"Who," says Sir Thomas Browne, "knows the fate of his bones, or how
often he is to be buried? Who hath the oracle of his ashes, or whither
they are to be scattered?"
Yet, even in that neglected corner, the hand of affection had been busy in
decorating the hired house. Most of the graves were surrounded with a
slight wooden paling, to secure them from the passing footstep; there was
hardly one so deserted as not to be marked with its little wooden cross,
and decorated with a garland of flowers; and here and there I could
perceive a solitary mourner, clothed in black, stooping to plant a shrub
on the grave, or sitting in motionless sorrow beside it....
After rambling leisurely about for some time, reading the iscriptions on
the various monuments which attracted my curiosity, and giving way to the
different reflections they suggested, I sat down to rest myself on a
sunken tombstone. A winding gravel-walk, overshaded by an avenue of trees,
and lined on both sides with richly sculptured monuments, had gradually
conducted me to the summit of the hill, upon whose slope the cemetery
stands.
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