PANORAMA OF PERE LA CHAISE.
MR. IhraroaD whose magical pencil transports us alternately "from India to the Pole," in the last exercise of his graphic skill places us in the midst of that beautiful garden of tombs, Pere la Chaise, on the rising ground commanding a view of Paris and the surrounding country. The effect is at once pleasing and impressive. The sunlight brings out the various colours of the marble, stone, granite, and bronze tombe,and the thick foliage; and these dapple with their frequent shadows the grass and flowers that surround and adorn the graves. The spot from whence the view is taken has been chosen on account of its pictorial advantages ; and it so happens that the monuments around it are remarkable rather for their costliness and elegance, than famous as commemorating the great men of France. The heroes of NAPOLEON'S campaigns repose on the high ground above the spectator; where the statue of General Foy, under a canopy, is distinctly visible against the horizon. The only tomb of note near the eye, is the famed one of Abelard and Heloise; a Gothic structure-which style we should have expected to be more frequent here. But the prevailing character of the cluster of tombs in the foreground is Grecian, to which the French are nationally partial. Almost every grave is enclosed by a temporary railing, and planted with shrubs and flowers ; and garlands are hung upon most of the tombs. Two or three of the largest erections, having doors and glazed windows, and looking like lodges-weeping wilier, as a Cockney would say-are mausolea of families who are more distinguished in death than they were perhaps in life. These have an upstart and ostentatious look. The grave of some of the heroes of the glorious Three Days, only marked by a young tree with the tricoloured flag fastened to it, and a profusion of garlands, touched us, obscure and simple as it was, seeing what we do see now passing in France. The fame of the dead or of their deeds should outlive the tomb : monuments more frequently outlast the memory they are intended to perpetuate. Not the least in terestiag and characteristic features of Pere la Chaise, are the epitaphs. The stay-at-home travellers among our readers, after visiting the Panorama, should turn to the volume of the Spectator for 1832, and reperuse the series of papers descriptive of the inscriptions on the tombs lie has just been seeing. The painting of the panoramic picture merits unqualified praise. The tombs and the foliage and flowers in the foreground have a striking effect of verisimilitude : the figures are judiciously thrown in ; the temptation to introduce funerals and tribes of mourners has been, with good taste, avoided ; and the distant view of Paris and the heights is delineated with that union of distinctness with affect of distance, which Is seen in nature, though it is rarely attained in landscape painting.
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