applied to Public Cemeteries. 



483 



metropolis and of other large towns, that as they increase in number they are 

 improving in taste. Every encouragement, we think, ought to be given to 

 their introduction in village churchyards, on account of the effect which they 

 cannot fail to have on the taste of the inhabitants, and more particularly on all 

 those connected with the building arts, such as carpenters, masons, brick- 

 layers, &c. It seems unfortunate that the revenues of the clergy are made to 

 depend partly on the permission granted to put up monuments, and thus a 

 man is taxed for his reverential feeling, and for erecting an instructive and 

 beautiful object, which he would, probably, have rendered more beautiful still 

 by the amount of fees paid to the clergyman.* A better mode would be to 

 encourage the erection of monuments, by giving the ground as a present on 

 condition of the monument being proportionately handsome. We would en- 

 courage every kind of monument, from the most frail to the most permanent, 

 as tending to cultivate reverential feelings and improve the taste ; and we 

 would encourage the naming of all the trees and shrubs, as tending to excite 

 curiosity and intellectual exercise. 



The churchyard at St. Michael's, at Dumfries, is perhaps the most remark- 

 able in Britain, on account of the number and good taste of its tombstones. 

 The appearance of these at a distance is singularly grand and picturesque. 

 Erecting tombstones at Dumfries is quite a 

 mania among the middle classes, which has 

 been brought about chiefly by the cheap and 

 easily wrought red freestone, and the talents 

 of the late mason and sculptor, Mr. Alexander 

 Crombie. The cheapness of these tombstones, 

 compared with the price of similar erections 

 about London, is so great, that we are per- 

 suaded they might form a profitable article of 

 commerce for the metropolitan cemeteries. To 

 enable those concerned to judge how far this 

 may be the case, we give, through the kind- 

 ness of Walter Newall, Esq., architect, Dum- 

 fries, figures from the designs of two monu- 

 ments, not long since erected at the heads of 

 the graves of two nurserymen, Messrs. Hood, 

 father and son ; that of the father {Jig. lO'i.) 

 cost 38/., and that of the son, William (fig. \ 05.), ■ 

 251. The carriage to London, by Whitehaven, 

 we are informed, would not amount to 51. for 

 each of these monunl^nts. (Gard. Mag. for 

 1831, p. 529.) 



The improvement of the church is chiefly "'' i-i^uJ i \ \ \ i i 



the business of the architect : but the gardener ^ 'g- 104. Monument to Mr. Hood, sen., in 



. , °, . Dumfries Churchyard. 



may m various cases cooperate with him, or 



even supersede his exertions. It is desirable in all cases that a church, like 

 every other large building, should stand on a level terrace or platform ; but, 

 as most old churches are buried or earthed up by graves in such a manner as 

 that the ground is higher without than it is within the church, this platform 



* The fees for permission to erect the simplest and cheapest of all stone 

 memorials placed by graves, a head and foot stone, vary in the London church- 

 yards from 21. 2.5. to 6/. 6*. ; for permission to place a flat stone over a grave, 

 from 4/. 45. to 12/. 12i'. ; and the price for more ambitious monuments varies 

 from 51. 5s. to 105/. P"or the right to erect "stones and vaults" in the 

 Hackney churchyard, though it was greatly enlarged some years ago, from 

 three to forty guineas have been paid. (Claims of the Clergy, p. 25.) — See An 

 Examination of Mr.Machinnoiis Bill, p. 1 17. ; CauclCs Funeral Guide; and 

 Health of Towns, &c. 



I 1 4 



