A Visit to the Monastery of La Trappe in 1817: With Notes Taken During a Tour Through Le Perche, Normandy, Bretagne, Poitou, Anjou, Le Bocage, Touraine, Orleanois, and the Environs of Paris.; Illustrated with Numerous Coloured Engravings, from Drawings Made on the SpotFellowes, W. D. (William Dorset)
Religion
A Visit to the Monastery of La Trappe in 1817: With Notes Taken During a Tour Through Le Perche, Normandy, Bretagne, Poitou, Anjou, Le Bocage, Touraine, Orleanois, and the Environs of Paris.; Illustrated with Numerous Coloured Engravings, from Drawings Made on the Spot
Fellowes, W. D. (William Dorset)
Abbaye de la Trappe (Soligny-la-Trappe, France); France -- Description and travel
The monument of Madame Cottin, the author of Elizabeth and of
Mathilde, is, like her writings, simple and affecting!-Surrounded by a
trellis work in the form of an arbour, planted with rose trees, stands
a pillar of the whitest marble, highly polished, inclining forwards,
and engraved with:
ICI REPOSE
Marie-Sophie Risteav
Veuve de J.M. Cottin
Décédée le 25 Août.
1815.
Near this is the tomb of the esteemed and celebrated poet Delille, the
"Songster of the Gardens," as the French term him. The monument is
enclosed in a small garden, planted with the choicest flowers and
shrubs: it is of white marble, of large dimensions, and approached
by an _allée verte_. The door leading to the vault is of brass, with
emblematical figures in relief: above the entrance is inscribed in
letters of gold.
JACQVES-DELILLE.
The linden tree, intermixed with various evergreens, form an
interesting and beautiful bouquet around it.
Beyond this, to the right, are the tombs of Grétry the composer,
Fourcroy the great chemist, Fontenelle, Boileau, Racine, and of
Mademoiselle Raucourt, the celebrated actress, to whom the bigotry
of the clergy refused burial in consecrated ground in 1815! a
circumstance which gave rise to much clamour and dissatisfaction. It
is surprising, that after such events as have been experienced in
France, the folly of denying the right of consecrated ground to a
comedian should have been persevered in, _after the restoration_ of
Louis XVIII!
Close to the tomb of Mad'lle Raucourt, is one, which for its affecting
simplicity and modesty, struck me very forcibly: in a little garden of
roses and lilies, and amidst some tufts of mignonette which appeared
to have been newly watered, stood a plain marble column, with the
words as represented in the annexed sketch--an accacia shaded it from
the sun's rays. In 1814, when the Allies approached Paris, this
height, like the others commanding the capital, was fortified,
and occupied by the students of the Polytechnical School,
who defended it with great gallantry. The walls were perforated with
holes for the musketry: the marks are still visible where they have
been since filled up. On the 30th of March, 1814, this position
was vigorously attacked, with great slaughter on both sides: the
assailants and the assailed fell in heaps, and it was not until
the chief part of a Prussian corps, (that afterwards carried it by
assault) had been annihilated, that the brave youths gave way.
[Illustration]
The tomb of my early friend and brother officer, the brave and
unfortunate Captain Wright, who was murdered in the Temple, is in
the cemetery of Vaugirard. I had searched for it in vain at Père la
Chaise, where it was reported he had been buried. It has on it the
following inscription, written to his memory by his companion in arms,
and in imprisonment, the gallant Sir Sidney Smith:
HERE LIES INHUMED
JOHN WESLEY WRIGHT,
BY BIRTH AN ENGLISHMAN,
CAPTAIN IN THE BRITISH NAVY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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