Vol. XI.-No. 9. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



67 



liilc on in the midst of prosperity; conse- I the cemetoiy of Pere La Cliaise, a[)pi-eciate(i the 

 quontly there were erected hut three monutnents | beauty of the position, the diversity of tlie groiin<l 

 in this cemetery during the year 1804 



-their num- 

 ber in 1805 was but fourteen, in 180(3 nineteen, in 

 1807 twentysix, in 1808 fiftyone, in 1800 seventy, 

 in 1810 seventysix, in 1811 ninetysix, and in 1812 

 one hundred and six. Private sepidchres were 

 but little frequented, and puroliases of perpetual 

 sites for tombs very rare. Stili there was nothing 

 wanting in this establishment which could materi- 

 ally encourage a pious discharge of the duties of 

 affection towards deceased friends. The location 

 possessed the most important advantages — an able 

 manufacturer of all kinds of funereal monuments, 

 had an extensive establishment within the inclos- 

 ure, which was supplied with marble, granite, free- 

 stone, and other appropriate materials — the most 

 perfect models, and workmen of the first talents, 

 to execute with promptness all orders in the best 

 manner; the superintendent kept for sale iron pal- 

 ings of various patterns, for protecting the tombs 

 from outrage; the porter prepared wreaths and 



and were astonished at the pleasant sensations 

 which were produced, even in the midst of tomhs. 

 At this time all sepulchres were prohibited in 

 churches; the doors of the Pantheon, which had 

 been long closed to illustrious men, were then im- 

 mediately shut against the grand dignitaries of a 

 government which no longer existed, and it be- 

 came necessary to confound their remains with 

 those of the people in the dust of Pere La Chaise. 

 Military chieftains, who were known to all Europe 

 from having commanded her armies, there found 

 the term of their glory, but not of their renown; 

 the companions of their victories feared not to 

 continue their homage in the night of death ; those 

 who were emulous of their fame, were deposited 

 by their side, and there found their last place of 

 rest; foreigners looking upon their tombs, consid- 

 ered the characters of those distinguished warri- 

 ors, whose valor had so often disturbed their re- 

 pose ; Frenchmen recollected those victories, the 



crowns for relatives to embellish the sepulchres of I evanescent dream of which, still flattered their 

 their deceased friends, and undertook to decorate ! pride. At this period all perpetual sepulchres 



them with fresh flowers daily ; nevertheless every- 

 thing languished in an inclosure destined to re- 

 ceive the ashes of mortals in their last asylum; 

 a few families only honored them in secret — a 

 generous public spirit had not yet inspired the 

 whole |)cople with the fire of an ardent zeal to ven- 

 erate their relatives, in the night of the tomb. Its 

 influence began to be perceived in 1813, when the 

 monuments amounted to two hundred and forty; 

 it augmented in 1814, when five hundred and nine 

 were to be seen, and it increased in 1815, when 

 six hundred and thirtyfive appeared. During 

 these last two years affluence had introduced mar- 

 ble for the construction of the monumonts of Mad- 

 ame Guyot, M. Lenoir, Dufresne, and M. Lefebvre ; 

 tli3 pyramid of Clary was erected; excavated in 

 the side of the bill was the tomb of the family of 

 Delespine ; the mortuary edifice of the family of 

 Poreet was constructed, anrl the tomb of the Abbe 

 Delille consecrated his grave. Still, on the 31st 

 of December, there were only one thousand eight 

 hundred and seventysevcn tombs or sepulchral 

 monuments in the cemetery of Pere La Chaise ; 

 but in 1827 there were three thousand, whose 

 erection cost between three and four millions of 

 francs; and the wholi; number of bodies interred 

 was 1GG,800, not inrhuling those biu-ied in the 

 compartment of the Jews. The average numbe 

 of inhinnaiions annually, from 1820 to 1824, was 

 745 in perpetual sepulchres, 1546 in temporary 

 graves, and 7,885 in the compartment for the poor. 

 The receipts during the year 1828 for the sale of 

 sites, for temporary and perpetual sepulchres, 

 amounted to 247,951 francs, and they have annu- 

 ally increased since. 



It is interesting to examine the causes of this 

 great change in public sentiment and manners ; — 

 they are worthy the consideration of the enlight- 

 ened. 



The first reverses of France, whose armies had 

 always been victorious for a period of twentysix 

 years, produced in 1815, a universal gloom. Du- 

 ring the same year, the death of the Abbe Delille, 

 overwhelmed the friends of literature with grief, 

 and the death of Gretry was a subject of mourn- 

 ing among the amateurs of music; an imnjense 

 concourse attended their obsecpiies. During pe- 

 riods of calamity wo give ourselves np to serious 

 reflections, and this multitude, which had thronged 



were forbidden in the other burial places of Paris, 

 and the cemetery of Pere La Chaise, consequent- 

 ly became the place of rendezvous for all the great 

 and opulent in Paris ; for the illustrious in letters, 

 the sciences and the arts ; for those who were 

 successful in commerce, and tbe numerous branch- 

 es of national industry ; for persons eminent from 

 their public stations, and for men distinguished in 

 political events. The spoils of the dead were 

 here collected, fiimilies were reunited, all 0])inions 

 were confounded, and strangers mingled their 

 ashes with those of tbe inhabitants of Paris. Each 

 signalized his piety, by monuments proportioned 

 to his pecuniary means, rather than the merit of 

 the deceased relative. No one was willing to be 

 considered wanting in gratitude, but rather that 

 he possessed an elevated soul. Universal admi- 

 ration was the appendage of good hearts, whose 

 sensibility ceased not to offer in secret a sincere 

 homage to their friends, in shedding tears upon 

 their dearly cherished remains, by embellishing 

 their tombs, and in crowning them with wreaths 

 of flowers; the multitude attempted to imitate 

 them by cultivating plants on the graves of their 

 relatives and by bringing garlands from a distance 

 to ornament them. To devote a connexion to 

 oblivion was deemed a disgrace. Strangers who 

 beheld this revolution in the custon)S and manners 

 of the Parisians, were anxious to verify it, by vis- 

 iting the Cemetery of Pere La Chaise. They 

 were filled with admiration to find in a burial 

 place, whatever there was in nature which could 

 give satisfaction to the mind, and everything in 

 the arts which could gratify a refined taste, as 

 v.'ell as lessons of tbe most exalted philosophy, 

 and of the soundest morals. All extolled it as a 

 phenomenon ; it acquired in a few years, an Eu- 

 ropean celebrity, which would have been still far- 

 ther extended, if it had been known what a pic- 

 ture of national manners was there presented, and 

 what impressive admonitions for the human heart 

 were there inculcated. 



The magnificent sites of this inclosure have in- 

 duced the o|)ulent to recall the arts for the em- 

 bellishment of the final receptacles of their rela- 

 tives. Gerius was no longer restrained to contract 

 his thoughts within tbe narrow limits of a church, 

 where he was only permitted to ornament one of 

 its sides with a mausoleum. Here be could give 



perfection to a monument, in which all the parts 

 were admirable in style, proporiion, ornament and 

 beauty. Each artist could choose the most favor- 

 able position for tbe execution of his design ; and 



ppy is the architect or sculptor who is enabled to 

 study well his plan before putting it in execution ; 

 and not less fortunate is he, if not ojjposed by false 

 taste or the parsimony of those who require his 

 services. 



In j)assing over these grounds, where repose so 

 many Frenchmen in the long .sleep of death, it is 

 surjjrising to behold every form of tomb, used 

 among all the nations of tbe earth, from the pyra- 

 mid reared by Egyptian (jride, to announce in re- 

 ality the profound humility of the princes who 

 caused them to be constructed, because they 

 could not occupy iii the immense pile, but a small 

 and gloomy cell, to the basket of fiowers under 

 which tbe Turk and the Persian await the mo- 

 ment of being awakened to everlasting life. There 

 are to be seen near each other, the Egyptian sar- 

 cophagus decorated with orillons, the stele of tbe 

 Greeks, their cenotaphs and their monuments, — 

 the antique bourn of the Romans, and their mau- 

 soleums reproduced upon the soil of France, — the 

 coliimbariums of tbe ancients, in the moituary 

 chapels and tombs, — the Greek orders near the 

 architecture of the Arabs,- — the leaves of the Ac- 

 anthus and the Doric triglyphs, not far from wreaths 

 of natural foliage, — the cinerary urn, tbe hideous 

 form of the coflin, the sable wing of the Egyp- 

 tians, reversed flambeaus, the bird of death, beads 

 of contrition, crosses of every form, crowns of oak 

 and myrtle, rose buds, the jielican nourishing her 

 young with her own blood, tbe hund)le grave stone 

 at tbe base of the superb mausoleum, roughly ham- 

 mered granite near the best i)olished marble, the 

 image of an illustrious man near the fignie of an 

 unknown person, marble sparkling upon more 

 than a thousand sepulchres, bronze formed into a 

 funereal monuments, and a thatched but, furnishca 

 a fond mother a protection for the ashes of her 

 sons ; finally, there exists such a variety in the 

 forms and arrangement of the three thousand 

 stone monuments, that there cannot be discovered 

 among one hundred and fiftyniue small tombs, and 

 more than six hundred mausoleums, or mortuary 

 structures, any which arc exactly alike ; neverthe- 

 less, all tbe productions of art, collected in this 

 place, are not worthy of admiration ; the fantasti- 

 cal, the ugly, and the deformed, are exhibited near 

 the beainiful and elegant ; but even their defects 

 cause those to be more fully appreciated, which 

 are truly splendid, perfect and admirable: thus 

 disorder sometimes produces the sublime; art 

 employs sbaibjws to produce more splendor, by 

 their magical effects; and the great artificer of the 

 universe ofieii approximates tbe most tremendous 

 of tbe works, which are formed by his almighty 

 hands. 



Persons learned in the arts are much interest- 

 ed in the examination of the monuments of Abe- 

 lard and Eloise, Count Monge and tbe family of 

 Hennecart; the sepulchral chapels of Madiime de 

 Bassano, the family of Marshal McDouakl.M. Ba- 

 zouin and of the families cf Vigicr, Iloudaille and 

 Morainville; the monuments of Duke de Drcres, 

 Count de Bourcke, Marshals Lefebvre, Massena, 

 and Perignon ; of General Foy ; tbe imposing 

 mausoleums of Countess Demidofl"; the marble 

 cross which surmounts the sepulchre of Messrs 

 De Saulx-Tavannes ; the bronze monument jilaced 

 over the grave ofM. Chagot, the proprietor of tho 



