Land once consecrated or used for burial cannot afterwards be sold or used for secular purposes, except of course by an Act of Parliament; “footpaths may, however, be provided in a consecrated but disused burial ground, and the ground may be planted, so as in effect, though not nominally, to make it a public garden.”[230] A cemetery must not be constructed within 200 yards of any dwelling house, without the consent in writing of the owner, lessee, and occupier of such house; but there is no prohibition upon anyone to prevent their building a house close to a cemetery after it has been established.[231] Chapels may be built in cemeteries for the performance of the burial services, and the grounds may be laid out and embellished as the local authority may deem fit. The cemetery must be enclosed by walls or other sufficient fences or iron railings 8 feet in height; it must be properly sewered and drained, but such drainage must not flow into any “stream, canal, reservoir, aqueduct, pond or watering place.”[232] Cemeteries are divided into consecrated and unconsecrated portions by bond stones or other suitable marks; a chapel must be built upon the consecrated portion, although it does not seem to be compulsory to do so upon the unconsecrated portion. The selection of a proper site on sanitary and other grounds for a cemetery is one of the greatest importance, and a town surveyor, or anyone who has this duty to perform, cannot do better than keep the following words of the well-known sanitary engineer Mr. Eassie before him:[233] “A well-chosen cemetery is one whose soil is dry, close, and yet porous, permitting the rain and its accompanying air to reach a reasonable depth, and so expedite decay. The formation is also well covered with vegetable mould, which assists in neutralising any hurtful emanations, and encourages the growth of shrubs. The subsoil is also of such a kind as to need no under draining, and such as will prevent the water lodging in any grave or vault. It will also stand exposed to the north or north east winds which are dry, and which do not hold the putrefactive gases in solution, like the moist south or south westerly winds.”