Bailey's Composition is also a valuable invention, which has been used with great advantage in various situations, without being at all injured by winter. The exteriors of many of the public buildings in the metropolis are covered with this composition, amongst which is the Colosseum in the Regent's Park.
It is simply a mixture of lime and sand, the strength of the lime being preserved by the peculiar manner in which it is prepared. In its manufacture, chalk should never be used ; it ought always to be made from limestone, or car bonate of lime. The lime, being taken before being slacked and ground to powder, must be placed in iron-bound casks to prevent the admission of air or damp. When used, it must be mixed with one-third its quantity of sharp river-sand, the manner of working it being the same as that of Roman cement. Set' :MORTAR, GROUT, STUCCO, and CONCRETE.
CEsMETEItY, a sacred place, set apart for the burial of the dead. The term is of Greek derivation, signifying "a place of rest or sleep," and was applied by the early Christians to common places of interment.
The subject of burial in towns has of late occupied so prominent a place in public estimation, that the description of a few of the great receptacles for the dead lately established in or near the met ropolis, cannot he out of place in a work of this kind ; the more especially, that the professional talent of the architect has, not unfrequently, been called into action, to furnish designs for the buildings connected with publie cemeteries, if not for the ornamental gardens, since it has become the fitshion of the day to make these "cities of the (lead." From the very earliest ages the disposal of the bodies of the dead has been a necessary, and with many nations, it sacred duty. Among sonic we find that a superstitions veneration for those who had "passed away ;" the necessity of rites to secure the future happiness of the deceased ; and the crime attached to the violation of the tomb, formed a Ilan both of their civil and religious code., The practice of bury ing the dead in the earth is probably the oldest, as it is the simplest mode of disposing of them : hut the custom of burning the body, and afterwards collecting the ashes, and depositing them in a tomb, or urn, became very general amongst the Greeks and Romans. The Egyptians do not
seem to have ever adopted this practice; and even amongst the ancient Greeks and Romans, it seems likely that inter ment in the earth was mostly resorted to by the lower orders. At the present day, all European nations deposit their dead in the earth, and the ceremony of burning is extinct.
The establishment of public cemeteries is now becoming general in the neighbourhood of large cities ; a practice pro bably suggested to us by the customs of the Orientals, with whom the burial-places of their departed friends are objects of peculiar care, and who cultivate, with extreme affection solicitude, the flowers and trees with which it is their delight to adorn them.
•• Among the first objects that present themselves to a stranger entering Turkey." remarks a recent writer, "are the groves of cypress extending in dark masses along the shores. These are the last resting-places I if the Turks; and their sad and solemn shade, titr more gloomy than any which Christian usage has adopted, informs the traveller that he is now among a grave and serious people.
The situation of cemeteries is of great importance, both with regard to the public health, and from considerations of convenience. Among the Greeks we find that thy• were usually the cities. Among the Romans the tombs were generally placed by the sides of the public roads. The early Christians fidlowed the custom of the Romans, but they afterwards transferred their bu•ial-places to the vicinity of the churches, and within towns. This insalubrious practice. it is to be hoped, will soon entirely cease, and the health of the living be no longer endangered by the too close proximity of the graves of the dead.
Cemeteries should be placed on high ground, and to the north of habitations, so that southerly winds should not blow over the houses, charged with the putrid exhalations; low wet places should be avoided, and care should be taken that bodies be not interred near wells, or rivers, from which people are supplied with water.