USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Malden > The Woodlawn cemetery in North Chelsea and Malden > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Chelsea > The Woodlawn cemetery in North Chelsea and Malden > Part 2
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REV. GEORGE E. ELLIS'S ADDRESS.
strangers who have died in the hamlet, with a mysterious or a sad tale connected with their end, but with no kith or kin to follow them to their unhonored graves. Yet the traditions of the hamlet transmit their story ; and it is told and heard by some, each pleasant Sunday of the year. The ancient yew-trees cut in fantastic forms, and the ivicd tower, afford a shelter to the rooks, who succeed to as many generations of their own tribe, on the same spot, as do their living human companions. Rich in all that can adorn a landscape, or mingle wise mementoes with the soil of the earth, are those quiet rural churchyards. Soothing and holy are their influences to the heart that is touched by the common sympathies of humanity. We owe to one such lovely spot as choice a gem of poetry as is to be found in the English or in any other language, - Gray's " Elegy in a Country Churchyard."
Nor is it to be regretted, that every long-inhabited city contains some ancient and crowded spot, whose whole con- tents are human dust, decaying tombs, sinking stones, and a wild growth of vegetation. These, too, have their use. If no longer disturbed in their reluctance to afford room for more in their thick-set graves, they are wise monitions, selemn sights, for a city. They tell of a fashion which does not change ; the fashion which bids us all to put off these bodies. They answer a better purpose, and with a · more gracious method, than did the grim human skull
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which was set upon an Egyptian banqueting-table. The deep, rich foliage which they will nourish may shade the failing memorials of the dead, and cover with a garment of beauty the beds of their repose. The healthful air will draw through them. The timid bird, whose instinct has been deceived in them as if they were rural spaces, may find in them a place for its nest. The falling leaves of autumn will impress their instruction. Winter will spread over them its white robe of unsullied snow. Spring will there yearly teach the sublime lesson that life is born out of death. Let our city burial-grounds remain, unused indeed, but inviolate ; tastefully arrayed, and kept in seemly order. They seem sometimes to be the only me- morials of mortality which some who live in cities cannot shut out from their view. But when the silent, the sleep- ing population of a city outnumbers its living crowds, it is time to part the region around between them, and to pre- pare cemeteries like this. A burial-ground still in use in a large city is an offence and a harm; for then it will rather repel than solemnize the living, while it scarce secures repose to the dead.
The ideal of an appropriate resting-place for the dead is not difficult to define to the mind, nor to realize by the wise use of the means which we have at our service. A pure taste, a healthful sentiment, an instructed mind, a skilful hand, may plan and execute. Such an ideal will
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REV. GEORGE E. ELLIS'S ADDRESS.
exclude and admit certain features, emblems, decorations, and details, according to rules which carry with them their own warrant, or are readily approved when weighed and considered.
The first aim should be to exclude all gairish tokens of display and vanity, all theatrical embellishment, all ex- cesses of mere sentiment, all coarse and repulsive emblems of the mere materialism of death. Though we say that the grave equalizes all mortal distinctions, we do not say so truly. Some signs of the distinctions and rivalries of life will find expression here : it cannot be otherwise where wealth and poverty shall have their graves. Such distinctions, so far as they arise from eminent excellences of character, or honorable fidelity in discharging the higher trusts of existence, ought to be recognized here ; for they are part of the wisdom of the grave. Good taste, yes, something more simple even than that, will forbid the obtrusion here of all eccentricities, all that is barbarous in the shapings of the monumental structure, or boastful or ill-toned in the inscription which it may bear. Death needs no artificial skill, no ingenuity, no conceit, no parade, to invest it with effect. All such exhibitions will but detract from its solemnity.
And, even as to epitaphs, there are some suggestions which may be spoken in a still tenantless cemetery, better than where in single instances good taste may have been
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REV. GEORGE E. ELLIS'S ADDRESS.
violated. Flattering titles, superlative praise, and even some expressions of grief or hope, do not become the monuments of the dead. In the sacred privacy of a sad- dened home, a father or a mother may be spoken of as " the very best of parents." Brother, sister, or friend may there be extolled as excelling all others, known to the fond household c'rcle, in purity, goodness, or fidelity. But, if the superlatives and encomiums which express thes, domestic partialities are inscribed upon stone and obtruded upon strangers, they may not always awaken the right emotion. So also, when those who have not lived or died in the esteem and good report of their associates are committed to the earth, i ear affection may have trea- sured some remembrances of kindness, some good intent, some struggling effort, even in them; and the softened hearts of the mourning may prompt an epitaph - as often an obituary - which will not harmonize with general re- pute nor with the grounds of Christian hope. Modest silence is better then than the ventures of charity, or the prominent suggestion of the large compass of the divine mercy. The great hope of affection may be as strong, if held within the heart, as if it were chiselled out in marble. The philosopher Plato restricted the longest epitaph to four verses, and suggested that the poorest soil was most meet for human burials. We may approve his former counsel rather than the latter. The epitaph of the emperor Adri-
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an's horse is preserved ; but his own has perished, - not, we may surmise, because of its modesty or its justice.
The rules of exclusion, which good taste and the har- monies of propriety and consistency will enforce in such a cemetery, will not trespass upon the large liberty which individual preferences may exercise for variety. Variety will be desirable here as elsewhere. The colors of the stones from which monuments are hewn are various : so may be their shapes, and the emblems which they bear. Flowers and trees are diversely fashioned, robed, and dyed : so may be their groupings and effects. The slen- der or the solid structure, the broken shaft, the conse- crated cross, the simple headstone, the single memorial of a whole household with the record-page of the family Bible transcribed upon it, the urn, the vase, the withering flower, the chrysalis, the inverted torch, the winged globe, the serpent coiled into a circle, - the ancient emblem of unending time, -these do not exhaust variety, though they express so much. It is, however, to be remembered here, that the effort after singularity or novelty, whether shown in dress or manners or literature, or scientific or phi- losophical or religious speculations, most frequently fails, and in matters of taste produces the most tasteless results.
While much will depend upon the exclusion from these consecrated acres of all that is unbecoming and inappro- priate, there is here a wide scope for the heightening of
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REV. GEORGE E. ELLIS'S ADDRESS.
natural beauties, and for the introduction of the decora- tions of a chaste art. True, we do not have here some of the more striking features of bold and grand scenery, with its sheer precipices, its overhanging mountain-brows and hill-tops, its deep, dark ravines, its abrupt declivities and ascents. But neither, on the other hand, is this a flat level, a tame, unvaried field, barren and drear. It is ad- mirably suited for its destined purpose. This broad en- closure scarcely in any portion of it presents a level surface. It is varied with gentle undulations, and with that rolling line of beauty which attends the ascending smoke and the moving cloud. It bears thousands of forest-trees in full growth, amid whose roots the secret springs of water play, and flow to feed ponds and jets and fountains. Distant hills surround it; and from yonder tower may be seen the waters of the harbor and the bay. There go the ships, bearing upon the inconstant element, and under a heavenly pilotage, the freighted burdens of precious wealth from shore to shore; making them so fit- ting emblems of the voyage of existence, whose port of departure is life, whose course is over the ocean of time, whose harbor is eternity.
When taste and skill and affection shall have displayed their efforts here ; when these fresh road-ways shall have been worn by travel, and the little by-paths which are to course between the family enclosures shall have been
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REV. GEORGE E. ELLIS'S ADDRESS.
marked out ; when cultivation shall have improved the natural, and judiciously introduced the artificial, beauties of shrub and flower, of the quarry and the mine, - then will the judgment stand well approved which pronounced these acres adapted to this use. More than a hundred acres are here devoted to the burial of the dead. For what a mul- titude will they afford repose ! How can we exaggerate the importance or the lessons of a spot of earth which is to gather such a congregation of the living and the unborn ?
There is range enough in what is natural and simple to secure variety in the arrangement and adornment of this spot, to effect all that is desirable in impressions through the senses, and to excite those musing exercises of the heart and the spirit which convert outward objects into inward food. The chief dependence for such effects must be upon nature, its own true and unchanging features, its bolder outlines, its more delicate shapings, its sublime grandeur, its beautiful emblems, its ever-interesting pro- cesses to the observant mind. The earth itself, which is the scene of all man's mortal joy and striving in life, gives him a bed of silence for the everlasting repose of his body. The ancient heavens, whose glorious canopy was spread above before man's little round of life began, will still bend over his place of sepulchre ; and so far as they are high above the earth, and larger than its compass, will those heavens for ever suggest a home for all departed
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spirits. God teaches us all by nature ; and we are made wise by constant communion, by sympathy and harmony, with it.
All nature should indeed be consecrated to man, and may be consecrated. Nature may stand to man as a vast enduring temple, reared for God : the ever-restless waters daily renew its baptism ; the smoke of happy homes, and each kind breathing of every true heart, is its incense ; its ten thousand scenes of industry and duty are so many altars ; all faithful lives are accepted offerings ; and these resting-places of the dead are like the holy crypts of the sanctuary beneath its more trodden ways. Here at mid- night, during the storms of winter, will be heard the beat- ing of the angry surf upon the lashed beach ; and, if the car of the living is here to listen, how deep will be the contrast between the hushed repose of those who sleep beneath, and the wild fury of the tempest! And what is such a contrast, compared with that between the dread loneliness, the stormy passions, of a heart without hope, and the peaceful trust of the spirit which looks upon death as the appointed way for entering on a true life ?
And where do the changing seasons have such power to impress us as in an extensive and well-ordered cemetery ? The seasons of the year, -how touchingly and instruc- tively will they bear in their various lessons to the heart! Here will humanity in all its ages, from the one day or
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REV. GEORGE E. ELLIS'S ADDRESS.
hour of infancy, as its all of earthly life, to the aged of a century of years, find the same repose. The aspect of existence to each will hav; partaken of all the changing sights which mark a revolution of this earth around the sun. To some, existence will have been only spring- time, a bright inconstant promise, a budding joy, a seed sown in a cold furrow and denied a propitious growth. To some, life will have been a summer glory, all bloom and fragrance, and half-formed fruit, and half-realized hope, but with no maturity, no gathering-in of a perfected harvest. Autumn and winter, too, will apply their simili- tudes and parables to the ripened sheaves and the season- able fruits of those who reach or pass the appointed bounds of life. For life and nature illustrate the same high wisdom.
Nor do we deceive ourselves when we yield to the hope, that, by gathering around a place of graves all becoming adornments, we may do very much to refine our own sen- sibilities, to relieve death of some of its derived horrors, and to quicken the longing aspirations which sustain our faith in an hereafter. All nature hath a death and a resur- rection, and every dying seed perpetuates its own life in the fruits of its decay. Human language has not ex- pressed a more profound or cheerful truth than is con- veyed in those words of the Saviour : "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone ; but,
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if it dic, it bringeth forth much fruit." The cypress-tree should not have been made an ornament and emblem of death ; for, though its dark and silent leaves are expres- sive of melancholy, and the wood is almost incorruptible, the tree bears no fruit.
That is but a coarse and superficial judgment which thinks to impress good lessons by presenting the repulsive images of mortality, the frights and horrors of death. Those rude devices which were formerly carved upon gravestones - the grinning skull, the scythe of time, the wasted hour-glass - were more apt to provoke to a pas- sionate indulgence in lower pleasures, while life lasted, than to rouse the finer sensibilities, whose faithful exercise will redeem our brief day. We must learn to free deatlı from all these repulsive images. To this end, it is desira- ble, that, when a human body has once been interred, it be left untouched for ever. Would that there still pre- vailed some of the old ritual horror of defilement to guard our sepulchres ! Would that the dead might have the same undisturbed possession of their resting-places, which the law secures to the living on the soil which they have occupied for a brief term of years! Let us hope that the consecration of large cemeteries like this, with the common interest which they impart to a large number of persons in their care and good ordering, will help, with other influ- ences, to substitute Christian for Pagan views of deathı.
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Thus, then, would we consecrate from this time forth these verdant fields around us. We give them up to the dead, and to such services to the living as it is in the power of the dead still to perform while their bodies shall slumber here. This is no place for parties of pleasure, or for scenes of revelry. Let the remains of the humblest and the loftiest find here an inviolate repose. Let the untutored utterances of sorrow from the lowly, as well as the more decorous reserve of the refined, be regarded as expressing the same sentiment of the same human heart ; and so let the rudest memorial, as well as the stateliest monument, be hallowed. Let the adornments be chaste and becoming. Let the spirit and influences of this ceme- tery instil soothing and elevating sentiments into the heart of the chance visitor from the living world, while they relieve death of all its needless gloom. Let the sacred calm of retirement which shall settle over these conse- crated fields be a type of that peace which the blessed gospel of the Lord Jesus offers to those who " sorrow as not without hope." Let the holy sentence inscribed upon the gateway comfort the mourners who bring their dead hither, and pronounce the great hope of all who shall sleep here, -
" I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE !"
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ORDER OF EXERCISES.
Order of Crerrises.
I. CHANT - PSALM XXIII. -
II. READING THE SCRIPTURES.
BY REV. J. P. LANGWORTHY, OF CHELSEA.
-
III. PRAYER.
BY REV. WM. I. BUDDINGTON, OF CHARLESTOWN.
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IV. ORIGINAL HYMN.
BY REV. J. H. CLINCH, OF BOSTON.
FATHER ! we consecrate to thee Valley and hill and rock and tree : Here may thy soothing spirit rest, Thy peace be felt, thy love confessed.
Here let the blight of Winter's wing, The living breath of opening Spring, Speak to the soul that looks to thee Of death and immortality.
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ORDER OF EXERCISES.
Here may the mourner, 'mid these glades, These peaceful walks, these solemn shades, Behold their charm o'er sorrow thrown, And feel their spirit soothe his own.
Remote from crowds and strifes and woes, In Nature's solemn, deep repose, Let the dead sleep, - the living come To weep in silence o'er their tomb.
Let homes for living men be made In streets where crowding thousands tread ; The patriarch's " cave and purchased field " For death more fitting mansions yield.
Through our sad chambers, day by day, Death's dreaded form will force its way ; But let his graves without be spread, - Bind not the living to the dead.
" Place for the dead !" the living cry ; Free air, wide space, around us lie, - Fit home of death, if Thou but deign Here, in thy peace and love, to reign.
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ORDER OF EXERCISES.
V. ADDRESS.
BY REV. GEORGE E. ELLIS, OF CHARLESTOWN.
VI. HYMN.
BY H. W. FULLER, ESQ.
Now smooth we here a sacred bed, And plant our city for the dead ; Not with vain pomp or festive cheer, But, Lord, as dust to dust draw near.
Here shall Affection watch the hour When Spring may drop her earliest flower ; And Love, with gifts and perfumes sweet, Shall deck and hallow this retreat.
Here may bright Hope her chaplets bring, And o'er these glades her radiance fling ; And, when dark night breathes sad and still, Here trim her lamps, - her dews distil.
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ORDER OF EXERCISES.
When Grief, unsolaced, comes with gloom To linger round the garden-tomb, May smiling Faith "the stone remove," And Joy celestial beam above.
Then, Lord, appear ! the victory give !- Thou to thyself thine own receive : Grant, as we pass Death's portal through, The heaven of heavens may fill our view !
VII. PRAYER AND BENEDICTION.
BY REV. LEVI TUCKER, OF BOSTON.
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SITUATION OF WOODLAWN.
SITUATION OF WOODLAWN.
W OODLAWN is situate principally in the south-east corner of Malden, but includes a small portion of the town of North Chelsea. It contains about one hun- dred acres of land, beautifully undulating, with open lawns, sunny glades, a rich soil, and, in several places, a dense forest-growth. Its distance from the Chelsea Bridge or Ferry is about two miles and a quarter ; from Somerville, about two miles ; and from Malden Centre, about one mile and a half. From BOSTON, by way of Chelsea Bridge or Ferry, the distance is about four miles and a half. The roads in its vicinity are all good, and remarkable for their quietness and rural character.
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THE APPROACHES TO WOODLAWN.
THE APPROACHES.
At present, the shortest and most agreeable mode of reaching the Cemetery from Boston is to go over the Chelsea Bridge or Ferry, and, taking Washington Avenue in Chelsea, to pass by the "Carey Improvement Com- pany's lands " and the " Carter Farm,"- into the Pratt neighborhood, over which Woodlawn, with its outer sup- ports of hills and houses, seems to preside with great dignity and grace. By this direction, the visitor enters WOODLAWN AVENUE from the main road, at a point about seventeen hundred feet from the Gate-house, towards which it ascends regularly, and by a broad, continuous curve, until the whole structure is presented before him. The width of this approach is fifty feet, with grass bor- ders, thirteen feet in width, on either side. It is well walled and fenced, and is planted tastefully with elms and rare trees, in clumps and scattered, which in a few years will produce an imposing effect. Near its lower extremity is a fountain, with a jet of fifteen feet. The plan of the "Carey Improvement Company " exhibits a continuation of this avenue across their lands, keep- ing the same width, and under the same name. When Woodlawn Avenue shall have been thus extended, the distance from Chelsea will be much reduced, and the road
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THE APPROACHES.
be nearly level, with fine views and building lots all along its borders.
An excellent opportunity would then be afforded for a horse-railroad ; and, as a new bridge is now being con- structed from East Boston to Chelsea, it would greatly accommodate the public. We hope it may be completed as proposed, and planted with forest-trees, without great delay. An application, however, has been made to the County Commissioners to cut down the objectionable hills on Washington Avenue ; and it is expected that an order will soon be obtained, whereby they will be so reduced that an omnibus may pass over this route daily to the Cemetery.
Another approach to Woodlawn, from Boston, is by MALDEN STREET (turning off, in Chelsea, to the left at the Chelsea Bank, and crossing the Marsh Road, so called, into Ferry Street), and thence by Elm Street, as directed by the guideboards.
ELM STREET will be easily recognized, by its forming a beautiful offset from Ferry Street, towards the east, with rows of elm and maple trees, whose high branches, interlocked, make an arched passage several hundred feet in length. From this charming shadow-pass, an avenue, fifty feet in width and about one-fourth of a mile in length, leads to Woodlawn. The distance from Chelsea by this line is about two miles and a half, and without
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THE GATE-HOUSE.
hills. With the exception of the marsh-road, it is a delightful drive, which will be still more attractive when trees shall have been planted on the avenue extended ; a thing which may be anticipated from the character of the gentlemen who own the adjoining estates. It is by Elm Street that persons from Somerville, South Malden, Malden, Medford, and Melrose (and many from Boston, Charlestown, and Chelsea), now reach the Cemetery.
THE GATE-HOUSE.
The views presented of the Gate-house and Lodge are so accurate, that a description seems unnecessary. The principal building, fronting south, is fifty-six feet wide, and about forty-two feet high ; is of the Gothic style, with side-arches, and a centre-arch about twenty-five feet high, above which is inscribed the Saviour's cheering declara- tion, "I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE; " while a capped cross forms the top of the steeple. A deep toned bell, which is always tolled at a funeral, occupies the belfry. In the rear are appended small wings, - one of which furnishes a room for visitors, and the other an office for the Superintendent. The Lodge adjoining is exceedingly neat and convenient, and is occupied by the assistant, who has charge of the gate. The entire struc-
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RUSTIC WELL-HOUSE.
ture, painted and sanded like freestone, is remarkable for its harmony and grace. It was designed by Hammatt Billings, Esq.
RUSTIC WELL-HOUSE.
After passing the gate, the visitor finds himself in ENTRANCE AVENUE, whose wide borders and ornament- al beds, added to its great breadth and easy lines, never fail to impress him favorably. It is, indeed, a fit introduction to the extensive grounds beyond. The travelled way is twenty-four feet in width; and the ample grass border, on the left, is planted with weeping ashes, Norway spruces, and various flowering shrubs. On the right are small flower-beds, with rhododendrons, mahonias, and annuals ; also a rustic Well-house, ren- dered attractive by prairie roses, Baltimore bells, and other climbers. This has been much admired for its simplicity, and serves the useful purpose of giving rest and refreshment to those who seek it. It covers, in fact, a spring of excellent water. Its pillars are of the red cedar, or savin, with branches not closely trimmed ; and it is protected on the north by a thicket of trees.
Near to the Well-house, on a large board representing a scroll, are the -
Malkice De
RUSTIC WELL -HOUSE.
(Entrance Avenue.)
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REGULATIONS.
REGULATIONS
CONCERNING VISITORS TO THE WOODLAWN CEMETERY.
The gates are opened at sunrise, and elosed at sunset.
No money is to be paid to the Gatekeeper.
Visitors are required to keep off the borders.
No refreshments will be admitted, and no smoking allowed.
Persons making unseemly noises, or eondueting themselves impro- perly, will be required to leave the grounds, and may be prosecuted.
No vehiele is to be driven in the Cemetery at a rate faster than a walk.
No horse is to be left unfastened without a keeper.
No horse is to be fastened, except at the posts provided for the purpose.
No person shall gather any flowers, either wild or cultivated, or break any tree, shrub, or plant.
Any person found in possession of flowers or shrubs will be deemed to have tortiously taken them, and may be prosecuted accordingly. N. B. - Persons carrying flowers into the Cemetery, as offerings or memorials, will notify the Gatekeeper as they pass in ; and, in all other cases, they must be left at the gate until the owner passes out.
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