UNIFORMITY IN CHURCHYARDS.
• LTo ma Sorrels or tens " Sesormos.")
Sts,—As you have lately found space for my letter on "The Endowment of Churchyards," may I ask you, please, to print another on a kindred subject? Much has been written lately on the desirability for uniformity in the cemeteries of our fallen heroes. Meanwhile can nothing be done to check the dis- figurement which is steadily spoiling the appearano of our village churchyards? I refer to the growing custom of erecting huge tombstones and crosses, of various shapes and materials, modern innovations, out of all relationship to their surround- ings or of keeping with the older simple headstones that were formerly deemed sufficient. Many of these latter, by their lettering, der., have coneiderable interest and artistic merit, and it is neither fair nor seemly that they should be swamped by new introductions whose chief qualities consist in bulk and self-assertion. Of course, it will be said that the incumbent has the matter in his own hand. But has he? As a rule he receives an intimation from some stonemason that a memorial Is coming along, and the design and inscription proposed are submitted to him pro formd. But the whole thing has been already well in hand without his knowledge, and he often has the cruel alternative of refusing his sanction to a fait accompli, and so deeply hurting some one's feelings. to say nothing of his pockets, or else of permitting the erection of something he knows will be a glaring eyesore to himself and to future generations. To obviate this, to some extent, in the future, I suggest that a special printed form of receipt be always given for burial-fees on which it is plainly stated in a footnote that no memorials are allowed Without the incumbent's sanction being obtained before the order has been given or the work begun. If to this the Sanction of some competent diocesan authority amid be added, so much the better.
My experience, which doubtless accords with that of others, is that people act in complete ignorance of the law in such oases, and introduce these unsightly memorials chiefly owing to the pressure of some pushing mason from a distance, whose one idea is to get as big a job as possible, and who cares abso- lutely nothing about the place where his work will be dis- played.
I may add that an equally jarring custom, though lees enduring in its ill-effects—viz., that of placing glass shades on graves—has been gradually dropped without any friction in the churchyard of which the care has devolved on me for the last twenty-five years. I prevailed on a former Archdeacon to forbid their introduction in future. Whether he had a legal right to do so. I never inquired.-1 am, Sir, in., Ramat Dam.
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