A church, like other buildings, is greatly 

 improved by the immediate accompaniment 

 of trees ; and luckily few church-yards are 

 without them. The yew, which is the most 

 common in that situation, is, from the depth 

 and solemnity of its foliage, the most suited 

 to it, and is, indeed, as much consecrated 

 to the dead, as the cypress was among the 

 ancients. Whatever trees are planted in a 

 church-yard, whether evergreens or deci- 

 duous, it is clear that they should be of 

 a dark foliage : evergreens, therefore, as 

 more solemn, in general deserve the pre- 

 ference ; and there seems to be no reason 

 why in the more southern parts of England, 

 cypresses should not be mixed w T ith yews, 

 or why cedars of Libanus, which are per- 

 fectly hardy, and of a much quicker growth 

 than yews, should not be introduced. In 

 high romantic situations particularly, where 

 the church-yard is elevated above the ge- 

 neral level, a cedar, spreading its branches 

 downwards from that height, would have 



