relief; the latter method is preferable. A border inscription, as in examples XI. and XII., should form a surrounding margin, which may be ornamented at the corners with armorial shields or other devices. Inscriptions may also be engraved on the vacant spaces within the border, so that one slab may serve as a memorial for several members of a family.

Coped Tombs.

Coped tombs, Nos. XIII. XIV. XV., are handsome and becoming monuments for churchyards-perhaps more so than any other kind of memorial. Their horizontal position accords with the recumbent state of the persons buried beneath them, and gives a pleasing idea of repose, while their coped or slanted form well adapts them for external monuments. The dimensions of an ordinary coped tomb are 6 ft. 6 in. long; 2 ft. 2 in. wide, and 9 in. high at the head; and 1 ft. 5 in. wide, and 7 in. high at the foot; the plinth 6 in. high. The inscription may be cut on the side of the tomb, as in No. XIV., or be engraved on the top of the coped slab, as in No. XIII. The foot of the tomb should, of course, point eastward. The cost would be about 107. or 127. if not elaborately ornamented.

Altar, or table tombs, are the most costly of churchyard monuments. They admit of great variety of design, and may be enriched with a

profusion of ornamental devices, without appearing overloaded with embellishment. They should be about 3 feet high, and well weathered at the

top. The example No. XVI. is remarkable for its simplicity and elegance.

The panels

might contain inscriptions, or be enriched with armorial shields or other decoration sculptured in basso-relievo. The cost of an altar tomb would

Fig. 16.