Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn as a Horticultural Innovator | Page 13

Stories Behind the Stones:
Stones of Sentiment in a Cherished Landscape
by Brian A. Sullivan, Archivist
A closer look at the landscape of Mount Auburn
can yield evidence of
profoundly personal
examples of monumental
commemoration. On
Bellwort Path (Lot 2640),
the resting place of
scientist Louis Agassiz
(1807–1883) is marked
by a boulder from his
native Switzerland. His
wife, Elizabeth Cary
Agassiz (1822–1907),
co-founder and first
president of Radcliffe
College, wrote of the monument,
“the land of his birth and the
land of his adoption are united
in his grave.”
The grave of Irish poet and
patriot Fanny Parnell (1848–
1882) buried in the family lot
(Lot 167, Violet Path) of the
Tudors—her grandmother’s
family—is also graced by a
boulder, dedicated in 2001,
from her birthplace at Avondale
House, County Wicklow, Ireland.
Enduring artifacts from other
treasured landscapes include the
diminutive boulder (Lot 387, Alder Path) dedicated to Fanny
E. Lane (1847–1926), which originates from “Brookside” in
Weston, Mass., “the home she loved so well.”
Song Sparrow
About the Author
by Valerie Gillies
Little streaked ground
feeder loves to hop around
these grassy mounds
low brushy leas
then suddenly
flies up into the tree
puts back his head and bursts
out into song – bosky husky
the short notes first
with one long trill to
zieeeeee he’s telling you
something tipo zeet zeet new
The grave of Thomas Johnston Homer (1813–1880)
is marked by a puddingstone boulder (Lot 4666, Hazel
Path) with a plaque inscribed “this stone taken from his
home in Roxbury is
placed here by his wife
and children as a memory
of him whom they love
and honor.” His grand-
daughter, Rose Standish
Nichols (1872–1960), one
of America’s first female
landscape architects (Lot
4561,Clethra Path), recalled
that her “…active interest
in garden making began
when as a child, under
the guidance of my
grandfather, Thomas
Johnston Homer, I cul-
tivated a tiny posy bed
on his Roxbury estate.”
Although the garden
of her grandfather was
irrevocably changed
over time, Ms. Nichols
may have found solace
that a fragment of that
place she once knew and
loved endures at Mount
Auburn Cemetery.
photo by george mclean
Valerie Gillies is one of Scotland’s
best-loved poets. She was the
Edinburgh Makar (poet laureate
to the city) from 2005 to 2008.
She has returned to Edinburgh to
take up a post as a Royal Literary
Fellow after spending 2009-2010
on sabbatical, researching at Har-
vard. She is currently completing
a volume of selected poems,
including new work written in
America. “Song Sparrow” was
written after a visit to Mount
Auburn.
Fall 2010 | 11