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Gravestones, 



erections that almost make one sigh for the huckleberry bushes of 

 the Xew England graveyard of old time. 



Let me offer a few practical suggestions about grave stones, or mort- 

 uary monuments, restricted to out-door monuments of private individ- 

 uals. 



The first point to be settled in the selection of a gravestone is the 

 material. In this regard, durability is the main requirement. Here 

 there is not much room for choice, for our climate imposes strict limi- 

 tations in this matter. Ours is not, so to speak, an ''out-of-doors " 

 climate. A material which would be proper in the sunny clime of 

 Italy would soon become impaired under our own stormy sky. Ex- 

 perience has shown that white marble will not answer in our climate. 

 It soon becomes stained and defaced, and unless constantly scoured, 

 like Aladdin's lamp or Mr, Stewart's house, it quickly loses its 

 characteristic purity and beauty. Besides, it looks too cold under our 

 cool sky, and when the earth is covered with snow, the whitest marble 

 looks dirty. Sandstone is too friable, and yields too readily to the dis- 

 integrating influences of the weather. This has been proved by its 

 use for many years in this country. The sandstone obelisks transported 

 from Egypt to Europe have already, it is said, suffered much loss of 

 sharpness of outline in their hieroglyphics. Nature has provided in 

 every climate the material best adapted to the local architecture. The 

 Carrara quarries of Italy and the sandstone quarries of Egypt furnisli 

 the materials best fitted for those countries, and in our land we need 

 look not beyond the granite hills of New England. Granite seems on 

 all accounts our best resource for mural monuments, not only for its 

 superior durability, but because it is capable of a brilliant and lasting 

 polish. Bronze is a very beautiful and durable material, but it can 

 appropriately be used only in large forms, and is intrinsically, as well 

 as for this reason, very costly. Modern use has conformed to 

 the evident necessity of the case, and granite is now almost the only ma- 

 terial from which out-door monuments are constructed. In respect to 

 color, good taste banishes every thing like variety from our graveyards, 

 but a pleasing and good effect is produced by intermixing, with cer- 

 tain shapes of granite, our blue limestone, or the red Scotch granite, 

 which takes a beautiful polish. The proper use of the Scotch granite 

 is in combination, and not by itself, for an isolated shaft of Scotch 

 granite looks painfully like cheap pottery. It has occurred to me 

 that in the use of red granite a good effect might be attained by rough 

 dressing and smooth dressing in combination with polished surfaces, 

 which mode of treatment is so effective in the gray granite. A pleasing 

 combination may also be effected by the combination of the light Concord 



