THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
139 
Some of our cemeteries have been laid out on 
the contemplated plan that each family lot should 
have space for a narrow walk on all sides, thus ren- 
dering the lot completely isolated from all others. 
Such a provision serves no essential purpose, adds 
needless care and labor, generally has proven a nui- 
sance and will be fully condemned I think in future 
designs. 
All family lots and all single graves should be 
accessible by walks or openings that are free to 
public use, but some of these alleys or spaces may 
be tolerated as part of the lawn without real de- 
triment to convenience and often to the advantage 
of good appearance. 
The walks should be all well graded and adja- 
cent lawns brought into strict harmony zuith them, 
the graveled surface of the walk should not be more 
than one or two inches below the lawn surface so 
that no shoulder will appear to annoy the sight or 
inconvenience the mower in passing from one side 
to the other. 
All material for making the walks should be such 
as will pack, the surface when finished should please 
both eye and touch, a walk that comes short of this 
test will only prove a nuisance. In speaking of 
materials for filling purposes, coarse materials of any 
indestructible kind can be used, but the top dress- 
ing should be of that quality which packs firmly, 
rolls smoothly and at the same time becomes in 
every way agreeable to both sight and touch. 
Walks thus prepared where not unduly exposed 
to the wash of storms are not expensive to make or 
maintain. They are never regarded a nuisance, al- 
ways blend pleasingly with the adjacent lawns and 
are generally a real help to the landscape as a whole. 
I suppose their utility will not be questioned, nev 
ertheless I wish to notice a class of walks quite too 
often found in cemeteries where the projector seems 
to have entertained only the idea of contrast to 
please the eye, and over looking comfort by select- 
ing and often transporting at unusual cost a kind of 
coarse pebble to ornament a walk which when ap- 
plied utterly destroys the purpose for which a walk 
has been supposed to serve. 
In view of such conditions many exhibitions of 
which are duly on file and open to public inspection, 
I am not surprised to find writers who revolt against 
the use of all gravel and adopt another extreme to 
the general discarding of all walks except natures 
rabbit path through the lawn. 
For one I am quite willing to be recorded in 
favor of good roads, smooth velvety lawns, all these 
in general as a principle of universal application, 
but most emphatically do they apply to cemeteries 
and parks. 
The cemetery walk should be regarded a per- 
manent feature well worth a thorough construction 
and protection. When that has been done the re- 
pairing will be light and rarely needed, the monthly 
care and cleaning will be needed but should be re- 
duced to a minimum cost by permanent work in 
construction. 
B. F. Hathaway. 
There can be but one purpose served by walks 
and that is usefulness. I should as soon expect to 
improve the sky by painting on it the lines describ- 
ed by astronomers or looking at it through a grated 
window, as to improve the appearance of a lawn by 
making gravel walks through it, but walks are oc- 
casionally useful and so should not be discarded al- 
together. 
I happen to be the superintendent of a cemete- 
ry which contains a large number of depressed 
walks, many of them bounded by stone coping. 
It also contains a number of sections conducted on 
the lawn plan in which there are no visible walks, 
the entire surface being covered with a continuous 
lawn. The complaints of paths being made by peo- 
ple walking across the grass are much more fre- 
quent in that part of the cemetery containing the 
depressed walks. There is a reason for this. The 
steps or entrance to a lot from the walk indicate 
the line of least resistance which one person after 
another follows. With the continuous lawn there 
are no restrictions. People walk where they 
please, and no paths are formed. There are 
slight exceptions to this rule made mostly by work- 
men who follow the spaces or paths left between 
lots in removing surplus material or taking in stone, 
but this is temporary and at its worse does not 
hurt the appearance of the lawn nearly as much as 
it would be injured by a gravel walk. 
A lawn is a much more agreeable thing to walk 
on than a gravel walk, no matter how well the lat- 
ter may be made. I think the testimony of super- 
intendents of cemeteries in which all or any part is 
conducted on the lawn plan, would be unanimous in 
favor of the continuous lawn. It not only looks 
better than the other but it saves expense and also 
saves the trouble of putting up signs saying “keep 
off the grass.” S. 
Twenty years ago the McCutchenville, O. , 
Cemetery association purchased additional ground, 
and the trustees gave their notes for payment of the 
same. The notes have been renewed but never paid 
and the owner of the land, brought suit against two 
Trustees to collect over $i ,000 principal and interest. 
The court decided against him, and he was not only 
required to pay costs but also to surrender the 
notes. — Ex. 
