Am just returned from a visit to that vast field of repose - Pere Lachaise. Was astonished at the number of monuments mostly in stone and marble and of all possible variety in form - temples, pyramids, obelisks, columns etc.

The marble temple with Doric columns, erected by her husband the Russian prince Demidoff to the princess of that name is among the most modern and beautiful, as also those erected Massena, Suchet and Lefebre. Among the most ancient are the tombs of Lafontaine and Moliere in rather a neglected state. Nearly nine tenths of the whole are in the form of a little temple, with an alter inside and name of the owners over the door as Famille Prosper Hibon, Paira Doux etc.

If they were situated any where else than in a cemetery they might be taken for temples of Clodina. Nearly all have more or less of garlands of everlastings deposited on them, renewed from time to time by the visits of the friends of the deceased. Met numbers coming for that purpose, but none absorbed in grief like the poor Turkish widow I saw at the cemetary of Stamboul. It is said the Parisians have expended at Pere Lachaise 100 million of francs, sufficient to build a town of 40,000 inhabitants during the last thirty years only -