478 Principles of Landscape- Gardening 



have shone on every side wall of the church, and consequently on the ground 

 on every side of it, every day in the year on which he appeared, and hence 

 the churchyard would have been every where equally dry and inviting. 



Every grave is a parallelogram in plan, and for practical purposes these 

 parallelograms may be considered as all of the same length and breadth. It 

 is obvious, therefore, that, to get as many of these parallelograms as possible 

 into a limited space, they ought to be placed in rows side by side. Supposing 

 the walks to be bordered with spaces sufficient for a single or a double row of 

 graves, as we have recommended for adoption in laying out cemeteries, then 

 the interior should be laid out in double beds, in the manner which we have 

 already described as calculated to make the most of any given space (see 

 Jig. 35. in p. 158.). The beds need not in every case be regularly formed like 

 the beds of a garden ; but, whether this is done or not, they should be marked 

 off with sunk stones at the angles and at each end of the central space on 

 which the gravestones are to be placed, in order that the true position and 

 dimensions of the beds may never be doubtful, and may never undergo any 

 change through the carelessness of the grave-digger. An arrangement of this 

 kind would not hinder parties from choosing graves in any part of the ground 

 as at present ; while it would prevent the great waste of surface that now 

 takes place, and obviate the necessity of ever walking over graves, either to 

 look at gravestones, or for the performance of funerals. In whatever 

 manner a churchyard is arranged, leaving the choice of ground free is decidedly 

 advantageous, both in point of utility and appearance. In point of utility, it 

 is better that the whole of the churchyard should be open to the choice of the 

 parishioners, and thus the graves scattered over it, and consequently the water 

 and tlie gases of decomposition diffused over a large underground space, 

 and thus diluted and weakened, than that they should be concentrated in one 

 spot, and their bad effects aggravated ; and it is more picturesque to have the 

 graves and tombstones scattered here and there over the whole ground, than 

 to have one part closely filled with graves and tombstones, and all the re- 

 mainder without any. 



Want of Perpendiculariti/ in the Monuments and Gravestones. — From not 

 placing the head-stones and other monuments on secure foundations, they 

 are, in almost every churchyard, seen leaning in all directions; and, when com- 

 posed of more than one stone, the joints are cracked, and the whole threatens 

 to fall in pieces. This is an evil which admits of a remedy both with a view 

 to the past and the future, without the slightest degree of desecration, though 

 the expense of resetting monuments in a churchyard crowded with them 

 might be found inconvenient. With respect to monuments to be erected in 

 future, it will be sufficient for the manager of the burying-ground to 

 insist on the monuments being placed on solid ground, or on a sure foun- 

 dation of masonry or brickwork, as deep as the grave, as already indicated 

 with reference to cemeteries in p. 156. 



The slovenly State of the Grass and Herbage is the next evil which we shall 

 notice. The surface of most graveyards is covered with long grass and rank 

 weeds; and, though this is apparently a less evil than those which have been men- 

 tioned, it is in reality a greater one, because its removal requires little or no outlay. 

 Hence it bears on the face of it the most unequivocal marks of negligence and 

 slovenliness, instead of setting an example of neatness, care, and respect. In 

 crowded churchyards the soil, from the water of decomposition, is necessarily 

 rendered much damper than in ordinary ground, and it is proportionately 

 richer. Hence the extraordinary vigour of the grass, docks, nettles, thistles, 

 brambles, &c., and other large plants, which it produces ; and the annual decay 

 of this vegetation, saturated with the gases which emanate from the masses of 

 putrefaction below, must be productive of malaria, more or less according to 

 ch'cumstances. The unoccupied corners and those parts of churchyards most 

 distant from the eye, or from their dampness or other causes least frequented, 

 are particularly obnoxious in these respects ; and hence one of the great ad- 

 vantages that would result from having every churchyard surrounded by a 



