490 Principles of Landscape- Gardening 



fence it sufficiently while young, would confer a grand and appropriate orna- 

 ment on the church, and would deserve the gratitude of the parishioners. 



No trees should be planted in a churchyard the natural habit of which is 

 to grow near water, such as willows, alders, &c. ; because the expression 

 conveyed by such trees, being that of a moist situation, is altogether unsuit- 

 able for a churchyard ; nevertheless, as the public in general do not partici- 

 pate in these associations, one of the most popular trees in churchyards every 

 where is the weeping willow. On the whole, the cypress, the yew, the Irish 

 yew, the red cedar, the Swedish and Irish junipers, the Juniperus recurva, 

 the Oriental arbor vitae, the diiFerent species of thorns, the common Mont- 

 pelier, mountain, and other maples, the wild service, the whitebeam tree and 

 its hybrids, the holly, and a few others, are the most suitable low trees for 

 churchyards; next, those which grow about the height of the Norway maple; 

 and, lastly, those which rank in point of size with the Oriental plane. 



The System of Interments in Churchyards is, in general, very imperfect ; and, 

 indeed, in many cases no system whatever is adopted. The obvious prin- 

 ciple is, to place the tombs near the eye, and consequently near the walks ; 

 and to place the graves without gravestones in the interior of the com- 

 partments. For this reason, we would reserve a strip of ground, 10 or 12 feet 

 in width, along both sides of the walks (which would include the whole of the 

 space between the boundary walk and the boundary wall) ; these strips 

 should be devoted exclusively to family burial-places, whether merely indi- 

 cated by corner stones, or railed in, or containing gravestones or tombs. 

 The whole of the compartments being thus bordered by strips for family 

 burial-places or purchased graves, the interior of each compartment might 

 either be laid out in strips parallel to the borders, with gravel walks between; 

 or devoted to graves without marks, laid out in the manner of a garden, with 

 regular alleys of turf between. The manner of arranging these graves, and all 

 the regulations respecting them, should be much the same as those recom- 

 mended for cemeteries, p. 138. 



In Germany, it is customary, in some churchyards, to bury all the children 

 under a certain age, who are not to have grave-marks, in a compartment by 

 themselves ; not only because the waste of ground occasioned by placing ^ 

 large and small graves together is thus avoided, but because it is found that, 

 in the case of children, the ground may be used again much sooner than the 

 ground in which adults have been buried. But we do not think it necessary 

 to recommend such a practice for Britain, where churchyards are, or may be, 

 increased in size with the increase of population; and where it is desirable 

 that no grave should be opened after it has once been filled. 



On the Continent, as well as in many parts of Britain, the extent of the 

 churchyard in country parishes remains the same as it was several centuries 

 ago ; the consequence of which is, that, in districts where the population has 

 increased, the graves are crowded together so as to obliterate one another, 

 and the ground raised considerably above the surrounding surface, as well as 

 above the floor of the church. Every time a grave is dug in such church- 

 yards a great number of bones are thrown up ; which are deposited in the first 

 instance in the charnel-house, and, in many cases at least, sold afterwards to 

 bone collectors, who ship them to Britain, along with the bones of quadru- 

 peds, to be crushed for manure. (See Gard. Mag. for 1842, p. 546.) 



Fig. 107. is the ground plan of a churchyard laid out agreeably to the 

 foregoing principles; and^g. 106. is an isometrical view, supposing the trees to 

 have been ten or twelve years planted, and some of the gravestones and tombs 

 to have been erected. The churchyard is of small size, and is adapted for an 

 agricultural parish, where the majority of the inhabitants are in moderately 

 good circumstances, and whence it is supposed the superfluous population 

 will migrate to the towns, and leave the number of permanent inhabitants 

 comparatively stationary. There is only one entrance to the churchyard (at a 

 Jig. 107.), over which there is an archway for the protection of persons waiting 

 during rain or snow. The walk is 8 ft. broad, and proceeds direct to the steps 



