“Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig my grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
“This be the verse you grave for me,
Here he lies where he longed to be,
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.”
Cecil John Rhodes admired the grandeur of the Matoppo Hills in Rhodesia, and directed in his will that he be buried there in a square to be cut out of the rock on the top of a hill at a point which commanded a magnificent view of the surrounding country.
Helen Hunt Jackson, the authoress, was buried at her direction, on Cheyenne Mountain, near the top of Seven Falls, a short distance from Colorado Springs, Colorado; she desired this for her last resting place, on account of her love for the surroundings, which are of rare beauty, and which no doubt gave her inspiration for her literary productions.
Thomas Jefferson, his wife and two daughters are buried near the crest of Monticello, “Little Mountain.”
Monticello, the home of Jefferson, is beautifully situated, and commands a view of the town of Charlottesville, the University of Virginia, and the neighboring country. It has long been known as one of the most picturesque spots in the South. For many years, a monument bearing the following inscription from his own pen marked Jefferson’s grave:
HERE WAS BURIED
THOMAS JEFFERSON
AUTHOR
OF THE DECLARATION OF
AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE
OF
THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA
FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, AND
FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF VIRGINIA
BORN APRIL 2D
1743 O.S.
DIED [JULY 4]
[1826]