The Wilmingtonian, and Delaware register., 1824-09-02
COUNTRY CHURCH YARDS.

| The custom, so general in Switzerland, and
so common in our own prncipality of Wales,
of fstrewing flowers over the graves of depart
ed friends either on the anniversaries of their
deaths, or on other memorable days, is touch
| ing and beautiful. Those trail blossoms scat
tered over the green sod, in their morning
freshness, but for a little space retain their
balmy odours, and their glowing tints, till the
sun goes down, and the breeze of evening
sghs over chem, and the dews of night fall on
their pale beau.y, and the withered and
| fading wreath becomes yet more appropri-
ate tribute to the silent dust beneath. But
rose-trecs, in full bloom, and tall staring lilies,
and Haunting lilacs, and pert spriggish spil
rafruteXes, are me thinks, i'll in harmony
with that holiness of perfect repose, which
should pcrvade the last resting-p place of NOR!
tality. Even in our own unsentimental Eng~
land, have seen two OF three of these flow
cr pot graves. One in particular, rememr
ber, had been planned and planted by
young disconsolatc widow to the memory Of
a deceased partner The tomb itself was a
common square erection of free stone, cov-
cred over with slab of black marble, on
which under the name, age, &c, of the de-
funct, was engraven an elaborate epitaph,
commemorating his many virtues, and pa
thetically intimating that at no distant pe-
rod, the vacant space remaining on the same
marble would receive the name of i" his in
consolable Eugenia." The tomb was hedged
about by breast work of honey suckles. A
Persian lilac dropped over its foot, and at the
head, Substituted forthe elegaiE cypress, coy
denizen of our ungenial clime,) young pop
lar perked up its pyramidical form. Divers
other shrubs and towering plants completed
the ring fence, plentifully intersperced with
"the fragrant weed, the Frcnchman's dar-
ling" whose perfume when / visited the spot.
was waited over the whole church-yard,
1t was then the full flush of summer. The
garden had been planted but month; but
the lady had tended, and propped, and wa
tered those gay strangers with her own de-
licaue hands, ever more in the dusk of eve.
ming returned to her task, so that they took
their removal kindly, and grew and flourish
ed as careessly round that cold marble, and
in that field of graves, as they had done here.
totore in their own sheltered nursery.
A year afterwards, year almost to day
Il stood once more on the same spot, in the
same month-"the leafy month of June.''
Butt was leafiess there. The young pop
lar still stood sentinel in its former station,
but dry, withered, and sticky, like an old
broom at the mast head of vessel on sail.
The parsons COW, and his half score fattine
wethcrs, had violated the sacred enclosure.
and trodden down its howery basket-work
into the very soil. The plants and shrubs
were nibbled down to miserable stumps, and
from the sole survivor, the poor struggling
lilac, fat old waddling eve had just CROP
ped the last sickly flower branch, and stood
staring at me with pathetic vacancy of
the half munched consecrated
blossom dangling from her sacrilegious jaws,
e and is it even so?" half articulated with
a sudden thrill of irrepressible emotion,
:. Poor widowed mourner lovely Eugenia.
Art thou already reunited to the object of
thy faithful affection And so lately Not
yet on that awaiting space of the cold marble
have they inscribed thy gentle name. And
those fragile memorials were there none to
tend them tor thy sake!' Such was my sem
timental apostrophe; and the unwonted inn
pulse so far melted me, that actually pelt-,
ed away the sheep from the last resting-place
Of faithful love, and reared the trailing
branches of the neglected lilac. Well satish-
ed myself for the performance of this pious
act, turned from the spot in mood Of calm
pleasing melancholy, that, by degrees, (whle
l yet fingered round the church yard, resol-
we'd itself INTO train Of poetic reverie. and I