Chap. XII.] THE CEMETERIES OP PARIS. 179 



our backwardness in all that is best and most essential in garden- 

 ing is more apparent than in the churchyard. All the adyantages 

 that conld be desired for a charming garden are sometimes at 

 hand in these places, yet the rule is to see them as bare as a 

 housetop, and much less interesting as regards vegetation than 

 the very ditches by which they are surrounded. This is true, 

 not so much of churchyards in towns, as in the fairest parts of 

 our fairest counties. Indeed, in cities and towns trees and shrubs 

 often embellish the space around the church, whereas in some 

 beautiful parts of Kent, or Surrey, or Warwickshire, it is common 

 to see a church without a particle of graceful vegetation on either 

 the walls of the church, the ground, or the low walls that some- 

 times surround the whole, although no spots are more easily 

 converted into lovely gardens. In these days of costly church- 

 decorations one may surely not - in ■ vain call attention to the 

 wants of the church-garden. Thousands spent on the most 

 elaborate artistic decorations indoors will never produce such a 

 beautiful and all- satisfying result as a few pounds judiciously 

 spent in converting the churchyard into a church-garden. There 

 are several reasons why churchyards are more than usually 

 favourable spots for the formation of gardens of the best kind. 

 The site and situation, in the country at least, are frequently 

 favourable and picturesque, the soil is generally suitable, the 

 tree-planter has usually the assurance that what he does will 

 remain for ages, the associations of the spot are such as to awaken 

 the mind to the influences of great natural beauty, the walls of 

 the church usually offer excellent opportunities for the display 

 of the larger hardy climbers, the walls of the churchyard 

 advantages for the development of those of more humble growth, 

 the ground is generally admirably adapted for trees, and the 

 very turf may easily be converted into a garden of spring-flowers. 

 Of suitable trees the Yew is even more enduring than archi- 

 tecture itself; and it should never be forgotten that gardeners 

 have observed and propagated varieties of this tree which differ 

 greatly from the ordinary type, and are no less beautiful— the 

 Irish Yew, for example, one of the most precious trees in existence, 

 because it is as hardy as it is distinct from aU other trees in 

 beauty. It would be easy to adorn many a churchyard with 

 varieties of the common Yew alone, and of these ■ we should 



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