From the Richmond Commercial Bulletin, 9/26/1865, p. 3, c. 2

SHOCKOE HILL BURYING GROUND. – This once beautiful place of rest for the silent dead, has been so long neglected that it has grown up thickly with grass and weeds, and brier bushes, five or six feet high, obscure the once green graves, so that it is a matter of impossibility for friends of the departed to visit their last resting places. Rose bushes and sweet flowers, that had been planted by the hand of distressed affection, are choked with the rank over-growth, and bloom no more. At night the Shockoe Hill burying ground is a place of common assignation for rowdies, soldiers and women of bad repute, and passers-by may hear, too, the sounds of ribald jest and obscene song issuing from the shades of this – that should be – hallowed places. Is there no keeper of the place? – There used to be. If not, for pity’s sake, let the friends of those whose dust reposes here, spend a trifle and have the briers and weeds cut away.

Doubtless, there are some graves in this cemetery upon which no tear has fallen, or which has been visited by no friend or relative these many years. Hard by the western gate is a row of grave stones, bearing the name of “Elliott,” all of whom died between the years 1792 and 1811. The periwinkle clusters closely and luxuriantly about the head-stones, and a thick matting of many years growth of grass covers the now sunken graves. Other grave-stones bear still older dates, and it cannot be expected that any relative will be found to clear away the rubbish, but it should be attended to by somebody.

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