Celebrated Cemeteries

My Parents are buried here at Los Angeles National Cemetery -
Between the time my father died and my mother died, I had a laboratory across the street (not shown in photo). During the Vietnam War I heard taps very often.

Sir John Strange is buried in England, and has one of my favourite epitaphs:-



"Here lies an honest lawyer,
And that is Strange."


.......and one from Mousehole (pronounced mouzul ) in Cornwall.

A smugglers epitaph.

Preserved in Talland Church is a memorial with a rhyming epitaph which tells of the sad death of Robert Mark of Polperro, who was shot at sea by Customs Officers on January 24th 1802:



"In prime of life, most suddenly, Sad tidings to relate;
Here view my utter destiny, And pity my sad state.
I by a shot which rapid flew, Was instantly struck dead.
Lord pardon the offender who My precious blood did shed.
Grant him to rest, and forgive me All I have done amiss;
And that I may rewarded be with everlasting bliss."

I saw this during a summer holiday, about ten years ago. The headstone is made of local slate, and is about 200 years old, but looks as if it was made yesterday.

George wrote:



Perhaps by the time you die, you'll be able to have music permanently on site and Dancing on George's Grave can become a frolicsome past time on summer afternoons.

.

Lord Ellpus - High ate Cemetery is fantastic! Is it miskept intentionally? Wow, thanks for the links......

And, I would happily join you and Noddy deadheading and weeding anywhere.

I like some of the cemeteries in Vermont and New Hampshire, as well as some of the larger metropolis cemeteries in the Midwest.

I found the cemeteries in New Orleans to be somewhat overrated, but that may have been because I was there on a day when the temperature was around 100 and the solid walls surrounding the cemetery very effectively trapped the heat and turned the place into a blast furnace.

When I was in my teens, I travelled to Hamburg with hamburger and mrs. hamburger. While there, we went to the cemetery where his paternal grandparents are buried.

I was a bit startled when tour buses drove onto the grounds while we were there. Turned out Ohlsdorf was/is the world's largest cemetery - and a significant tourist attraction.

http://home.arcor.de/fredrik.matthaei/Hamburg/ohlsdorf.htm

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=49907

The only functioning (?) Jewish cemetery in Hamburg is within Ohlsdorf.

http://www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/rz3a035/jew_cem.html

~~~~~~~~~~

I generally like cemeteries, and tend to stop in and visit small, old, cemeteries in the country when I can.

Why I liked that Guadalupe cemetery, it was flat and plain, and at least when I saw it, just a property along a road. Simple headstones for oldtime area residents of waaaay different heritages, though I forget which and how at this point.

I liked the highgate links too.

Personally, I have fantasized my clumps of burnt offal to be cast somewhere interesting that I like, damn hard as I like so many places. Smithereens on the cobbles of Rome, but, gee, they're taking a lot of those up in favor of asphalt now.

Venice (CA) boardwalk, not only not hygenic, too much of a jokey thing, me being a serious person. Maybe over some plain untrammeled land. Where is that, anyway? Even the amazon area is trammeled. Or tramelled.



Edit to spell different better.

Osso, I kind of figured to have my ashes scattered by 'those left behind' as they saw fit. The way I see it, I'm not going to care at that point, and they are the one's who will know best where and how they want to remember me. Course, if there's more than one of them, they'll have to divy up the ashes.

Gus, I like the little graveyards of the NH-VT area, too. I have run into more than one while driving aimlessly around the Keene-Brattleboro area.

I'll take some of your ashes, k.

The dog's hungry.

Aw, shucks, that's sweet Gus.

What kind of dog?

American bulldog, osso.

Seems sturdy. Ok.

as ehbeth mentioned, the "ohlsdorf cemetery" in hamburg covers a very large area. it is really more like a park than a traditional cemetary.
the german word for cemetary is "fried-hof" which could be translated as peace-garden.
i recall that a visit to the friedhof was usually a day's outing. it wasn't just a matter of visiting the family plot but it usually involved a lengthy walk through the park, looking at monuments, visiting a butterfly garden and finally visiting one of the many restaurants at the entrance to the friedhof. it wasn't unusual for kids to jump over the gravestones, it was certainly not considered improper - since it was, as i said - a family outing.
the friedhof even contains a small museum on its grounds. hbg


visiting the "friedhofs museum"

hamburger -- the notion of a graveyard as a family-friendly place for outings is an old Northern European tradition. The Latvian expatriare community in Boston used to have a Memorial Day picnic at the Gathsemane Cemetery (q.v. above) every year when I was young. People would come to decorate the family graves, then gather at tables laid out in a tree-shaded glen that hadn't yet been divided into grave sites. Hot dogs and beer would be available for sale for those who hadn't brought their own picnic baskets. Kids would play hide-and-seek games among the gravestones. No one sonsidered it disrespectful in any way. That tradition, though, has gone by the wayside in recent decades. Younger generations have a way of forgetting old traditions.

Younger generations live 100-3000 miles away.

This makes traditions very temporary.

Glad you enjoyed it, littlek...........yet another gardener, eh?

I love this thread, by the way....some good stuff.

Highgate was neglected for a period of time after the Victorians had left the scene. I believe that it was handed over to a trust, back in the 60's, and they look after the place very well indeed.

When they first took it over it was completely covered in vegetation, so they removed enough to open up the place, yet left enough ivy here and there to allow the spookiness to remain.

I will now try to find the place that we visited one Sunday, about three years back. It was a guided tour of victorian catacombs, just outside of London. A pleasant way to spend a nice, spring morning!

Now...what WAS its name........................? I'll get back to you.