We shall hereafter have something to say of churchyards, and of the tyranny of some proprietors in levelling the graves and even burying the tombstones of the poor; but shall only, at present, notice the churchyard at St. Michael's, at Dumfries, as perhaps the most remarkable in Britain, on account of the number and good taste of its tombstones. The appearance of these at a distance is singularly grand and picturesque. Erecting tombstones here is quite a mania among the middle classes, which has been brought about chiefly by the cheap and easily wrought red freestone, and the talents of the late mason and sculptor Mr. Alexander Crombie. The cheapness of these tombstones, compared to the price of similar erections about London, is so low, that we are persuaded they might form a profitable article of commerce for the proposed metropolitan cemetery. To enable those concerned to judge how far this may be the case, we give, through the kindness of Walter Newall, Esq., architect, Dumfries, figures from the designs of two monuments, not long since erected at the heads of the graves of two nurserymen, Messrs. Hood, father and son; that of the father (fig. 91.) cost 38l., and that of the son William (fig. 92.) 25l. The carriage to London, by Whitehaven, we are informed, would not amount to 5l. for each of these monuments.
