Mount Auburn Cemetery; Including Also a Brief History and Description of Cambridge, Harvard University, and the Union Railway Company (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: MOUNT AUBURN CEMETERY. In the year 1831, flip Massachusetts Horticultural Society, of which Joseph Story, the late eminent jurist, was president, obtained from the legislature of the state an act authorizing them "to dedicate and appropriate" any part of the real estate then owned or to be afterwards purchased by them, " as and for n rural cemetery or burying ground." The ground selected for the purpose is the present Cemetery, enlarged by successive purchases to 135 acres. It was named, from its principal eminence, Mount Auburn, which is one hundred and twenty-five feet above the level of Charles Hiver. A tower, sixty feet high, has since been erected on this mount, from the top of which can be obtained one of the finest prospects in the environs of Boston. The grounds were consecrated on the 24th of September, 1831. A temporary amphitheatre was erected in a part of the grounds called " Consecration Dell," a deep, picturesque valley, with a platform for the speakers at the bottom. The services consisted of instrumental music; an introductory prayer, by the Kcv. Henry Ware, Jr.; an original hymn, by the Kcv. John 1'ierponf, sung by the audience; an address, by Judge Story; and a concluding prayer, by Mr. Pierpont. The following is the hymn written by the latter: ? " To Ihee, () (iod, in limnldr trust, Our hearts Ihfir cheerful incense hum, For this thy word, Thmi art of dust/ And unto dust shall thon return. " And what vcro life, life's work all dono, The hope, joys, loves, Hint cling to clay? All, all departed, ono hy one, And yot IHb's load homo on for aye! u Decay ! decay ! 'tis stamped on all; All hlooin in flower and ttesh shall fade; Ye whispering trees, when ye shall fall. He our long sleep honcath your shade! " Here to thy hosoni, Mother Ea...