hundred acres; it is laid out in picturesque style; its beautiful, rich foliage, and funereal flowers, have an effect solemn and deeply imposing, intersected as they are, by its variegated monumental structures; albeit there are to be seen many painful indications of the mummeries of monkish affectation, and no lack of the silly vanities, and far-fetched conceits which alike disfigure most of the burial-grounds elsewhere. The chapel, in which funeral ceremonies are performed, is about sixty feet in height; it is chaste and imposing in its architectural proportions, and is lighted within by a window in the centre of the roof. Of the numerous interesting tombs which decorate these grounds, we can only mention a few. That of Abelard and Heloise represents a Gothic chapel of much beauty. A large monument has been here erected to the memory of the French poet, De Lille, another to the chemist Foucroy, Madame Cottin, the authoress, La Fontaine, Molière, Joseph Bonaparte, Sonnini, the naturalist, St. Pierre, Langes, the Orientalist, Laplace, Cuvier, Denon, Volney, Talma, Haüy, Madame Dufresnoy (called the tenth Muse), and Madame Blanchard, who perished in 1819, by her balloon taking fire. The tomb of the unfortunate Madame Blanchard is surmounted by a globe in flames. On that of La Fontaine sits very composedly a black fox, while two bas reliefs in bronze represent, one his fable of the Wolf and Stork, and the other, that of the Wolf and the Lamb. Le Fevre has a magnificent sarcophagus, where two figures of Fame are crowning his bust, and a serpent, the emblem of immortality, encircling his sword; while Ney, "the bravest of the brave," sleeps unmarked, save by a single cypress. Some of the humbler memorials more than compensate for the absence of splendor, by their touching simplicity; take the following specimens:"Pauvre Marie! à 29 ans."-"A ma Mère."— "A mon Père." The reader must pardon the sudden transition, but we have another of a totally different character, which we may consider, for want of a better term, the Epitaph prudential; it may be rendered thus :-"Here lies N., the best of fathers, the most tender of husbands; his disconsolate widow still keeps the fancy shop, Rue Richelieu, No. -!" And, as a set-off to the above, please take the annexed, from the same cemetery : Much might be written respecting the tombs which are so thickly clustered within the vaulted aisles of Westminster Abbey, and beneath the vast dome of the great metropolitan Cathedral of London. On entering the Abbey at the south-east transept, called "Poets' Corner," the mind becomes overwhelmed with the stately grandeur and mournful magnificence of the "solemn temple;" its lofty, gilded roof, its gloomy cloisters, and "Storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light," at once fill the mind with a solemn reverence and awe; as you find yourself surrounded with the sainted effigies of the mighty dead. The monument, to the memory of Spencer, originally erected by Anne, Countess of Dorset, and having fallen into decay, was restored, in 1768, precisely in its old form: "Heare lyes (expecting the second Which he left behind him. He was borne in London, in the yeare 1553, Chaucer was buried in the cloisters of Westminister Abbey, without the building, but removed to the south aisle in 1555; Spencer lies near him. Beaumont, Drayton, Cowley, Denham, Dryden, Rowe, Addison, Prior, Congreve, Gay, Jonson, Sheridan, and Campbell, all lie within Westminster Abbey. Shakspeare, as every one knows, was buried in the chancel of the church at Stratford, where there is a monument to his memory. Chapman and Shirley are buried at St. Giles' in the Fields; Marlowe, in the church-yard of St. Paul's Deptford; Fletcher and Massinger, in the church-yard of St. Saviour's, Southwark; Dr. Donne, in Old St. Paul's; Edward Waller, in Beaconfield church-yard; Milton, in the church-yard of St. Giles', Cripplegate; Butler, in the church-yard of St. Paul's Covent Garden; Otway, no one knows where; Garth, in the church-yard at Harrow; Pope, in the church at Twickenham; Swift, in St. Patrick's, Dublin; Savage in the church-yard of St. Peter's, Dublin; Parnell, at Chester, where he died on his way to Dublin; Dr. Young, at Walwyn, in Hertfordshire, of which place he was the rector; Thomson, in the church-yard at Richmond, in Surrey; Collins, in St. Andrew's Church, at Chichester; Gray, in the church-yard at Stoke-Pogis, where he conceived his Elegy; Goldsmith, in the church-yard of the Temple Church; Falconer, at sea, with "all ocean for his grave;" Churchill, in the church-yard of St. Martin's, Dover; Cowper, in the church at Dereham; Chatterton, in a church-yard belonging to the parish of St. Andrew's, Holborn; Burns, in St. Michael's church-yard, Dumfries; Ayron, in the church at Hucknall, near Newstead; Crabbe, at Trowbridge; Coleridge, in the church at Highgate; Sir Walter Scott in Dryburgh Abbey; Southey, in Crosthwaite church, near Keswich. Passing over the rude figures of abbots in the cloisters, coeval with the time of William of Normandy, we come to St. Edward's Chapel, which is full of very ancient remains; the shrine of King Edward stands nearly in the centre. In the same chapel, a huge marble coffin containing the body of Edward, remarkable as having been opened in 1774, by a deputation of the Society of Antiquarians, when the body was found in a state of complete preservation, having on two robes, one of gold and silver tissue, the other of crimson velvet, a sceptre in each hand, a crown on his head, and many jewels still quite bright. But we must not linger over the numerous ancient relics with which every niche of this vast abbey, and its several chapelries, are so rife. The Poets' Corner is indebted for its renown, less to the sculptor's skill, than the great names to whose memory it has sought to do homage. Pope, although he contributed more epítaphs, than any besides, for others, has no memorial here of his own. It is true he did not always confer these mournful tributes without due consideration for his poetic skill. We remember one instance in which he received twenty guineas for his effusion-a very laconic one, moreover, since it did not exceed as many words, although in this consisted its singular merits. It is as follows: "She was, but words are wanting to say what; Pope was fond of writing epitaphs. The most valuable is con sidered to be that on Mrs. Corbet. It is in the north aisle of the parish church of St. Margaret, Westminster : "Here rests a woman, good without pretence, So firm, yet soft, so strong, yet so refined, The character and most prominent discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton are summed up in his epitaph, of which we give a translation : "Here lies interred Isaac Newton, knight, who, with an energy of mind almost divine, guided by the light of mathematics purely his own, first demonstrated the motions and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, and the causes of the tides; who discovered, what before his time no one had ever suspected, that the rays of light are differently refrangible, and that this is the cause of col· ors; and who was a diligent, penetrating, and faithful interpreter of nature, antiquity, and the sacred writings. In his philosophy, he maintained the majesty of the Supreme Being; in his manners he expressed the simplicity of the Gospel. Let mortals congratulate themselves that the world has seen so great and excellent a man, the glory of human nature." Brief monumental inscriptions are, after all, the most eloquent. What can exceed that of Sir Christopher Wren, in St. Paul's Cathedral, of which he was the well known architect: "Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice!" and we might add that to the memory of Sir Isaac Newton : "Isaacum Newton quem immortalem Lestantur tempus, natura, cœlum, nortalem hoc marmor Fatetur!" |