THE

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

APRIL, 1822.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

MEMOIR OF SIR HENRY C. ENGLEFIELD, BART. F. R. S. &c. WITH A PORTRAIT.:

294

Memoir of the late Sir Henry Charles Englefield, Bart. [April,

Society of Antiquaries in the follow-
ing year. Of this latter Society he
proved himself a highly useful and va-
luable member; as his numerous con-
tributions to the Archæologia bear
ample witness. He was many years
one of the Vice-presidents; and on
the death of the late Marquis Towns-
hend, was elected President,-a well-
deserved but short-lived honour, his
religious sentiments being the alleged
barrier to his re-election, the Earl of
Aberdeen being chosen in his room.
After this he retired from all active

concern in the affairs of the Society.
He was a Fellow
Linnean
Society.

Besides various papers in the Philo-
sophical Transactions, the Archæolo-
gia, the Transactions of the Linnean
Society, and the periodical journals,
he published "Tables of the apparent
places of the Comet in 1661, whose
return is expected in 1789; with a new
method of using the reticule rhom-
boid," 4to, 1788.-"Letter to the Au-
thor of the Review of the Case of the
Protestant Dissenters," 8vo, 1790.-
"On the Determination of the Orbits
of Comets, according to the method of
Father Boscovich, and De la Place,"
4to, 1793.-"A Walk through South-
ampton,'
," with plates of its Antiqui-
ties, 8vo, 1801.-"Description of the
principal Picturesque Beauties and
Geological Phænomena of the Isle of
Wight," 4to and folio, 1816. Pre-
fixed to this handsome volume is a
portrait of Sir Henry Englefield, drawn.
by E. Scott, and engraved by Evans,
and the work is embellished with 50
other plates.

Sir Henry Englefield died at his house in Tylney Street, May Fair, March 21, 1822, in his 70th year. His remains were removed from Tylney Street, March 28th, with great funeral pomp, for interment in the antient burialplace of the family at Englefield. The North aile of the chancel was built for

their burial-place in 1514. The in-
scriptions for Sir T. Englefield, the
Speaker, Sir T. Englefield, the Jus-
tice of the Common Pleas, and some
others, recorded by Ashmole, have
been removed. The Speaker's monu-
ment remains on the North side of the
chancel. Sir Francis Englefield, the
first Baronet, was buried there in
1631; and Sir Henry, the father of
the late Baronet, in 1780.

TOUR IN FRANCE, IN 1821.
(Continued from p. 102.)
Ta period when the suburbs of the

first cities of the world evinced by the monumental tombs with which they were surrounded, the respect and veneration paid of old to the ashes of the dead, no memorial was seen, near Paris, to commemorate private excellence, departed worth, affection, or fidelity, no Siste, or abi Viator. And this is to be ascribed to a custom that prevailed, for a long period, of inhuming personages of importance only, in the several Churches of the metropolis.

In these temples of devotion, admiration beheld some grand mausoleums, raised by the hand of filial piety, and consecrated by sentiments of affection, esteem, and gratitude, to heroes illus trious for their birth, their dignified characters, or their exploits and renown; or erected to the memory of men of genius, talent, and splendid acquirements.

Common remains were scarcely honoured, or with difficulty received the most humble and modest tribute; but, with vulgar dust, were deposited in vast pits, and piled one upon the other; and so soon disturbed, that time was not afforded for their dissolution and natural decay.

Cemeteries, set apart, at first, by piety and prudence, outside of the walls of Paris, began, in succeeding ages, to be formed in the centre of the extend

In this work are the following papers by Sir H. C. Englefield: Observations on Reading Abbey; on Antient Buildings at York; Additions to Mr. King's Account of Lincoln Castle; Account of a Roman Hypocaust, discovered at Cirencester; Description of a beautiful Drawing from a capital, from the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey at York; Observations on the Font at Rotherfield Grays; Account of Antiquities discovered at Bath in 1790; Account of a Remain of Antiquity in the Churchyard of Mildenhall, Suffolk; Account of an Antient Building at Southampton; Observations on the Sculptures and Inscriptions in Romsey Abbey Church; Observations on Mr. Smirke's Account of some Remains of Gothic Architecture in Italy and Sicily. Observations on the probable consequences of the Demolition of London Bridge. To these may be added, his Descriptions of the Cathedrals, in a splendid work undertaken by the Society of Antiquaries, but discontinued long before. the series was complete.

1829.]

Tour in France, in 1821.

ing city. From these heaps of corruption were continually exhaled miasmata of putridity, which spread around the neighbourhood, and impregnated the air with epidemic disease, punishing as it were the living, for their want of respect for the dead. Terrified by sickness, occasioned by such a scourge, continually on the increase, the Parliament of Paris issued, in 1773, an ordinance to close up the cemetery of the Innocents, the most hideous and the most infectious of all.

For a period of six hundred years, the privilege of many Churches had condemned the greater part of the generations of the capital to sink into this common receptacle.

Some years afterwards, a general order was given to close all the cemeteries in the interior of Paris; but vanity and interested motives still continued interments in the Churches, a custom more dangerous, perhaps, without due precaution, than that so evidently manifest.

The Government soon found itself sufficiently powerful to violate, but on public grounds, the last asylum of the poor, and transport the half-decayed remains of mortality, to vast and deep. vaults, where the memorial of them was forgotten; and, totally to obliterate all recollection, the place of sepulture was built upon, and converted into a market!

Ten years had scarcely passed over, when sacrilegeous hands overturned, with barbarous fury, mausoleums of every kind, mutilated cenotaphs, opened the tombs enclosed by the sacred walls of Churches and Monasteries-when respect no longer was paid to the ashes of the dead, but when, in one common heap, the remains of the most illustrious dead were confusedly thrown into the same deep excavation, and mingled, equally concealed, with the bones of the vile, the base, and the obscure.

During eight years no distinction
When reverence for the
was made.
Deity, and respect for ancient customs
began to revive, the old practice of
burying in the Churches was about to
be resumed; and, together with that,
interment in inhabited places as well
But the Government
as in the city.
stopped, and at once proscribed the
This was done in 1804.
To filial affection, however, and to the
indulgence of pious sorrow for depart-

measure.

ed friends, the right was established of
shewing honour to the dead, by per-
mitting monuments to be erected to
their memory in grounds specially set
apart for their sepulture.

From that moment these dolorous
places, venerated by all ranks of people,
assumed a different aspect; a respectful
decency was not all that satisfied-over
In the
the ashes of a friend, friendship or
sympathy erected a tomb.
cemeteries of Monceaux, Montmartre,
of Popincourt, and Sainte Catherine,
filial affection consecrated the remem-
brance of a virtuous parent; con-
jugal love expressed those feelings of
sorrow and regret, at the loss of a
partner, whose solicitude was tenderly
alive to the happiness of a family-
the mother decked with myrtle the
modest tomb of a beloved infant cut
down in the dawn of existence;-hope
immortal was inscribed on a tablet
to the good man, and the mournful
cypress and the symbolic yew extended
their sombre branches over these sor-
rowful abodes of darkness and oblivion.

But there is a cemetery more imposing than any of the other places of sepulture about Paris.

Louis XIV. had a mansion built upon a hill, which was known by the name of Montlouis, for the habitation of his confessor Père Lachaise.

There are few elevated spots about Paris whence the prospect is so extensive and diversified. From the South it commands a view of the capital, the heights of Belleville, of Montmartre, and Meudon. From the East the eye is directed towards the plains of St. Mandé, Vincennes, and the populous banks of the Marne. Almost on a level with the dome of St. Geneviève it discovers its solitary walks and its numerous tombs to the traveller, as he enters Paris by the routes on the East, the South, and the West.

two

It is situated at the extremity of the new Boulevards, and is accessible from different narrow streets, which lead up to a handsome gate-entrance: pyramids, upon each of which is sculpa sarcophagus, supported by tured torches emitting flame; in a circle hollowed out in the centre, is an hourglass, embraced by two wings, signifying the rapidity of Time. To this spot, in its former state, Madame de Maintenon, the warm patroness of the opinions, and the sincere friend of Pere Lachaise, frequently repaired. After

passing

Tour in France, in 1821.