PARK AND CEMETERY, 
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5 
It ir> surely but fair to future generations that when we die 
we should give back our bodies to the earth whence the nourish- 
ment which formed them is derived: since although for some 
hundreds of years we do not desire to plough over our dead, yet 
certainly had cremation been the custom only throughout the 
historic period in this island, its food producing capacity must 
have been very considerably less even than it now is, when, as 
the Bishop remarked, we set aside some hundreds of acres for 
the purpose of burial. 
As these islands of ours are limited in extent, it is easy to 
foresee that if we go on burning all our coal in an ever increasing 
ratio, and then besides burn our dead and waste all our sewage 
that should replete the earth, so that we pollute our rivers instead; 
with our ever increasing population, the England we love, would 
within calculable time, cease to be habitable; as indeed we have 
already made most of that portion w T e call the Black Country — 
uninhabitable by any who would keep the refinements, the 
tastes, the aspirations ol civilized human beings. 
But it might be possible so to arrange our cemeteries, that 
in giving back earth to earth, we might not only leave that 
earth to benefit future generations, but even make reverent use 
of it for the present aho. 
It is a frequent custom, for those who desire to show love to 
the departed, to plant little gardens over their graves; why 
should we not make all our cemeteries into flower gardens? In 
my younger days there used to be near Exeter some nursery 
gardens that were one of the chief sights that we took any friend 
to see who came on a visit to us. 
It mat be partly because that in my childhood I lived in a 
street where we had no garden of our own, partly that I had net 
seen much of the world’s grandeur, that looking back now that I 
know Kew Gardens, the Tuilleries, the Pincio and the Villa 
Borghese — it still seems as though the grounds of that flori- 
culturist were almost more delightful than any of these famous 
gardens. 
Of course there were none of those straight rows of trees and 
shrubs, or parallelograms of flowers that one usually associates 
with the idea of a Nursery garden and which seem designed to 
make trees, shrubs and flowers look as nearly ugly as it is pos- 
sible for such pretty things to look: on the contrary they were 
arranged as to give a whole effect of beauty. 
The long smooth walks chequered with light and shade, 
were full of pleasant surprises of bright flowers, fish ponds, grottos 
and conservatories, with here and there a seat on which to rest 
and enjoy it all. 
And there seems to have been always a feeling of repose 
about those gardens, an air of stillness as if all this order and 
beauty had grown up by enchantment; independently of gar- 
deners and their spades or wheelbarrows: at least there were 
never any of these prosaic reminders of work about when we 
were there; probably this may have been from our going there in 
the evening. 
All this is however, only a memory of childhood of which 
the glamour s - ill remains, partly perhaps because the place itself 
is no longer in existence. But though I had left Exeter and 
possibly might never have visited Veitch’s gardens again, it was 
to me as great a grief to hear that they had been sold and 
done away with, as it was to see that the beautiful old Cathedral 
had been “restored. ” 
But were those gardens still in existence and were there any 
possibility of getting buried in them, I would rather think that 
my body could finally rest there, than in any consecrated ground 
that I have ever seen. 
Not but if my good Bishop had prayed there, I should indeed 
think that there was an added sanctity, only that I revere the 
combined beauties of Art and Nature, even more than the sanc- 
tity which can be given by prayers of consecration. 
Now although floricultural gardens are not usually laid out 
with any of this regard of beauty, yet doubtles6 what was done 
by Mr. Veitch without any reason but his own wish, could be 
done by other floriculturists also, were a motive given them for 
so doing. 
And stipulations being made for some tolerably beautiful 
arrangements of the shrubs and flowers, would it not be possible 
to let all the already occupied part of Cemeteries to nursery 
men and floriculturists who might do for the whole burial 
ground what is now done only in little patches by loving hands? 
The rental which the floriculturists would pay for the use of 
the ground would thus lessen the expense of cemeteries, and the 
necessity of not again disturbing the ground when in use for 
flowers, would lessen their danger. 
But in order to make the ground entirely available for 
shrubs and flowers, as well as to render it a place thoroughly 
enjoyable for its restful beauty, it would be necessary to do 
away with all tomb stones at the graves, marking each spot 
instead by a small but immovable and^imperishable block of 
granite or whatever material is found best to resist the action of 
the weather; and on each block a deeply graven number refer- 
ring to memorial tablets on the walls surrounding the cemetery. 
Of course these tablets mrght vary in size and design 
according to the desire or the power to pay for them, of the 
relatives; just as tomb stones are now, but as the tablets would 
be much better protected and therefore far more durable, it 
would be much more worth while to make them beautiful. 
The memorial tablets might be still further protected by 
a roof resting on the wall supported on the inner side by pillars 
forming a cloister or covered walk around the whole of the 
Cemetery, which when the place of interment were sufficiently 
near the City, would form a pleasant promenade for the weak 
and aged in wet weather. 
I once spent an autumn in Lucerne at a pension near the 
Cathedral; on wet days in which no walk was possible with any 
comfort, I used to enjoy a stroll under the cloister, the walls of 
which were covered with such memorial tablets to the dead; 
amongst them bang a few oil paintings of Scripture and Sacred 
Subjects. These though not works of high Art technically speak- 
ing, were indeed full of the highest spirit of purity and devotion. 
This erection of beautiful Cloisters around the cemeteries 
would form a noble opportunity for the munificence of the 
rich; as well as afford scope for the development of a phase in 
architecture of which we have in our country scarcely any ex- 
amples, though one would have thought such open air shelter 
not without its uses in this uncertain climate. 
Speaking of the objections to cremation, I omitted to touch 
upon the greatest and most final objection of all, namely, the 
horror it would add to the already unspeakable dreariness of 
atmosphere in our great cities. 
The sense of never being able to see the clear sky, of never 
being allowed to breathe the pure air, weighs already on some 
temperaments to a degree that is almost insupportable; but 
how much more revolting would be this dreariness, if together 
with the murky fumes of our innumerable factories, we were 
obliged to mingle also the idea of the burning dead. 
It is no answer to this objection to say that the bodies may, 
as it is possible, be consumed to an impalpable air; that this par- 
ticular burning shall be without smoke; since we know that 
whatever ie burnt must in some form or other pass into the air 
and there would be the horror of it were the fumes never so 
imperceptible: and would it not be a happier feeling, if instead 
of being compelled by cremation to associate the dead with the 
darkening smoke that oppresses our soul; — we might think of 
them in connection with the bright flowers that earth gives us 
as one of her choisest blessings? Anna Blundell Martino 
Chatterville, Edgebaston, Birmingham , England . 
