EXCERPT from INTO THE SILENT LAND: HISTORIC CEMETERIES & GRAVEYARDS IN ONTARIO by Jennifer McKendry, copyright    home page

chapter two, Cemetery Design & Furnishings, p. 14

...Burial grounds were seen as a reflection of how people thought about heaven. This was the spot where the angels of the resurrection would come to awaken the dead for their journey to judgement for admission to heaven. This was sanctified earth set aside from the ordinary cares and uses of the living; it needed protection from wandering livestock by fences and gates. Canadian theorist on cemetery design Heinrich Adolph Engelhardt (1830-97) noted that graveyards brought us closer to God and here were the "silent homes of the dead."[1] In general there were two main types of burial grounds, traditional and garden, during the 19^th century. Traditional took the form of private farm burials; communal burials in the open countryside or in a town (fig. 2.1), usually denominational (if more than one denomination shared the site, they were in separate areas divided by fences); burial grounds next to or surrounding a rural or urban church reflecting the denomination of that congregation (fig. 2.2); and specialized sites for the military, paupers, the insane, penal institutions, etc. Garden cemeteries made their appearance about 1850 (fig. 2.3), and were characterized by their locations on large plots of land in the suburbs of or rural areas near a town or city (this may no longer be apparent because the cities have expanded over time and engulfed them). Enabling legislation was brought in by the government of Canada West for the establishment of "Public Cemeteries…near to, but without the limits of said Towns" on 10 August 1850 (following closely upon the Cemeteries Clauses Act of 1847 in Britain[2]), so that individual companies setting up such cemeteries could avoid the expense and delay in obtaining a special act.[3] Many were non-denominational and non-profit with any extra monies generated being put back into the cemetery for improvements. Free graves had to be provided for "strangers and the poor." Landscaping was an important design feature, resulting in the catch-phrase "garden cemeteries." At the time they were also called "rural cemeteries" and "reform cemeteries," the latter reflecting their status as a reaction to the perceived disadvantages.... [continued]