yard, it cannot be considered in 

 just taste, and ought, therefore, as we think, not to be adopted. Technically, 

 the appearance of the turf mound over the grave is the expression of purpose 

 or use, and this expression is essential to every work of art. 



In all large cemeteries there ought to be some graves of every kind, ready 

 made and fit for being occupied at the shortest notice. To protect these 

 graves from the rain or snow, the grave-cover described p. 163. should be 

 placed over them. 



In order to effect the registration of graves and interments, which we have 

 stated to be an important part of the working of a cemetery, it is necessary to 

 recur to the mode of numbering the graves described in a former page. This 

 may either be done by the mode of squares common in large cemeteries as at 



