in the council-chamber of Guildhall, and in 1817
he produced the exquisite monument--not to be surpassed for tenderness of
sentiment and poetic beauty--of the two children whose death this piece
of sculpture now commemorates in Lichfield cathedral. With this
achievement the race was won. In 1818 he was elected an associate of the
Royal Academy, and as soon after as the practice of the Academy admitted
he was elevated to the rank of Academican.

From this period until his death, in 1841, the career of the sculptor was
a series of noble and well rewarded efforts. He amassed a fortune, which
at his death he bequeathed to the Royal Academy for the promotion of
British art. He was a favored subject of three successive Sovereigns, and
the friend and companion of the most illustrious among his
contemporaries. His death was somewhat singular. For two years he had
been in a declining state of health, but his condition had given his
friends no immediate alarm. On the 22d of November he wrote to Sir
Charles Clarke, from Norwich, expressing his intention to go to town on
the following day, and announcing an invitation to Audley-end, which he
had accepted for the 8th of the following month. On Thursday, the 25th of
November, a friend called at his house in London, between 5 and 6
o'clock, and was pressed to dine. As he could not do so, Chantrey
accompanied his visitor on his way home as far as Buckingham Palace,
complaining on the way of a slight pain in the stomach, but at the same
time receiving his friend's condolences with jokes and laughter. The
clock struck 7 when the friends shook hands and parted. At 9 Chantrey was
dead.

Let us regard Chantrey from what point we may, the features that present
themselves to the observer bear the same unmistakable stamp. As sculptor
and as man, at home or abroad, in his serious recreations or pleasurable
pursuits, in his temper and social bearing, Francis Chantrey was a
thorough Englishman. Heaven endowed him with genius, and his sound sense
enabled him to take the precious gift as a blessing. Sheffield, that
reared him, had no cause to be uneasy on his account; the prudence and
shrewdness of the North were admirably mingled with the aesthetic
qualities of the South. In the pocketbook which accompanied the sculptor
on his Italian tour, notes were found referring to the objects of art
visited on the way, and in the same tablet were accurate accounts of
expenditure and the current prices of ma