cuous from their
height, with a fine open circular space, on which festivals are
celebrated on public days, and plans are now pursuing for finishing and
embellishing this spot. A pleasant walk along the Boulevards will bring
us to the celebrated cemetery of Pere-La-Chaise, on which there has been
so much written by tourists, poets, and even novelists; thus I fear all
I can state upon the subject will appear but tame, after such choice
spirits have favoured the public with their inspirations on so
interesting a retreat, I shall, therefore, only attempt to give a few
matter of fact indications.

It consists of a large tract of ground on the slope of a hill, was
celebrated for the beauty of its situation in the fourteenth century,
and under Louis the XIV as the abode of Pere-La-Chaise, having for 150
years been the favourite country house of the Jesuits, and at present
the favourite burying place of the Parisians. In the 14th century a
house was erected on the spot by a rich grocer, named Regnault, and was
by the people named La Folie Regnault; after belonging to different
parties, it was purchased for 160,000 francs, for its present purpose.
Its extent is nearly 100 acres; all that trees, shrubs, plants, and
flowers can avail towards embellishing a spot, has been effected; the
sculptor's hand has also been contributed in a most eminent degree, and
fancy seems to have exhausted her caprices in conceptions of forms and
fashions with regard to the monuments here assembled, and some are as
highly picturesque as can be well imagined; others are grand and
imposing, whilst a few there are, whose simplicity render them the most
interesting, so much is there in association that perhaps none is more
touching than that of Abelard and Heloise; it is formed of stones
gathered from the ruins of the Abbey of Paraclete, founded by Abelard,
of which Heloise was the first abbess. Amongst the number of monuments
here assembled, there will be found those whose names have lived and
will live in history: marshals, admirals, generals, authors, travellers,
senators, and celebrated characters of all nations, in fact what with
the extreme beauty of the scene, the splendid view that expands before
one, and the tone of reflexions that are engendered by the many
affecting appeals there are to the heart, upon the different monuments,
I know of no spot that one can visit, calculated to excite deeper
impressions. We have imitated near London the same de