And raised the patient's drooping spirits His skill triumphant still prevails, The elevation where its churches are situated, "John Trumbull, the author, was the son of a clergyman of the same name, and was born April 24th, 1750." He was of exceedingly delicate constitution, and early in life showed manifestations of his poetical ability. He was educated at Yale College. "In 1775 he wrote the first part of McFingal, which was immediately published at Philadelphia, where Congress was then sitting." This work was completed and published in Hartford in 1782. John Trumbull, the celebrated author of McFingal, was a native of Westbury, a "McFingal is a burlesque poem directed parish of Waterbury, which has since been against the enemies of American liberty, and seen set off under the name of Watertown. holding up to scorn and contempt the tories This is at the present day a beautiful town. and the British officers, naval, military, and It is a merciless satire In the general cultivation of the soil and civil, in America. throughout: whatever it touches it transforms; its many superior farms, it presents a strik- kings, ministers, lords, bishops, generals, judges, ing contrast with the parent town. In the admirals, all take their turn, and become, in the beautifully undulating character of the light or associations in which they are exhib land, as well as in its fine forest trees hap-ited, alternately the objects of our merriment, pily grouped over rich meadows, the environs of Watertown, viewed from the hatred, or scorn. So wedded is the author to his vein of satire that even McFingal, the friend of England, and the champion of the Tories, is made the undisguised scoffer of both them and their cause. The story of McFingal is this: the hero, a Scotchman, and justice of the peace in a town near Boston, who had two gifts by right of his birth, rebellion and the second sight,' goes to a town meeting, where he and one Honorius make speeches at each other through two whole cantos. At the end of the second canto the town meeting breaks up tumultuously, and the people gather about a liberty pole erected by the mob. Here McFingal makes a virulent speech of near two hundred lines, at the end of which he is pursued and brought back to the liberty pole, when the constable is swung aloft, and McFingal tarred and feathered. McFingal is set at liberty; he goes home, and at night makes a speech to some of his Tory friends in his cellar, extending through the rest of the poem, leaving only room to tell that the mob broke off his address in the middle, by as PORTER'S LODGE, RIVERSIDE CEMETERY. sailing the house, and McFingal escaped to Boston. These are all the incidents and this the whole story of a poem of four cautos, and consisting of some thousand lines." 110 The Cemetery of Riverside is situated at the distance of about three fourths of a mile southeasterly from the central portion of Waterbury, upon the right bank of the Naugatuck River. The name which has been adopted for this beautiful spot is most happily suggestive of its situation. From various elevations within the inclosure, the river forms a beautiful feature in the landscape, winding gracefully as it does *Kettell's Specimens of American Poetry, vol. i. through alluvial flats; beyond which on either side wooded hillsides arise, forming the line of the horizon. From that elevation in the cemetery grounds known as Forest Hill, the view, looking in a northwesterly direction, is one of great beauty. The river is here visible for the distance of some two miles. Nothing can be more pleasing in landscape than the effect produced by the numerous curves of the stream as seen from this point, sweeping gracefully along, its right bank precipitous and thickly wooded; upon its left bank rich alluvial flats, just sufficiently dotted with single trees to afford a proper disposition of light and shade to the landscape; beyond these arise wooded hillsides, while in the distance the view is bounded by hills relieved by cultivation and scattering farm houses. Near sunset the light is finest for this landscape. In the eastern portion of the cemetery the various glimpses obtained of the river, looking through the trees upon its placid waters, add greatly to the charm of the scene. Here the stream, restless and joyous as is the general character of its course, seems to pause for a moment, as man occasionally does in the midst of the turmoil of life, to contemplate his own mortality; silently and slowly the naturally turbulent river wends its way past the city of the dead. Far back in Egypt's history, before the Hellenic ages, the places of sepulture selected at Thebes and other cities upon the Nile, were always upon the opposite side of the stream from the abodes of the living, the river itself furnishing the dividing line between the cities of the living and the dead. Hence we learn that the Greeks, who received the germ of civilization from the Egyptians, established in that mythol ogy which their exquisite poetry and art have adorned and transmitted to future ages, the theory of the dead crossing the River Styx, and the poetical fancy of the grim visaged ferryman, Charon. Here, certainly, we have the most ancient authority for selecting the borders of a river for the resting-place of the dead. Nothing can form a more perpetual barrier to the encroachments of the future in our still undeveloped country. And the associations of classic antiquity, too little valued in our progressive age, are thus cherished and preserved. "The site of Riverside Cemetery was MITCHELL'S FAMILY LOT. selected, and the refusal of a portion | of the grounds obtained in 1849. In the following year a corporate association was formed under the statute law of this state, relating to burial grounds and places of sepulture; and a sufficient sum in money subscribed to purchase the first plot of ground." At a subsequent period additional ground was purchased, making the present extent of the cemetery thirty-one acres. Appropriate prayers and other services succeeded this, after which a beautiful and impressive address was pronounced by the Hon. Green Kendrick. In the closing portion of the address the speaker happily alluded to the advantageous situation of the cemetery as follows: "It lies beautifully undulating along the bank of the Naugatuck River, which serves not only as a picturesque margin on the north, but as a perpetual barrier against the encroachments of the city, from which it is at such a distance as to be convenient of access, and yet sufficiently secluded, while the many beautiful prospects it furnishes of the city and the enchanting scenery around it, with the gentle hum of business heard indistinctly in the distance, serves to divest it of that aspect of loneliness and awful stillness, which engenders only feelings of despair, and which is uncongenial with the cheering emblems of hope which a rural cemetery should ever present to the disconsolate heart. There is a diversity of hill and valley, some parts being so elevated and furnishing prospects sufficiently beautiful to suit the tastes of the most aspiring; others, so low and secluded as to harmonize with the feelings of the most humble and unpretending. The quiet little stream that runs through the center serves to enliven and diversify the scenery, and divide the grounds into two equal divisions. The soil is well adapted, being mostly free from stone, deep, and susceptible of a high state of improvement. Thus situated by nature, it will, when the imdedi-provements which are so tastefully commenced The shall be completed, become a most appropriate place for the repose of the dead, and to them we now dedicate it, until time shall cease, and the grave shall lose its power and dominion." On the 24th September, 1853, the "Time is bearing us away Inclosed in death's cold arms. The attention bestowed in our day and country upon the selection of quiet rural SKETCH ON FOREST HILL. neglected and gloomy burial grounds of former years, sometimes used as sheep pastures, or perhaps with broken inclosures which admitted freely all the animals that fed upon the common; or, again, choked with brambles, the mullen being the only flower which lifted its head above the graves, surely we must acknowledge that our improvements in this respect evince increasing refinement and civilization. retreats for the repositories of the dead, as well as the care exhibited in the cultivation and adornment of the grounds, are among the most striking proofs of advancing refinement and civilization. It is to France that we are indebted for the first example of this kind in the well-known and, in some respects, beautiful cemetery of Père la Chaise. Rural cemeteries were next introduced in the United States. England has at last adopted them, although for many ages the crypts and chapels of It was in medieval times that superher cathedrals have received for the most stition seemed most to delight in those part the ashes of her distinguished dead. I emblems of death which are revolting In Germany, Italy, and other continental countries, these improvements have not yet been introduced. In the number, extent, and beauty of the rural cemeteries of the United States, we may be assured that our beloved country excels the world. A rural cemetery in the environs of any city or town, if tastefully laid out, and improved in accordance with the present established style of landscape gardening, cannot fail of exciting a good influence upon the tastes of a people. Wherever we see these cemeteries introduced we find that gradually the stiff and formal lines of trees and walks, once SO universal upon our ST. JOHN'S CHURCH. The skull and the cross bones, and those hideous and distorted groups, both in sculpture and in painting, known as the dance of death, sprung into existence then. The refinement of the Greeks led them, even in the pagan age, to associate with the idea of death different forms of beauty; hence we have the genius of death, a beautiful figure of a youth leaning upon an inverted torch with legs crossed, holding in his hand a cluster of poppy buds, emblematic of rest, of the sleep of the grave. In the temple of Juno, at Elis, death and sleep were personified by two beautiful infants, twin brothers, reposing in the arms of grounds, are rapidly giving way to the bet- | Night. Strange that, with revealed religion ter taste exhibited in a simple copying of nature. Now we see thick clumps of trees with varied foliage, contrasting, in their dark outline and heavy masses of shadow, with irregular sunny openings of closely shaven lawn. It is no longer deemed a requisite of taste that trees should stand as prim as the lines of soldiers in a well-drilled regiment, or that walks should only be laid out with square angles and in the most precise form. When we contrast the modern rural cemeteries of New England with the and the hope held out to us beyond the vale, these beautiful images of death should have given place to others distorted and repulsive. The natural adaptation of the grounds of Riverside to the purposes of a cemetery is very remarkable. Here every variety of surface is found; bold eminences, picturesque and shaded dells, quiet valleys. The wildest portions are left for the most part in their natural state, others have been highly improved; hence the grounds present that contrast, so desirable in land Great credit is due to Howard Daniels, Esq., of New York, the civil engineer, as well as to the superintendent, Mr. John North. It is unusual to find such perfect harmony in landscape gardening; all the available natural beauties of the spot seem to have struck the quick eye of Mr. Daniels, and he has developed them to the best possible advantage. The prominent position which is now assigned to Waterbury among the manufacturing places of New England, gives a degree of interest to the early development of manufactures here. Waterbury, from near the period of its first settlement, contained the elements of manufacturing spirit. During the war of the Revolution guns were made here by Lieutenant Ard Welton, who died in the present century, on his farm at Buck's Hill, (so called,) and where some of his descendants still reside. Joseph Hopkins, Esq., a man of some distinction, afterward a judge of the county court, was the inspector of the arms, under authority of the State. This Mr. Hopkins was originally a silversmith, and manufactured shoe and knee buckles, indispensable articles in the costume of the time. After his son Jesse had ar satisfied with the slow method of casting buckles, which was one at a time, invented a mold to cast six. This astounded his father, who rebuked him in the strongest terms, telling him that it was a device of the Evil One, and boded no good. Fashion, however, soon afterward changed, and there was no longer a demand for buckles. scape, of native wildness with extreme | rived at man's estate, being rather discultivation. Here is a dell filled with bold and picturesque rocks and native trees; bordering upon it a piece of closely shaven lawn, upon which is a splendid monument in Italian marble of classic design; the trees in its immediate neighborhood are exotics, but the native rocks have been preserved. The grounds are for the most part wooded, and afford every variety of native tree to be found in this vicinity. Ezra Bronson, Esq., a man of educa |