APRIL 



Newspapers on cremation — More about Suffolk — Maund on flowers 

 that close — Asparagus -growing on the seacoast — Peacock 

 feathers for firescreens — Dining-room tables — Petroleum tubs 

 in gardens — Neglect of natural history — Cactuses again — Old 

 mills — Mr. Burbidge on sweet-smelling leaves — Florist 

 Auriculas — Seed- sowing — Kitchen garden — Poultry. 



April 1st. — This book is the last bit of work of the 

 kind I shall ^ever do, and I am anxious to state, as I 

 think of them, any views I may happen to have on 

 various matters. 



I am deeply interested in watching the gradual 

 development of public opinion on cremation. I casually 

 alluded to this before, in reference to Mr. Robinson's 

 well-known book on the subject. So far as I can judge 

 from the newspapers, cremation is making a little way 

 among the rich and well-known, who alone seem in this 

 country to have the power of influencing the majority. 

 But if what I read is true, a terrible fashion is growing 

 around this excellent, clean, practical way of being dealt 

 with after death, and that is that instead of one funeral 

 there are to be three — one the cremation, another the 

 funeral service in London, a third (and worst of all) the 

 burying of the ashes. The newspapers gave an account 

 of a cremated peer who, by his own wish or his family's, 

 had the box with the collected ashes deposited in an 

 ordinary -sized coffin, in order that the tenantry might 

 have the honour of carrying the coffin in the usual way 

 to the vault. This kind of thing, I think, tends to 

 make the process ridiculous. And as only those are 



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