538 Landscape- Gardening applied to Public Cemeteries. 



elevated, let the ground rise gently : but, if you will have steps, let them be 

 not less than 7 ft. broad, that the bearers may have room to stand at each 

 rise. 



P. 401. line 15. " No evil results," Sec. That is, of course, no appreciable 

 evil ; but I incline to think that the gas will still escape, and, though in small 

 quantities, be injurious : now, could not some substance be found, that might 

 be placed round the coffin, which, having a greater affinity for some of the 

 elements of the gas than the other elements have, would decompose it, and 

 render it innocuous ? The next consideration is, at what expense could this be 

 done ? I need not say this is a very different matter from putting lime into 

 the coffin (p. 297.); the object here is not to decompose, but, when the products 

 of decomposition are formed, to render them harmless. As to expense, I 

 believe that is, in all cases, only a question of time. 1 mean that, if we can 

 once accomplish an object at any cost, we shall ultimately, by some means or 

 other, do it economically. Expense depends on modes, not on principles, in 

 these matters. 



P. 401. " Graves as deep as ivells" except that the cost would soon be such 

 as to defeat the object. This object might be attained where there had been 

 quarries excavated, by filling the .ground up gradually ; but this would also be 

 an expensive process. 



P. 405. line 14. from bottom. " Mneviata, or the tombs." Is it not the 

 Greek word ^vimara ? and, if so, it means recollections, remembrances, me- 

 mories; and forms a beautiful instance of their euphemismi, as applied to the 

 tomb. 



P. 480. " The practice of admitting cattle iiito churchyards" has arisen out of 

 an abuse of the law. When a church was founded, as almost all our churches 

 were, by the great landowners of the time for the use of their tenants, a church- 

 yard was added for interment. By legal construction, the incumbent is con- 

 sidered as a corporation sole, and the freehold vested in him to preserve it for 

 the uses of the church ; but he has gradually come to look upon it as if it were 

 as much his, for any purposes, as any other freehold, subject only to the limit 

 of the right of interments. Hence his claim (which is good in law but not in 

 justice, nor consonant to the feelings of these times,} to stock it as well as 

 any part of the glebe. It ought not to require an enactment to remove this 

 encroachment: the bishops or archdeacons have only to discourage it ; and 

 the public has only to direct attention quietly and generally, but not offen- 

 sively and personally, to it, and it will be prohibited. It is quite clear 

 that this practice must be discontinued, before any useful attempt can be made 

 to beautify our churchyards. 



P. 481. line 32. " The enlargement of churchyards" should be provided for 

 by forming them at first, or on their first alteration, so as to admit of additions 

 at the least cost It would seem to be the best way, to provide for the 

 addition on one side, and that the narrowest, so as to destroy the shortest 

 possible length of fence. To enable this to be done, building within certain 

 limits of a churchyard should be prohibited, and a power given to certain 

 persons to take land for the purpose. — T. IV. Crimbles House, March 24. 

 1843. 



Fig. 117. Hand-bier r^erred to in p. 300. 



