and proper maintenance of the disused churchyard may be sent to the
Burial Board, if there be such a board, and, if not, to the overseers,
and the cost will in any case fall upon the poor-rate. Converting the
ground absolutely into a public garden is quite a different matter,
and, notwithstanding its difficulties, it is the course usually
adopted. First, the consent of the Vestry is imperative, and every
step is carefully measured by a stringent Act of Parliament. A
petition for a faculty must be presented to the Bishop of the diocese,
and before it can be granted there must be an official enquiry in
public before the Diocesan Chancellor--always a profound lawyer,
learned in ecclesiastical jurisprudence. Everybody who has any claim
or objection as to any particular grave-space, or to the whole scheme
altogether, has a right to be heard; all reasonable requests are
usually granted, and the closing order, if made, is mostly full of
conditions and reservations in favour of surviving relatives and
others who have shewn cause for retaining this tomb and that stone
undisturbed. In practice it is found that there are not very many
such claims, but it sometimes happens that serious obstacles are left
standing in the way of the landscape gardener. One almost invariable
regulation requires that places shall be found within the enclosure
for all the old stones in positions where they can be seen and their
inscriptions read; to range them in one or more rows against the
interior of the boundary fence is usually accepted as compliance with
this rule. Injudicious arrangement occasionally obscures some of the
inscriptions, but they are all accessible if required, and anything
is better than extinction. It is earnestly to be hoped that at least
equal care is taken of the memorials in burial-grounds which are less
ceremoniously closed. Where the work is thoughtfully conceived and
discreetly accomplished, much good and little harm is done to a
populous place by clearing the ground, laying out footpaths, and
planting trees and flowers. But the gravestone, the solemn witness
"Sacred to the Memory" of the dead, is a pious trust which demands
our respect and protection, at least so long as it is capable
of proclaiming its mission. When it has got past service and its
testimony has been utterly effaced by time, it is not so easy to
find arguments for its preservation. There is no sense or utility in
exhibiting a blank tablet, and I have seen