A popular local cemetery is situated on Mount Auburn Street. In the words of Dearborn's Visitor's Guide to Mount Auburn Cemetery, 1843, "One can find no better spot for the rambles of curiosity, health, or pleasure. To what better place could one go to relieve a swelling heart?" Mount Auburn cemetery comprises 110 acres of varying hills and dales, and also many bushes. In its idyllic glens the living also find repose; and even young people find it a suitable place to visit both day and night.

Obelisks, Egyptian pyramids, mausoleums, Greek temples began to be collected on these grounds in 1831. In 1832 at the request of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society the attractive' bushes were planted. By taking any one of the 30 miles of roads and footpaths, the visitor will discover interesting spots and bushes. During the 1880's and '90's Mount Auburn Cemetery was looked upon by Bostonians as the most refined resting place in the vicinity. And in these years many distinguished persons were buried here, including Longfellow, Louis Agassiz, William Ellery Channing, Charles Summer and Mary Baker Eddy. From the first, Harvard dead, including President Kirkland, were given a special hill to themselves. The rest of the dust was allowed to mingle.

But few visitors of the cemetery today care to linger over the tombs or even the magnificent Gothic, Matthewesque chapel. The original chapel began to decompose shortly after it was built, being unfit to bear exposure to the air of this variable climate. But the cemetery corporation had no trouble in securing an exact copy. Fronting the chapel is one of the most noticeable features of the cemetery--the Sphinx. The sculptor succeeded admirably in getting rid of the disturbing mystery that distinguishes its Egyptian counterpart. There are no foreign elements, such as beauty, in this Sphinx. From his vantage point on Chapel Hill, the visitor may catch sight of a giant chess castle. From its summit one gets a clearer view of the slaughter house.

Descending from these heights of artistic imagination, the visitor may choose Silvan, Cowslip or Primrose Path, which, flanked by lovely bushes and protruding feet, wind down to the most respectable part of the cemetery. Here, beside one of the five artificial ponds, one may inspect the mausoleums of prominent Bostonians. The Cabots have an aperture in the roof of their tomb through which they may commune with God.

The contemplation of these impressive crypts has been known to cause many young couples to linger till dusk and later. This cemetery is a community institution which deserves commendation, for it renders far more than twenty-four hour service. With the coming of Spring the care-taker will place a sign on the gate each evening phrased in the words of the Dunster House committeeman, "the grass is now dry!"