"The ornaments of some modern memorials give them a fantastic and ridiculous appearance. A cherub's head, with puffed cheeks and outspread wings, formed by one continuous line of clever flourishing, adorns the upper part of the memorial, while the inscription, written in letters of various shape and character, is also embellished with a profusion of unmeaning flourishes. Such specimens of ornamental penmanship may be necessary in the writing-master's copy book, but are utterly unbecoming the gravity of sepulchral memorials. On the same principle gaudy colouring ought to be excluded. Yet the undiscriminating mania for mediaeval taste commends the one and condemns the other. A tomb, the receptacle of man's perishing remains, should not be tricked out with gorgeously emblazoned ornaments or illuminated letters, which give it a gaudy and flaunting appearance, perfectly inconsistent with its real nature and purpose. However brightened by the resurrection of our Lord, and robbed of its terrors to the true Christian, the grave is still a solemn object".
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