ust of the composer
in a marble niche. Soon after Chopin's death voluntary contributions
were collected, and a committee under Delacroix's presidence was formed,
for the erection of a monument, the execution of which was entrusted to
Clesinger, the husband of Madame Sand's daughter, Solange. Although
the sculptor's general idea is good--a pedestal bearing on its front a
medallion, and surmounted by a mourning muse with a neglected lyre in
her hand--the realisation leaves much to be desired. This monument was
unveiled in October, 1850, on the anniversary of Chopin's death.

[FOOTNOTE: On the pedestal of the monument are to be read besides the
words "A. Frederic Chopin" above the medallion, "Ses amis" under the
medallion, and the name of the sculptor and the year of its production
(J. Clesinger, 1850), the following incorrect biographical data:
"Frederic Chopin, ne en Pologne a Zelazowa Wola pres de Varsovie: Fils
d'un emigre francais, marie a Mile. Krzyzanowska, fille d'un gentilhomme
Polonais."]

The friends of the composer, as we learn from an account in John Bull
(October 26, 1850), assembled in the little chapel of Pere-Lachaise, and
after a religious service proceeded with the officiating priest at their
head to Chopin's grave. The monument was then unveiled, flowers and
garlands were scattered over and around it, prayers were said, and M.
Wolowski, the deputy, [FOOTNOTE: Louis Francois Michel Raymond Wolowski,
political economist, member of the Academie des Sciences Morales, and
member of the Constituante. A Pole by birth, he became a naturalised
French subject in 1834.] endeavoured to make a speech, but was so much
moved that he could only say a few words.

[FOOTNOTE: In the Gazette muticale of October 20, 1850, we read: "Une
messe commemorative a ete dite jeudi dernier [i.e., on the 17th] dans la
chapelle du cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise a la memoire de Frederic Chopin
et pour l'inauguration de son monument funebre."]

The Menestrel of November 3, 1850, informed its readers that in the
course of the week (it was on the 30th October at eleven o'clock) an
anniversary mass had been celebrated at the Madeleine in honour of
Chopin, at which from two to three hundred of his friends were present,
and that Franchomme on the violoncello and Lefebure-Wely on the organ
had played some of the departed master's preludes, or, to quote our
authority literally, "ont redit aux assistants emus les preludes si
pleins de melancolie