1775. "In the afternoon I vifited Mr. Freron the journalist. He spoke Latin very Etat. 66. fcantily, but feemed to understand me.-His houfe not fplendid, but of commodious fize.-His family, wife, fon, and daughter, not elevated but decent. I was pleased with my reception. He is to tranflate my book, which I am to fend him with notes. "Oct. 15. Sunday. At Choifi, a royal palace on the banks of the Seine, about 7 m. from Paris.-The terrace noble along the river.-The rooms numerous and grand, but not discriminated from other palaces.-The chapel beautiful, but small.-China globes.-Inlaid table.-Labyrinth.-Sinking table. Toilet tables. "Oct. 16. Monday. The Palais Royal very grand, large, and lofty.-A very great collection of pictures.-Three of Raphael.-Two Holy Family.One fmall piece of M. Angelo.-One room of Rubens.-I thought the pictures of Raphael fine. "The Thuilleries.-Statues.-Venus.-En. and Anchifes in his arms.Nilus. Many more.-The walks not open to mean perfons.-Chairs at night hired for two fous a piece.-Pont tournant. - "Austin Nuns.-Grate.—Mrs. Fermor, Abbess.-She knew Pope, and thought him difagreeable.—Mrs. — has many books ;-has feen life.— Their frontlet difagreeable.-Their hood.-Their life easy.-Rise about five; hour and half in chapel.-Dine at ten.-Another hour and half at chapel; half an hour about three, and half an hour more at feven :-four hours in chapel.-A large garden.-Thirteen penfioners.-Teacher complained. "At the Boulevards faw nothing, yet was glad to be there.-Rope-dancing and farce.-Egg dance. "N. [Note.] Near Paris, whether on week-days or Sundays, the roads empty. "Oct. 17. Tuesday. At the Palais Marchand.-I bought "We heard the lawyers plead.-N. As many killed at Paris as there are days in the year.-Chambre de queftion.-Tournelle at the Palais Marchand.— An old venerable building. "The Palais Bourbon, belonging to the Prince of Condé. Only one fmall wing shown ;-lofty ;- fplendid;-gold and glass.-The battles of the 2 great great Condé are painted in one of the rooms. The prefent Prince a grandfire at thirty-nine. "The fight of palaces, and other great buildings, leaves no very diftinct images, unless to those who talk of them, and imprefs them. As I entered, my wife was in my mind': fhe would have been pleased. Having now nobody to please, I am little pleased. "N. In France there is no middle rank. "So many fhops open, that Sunday is little diftinguifhed at Paris.-The palaces of Louvre and Thuilleries granted out in lodgings. "In the Palais de Bourbon, gilt globes of metal at the fire-place. “ Oct. 18. Wednesday. We went to Fontainebleau, which we found a large mean town, crouded with people.-The foreft thick with woods, very extenfive.-Manucci fecured us lodging.--The appearance of the country pleafant.-No hills, few ftreams, only one hedge.-I remember no chapels nor croffes on the road.-Pavement ftill, and rows of trees. "N. Nobody but mean people walk in Paris. « Oct. 19. Thursday. At court, we faw the apartments ;-the King's bedchamber and council-chamber extremely fplendid.-Perfons of all ranks in the external rooms through which the family paffes;-fervants and masters.Brunet with us the fecond time. "The introductor came to us;-civil to me.-Prefenting.-I had fcruples. Not neceffary. We went and faw the King and Queen at dinner.We faw the other ladies at dinner-Madame Elizabeth, with the Princess of Guimené.-At night we went to a comedy. I neither faw nor heard.Drunken women. Mrs. Th. preferred one to the other. "Oct. 20. Friday. We faw the Queen mount in the foreft.-Brown habit; rode afide: one lady rode afide.-The Queen's horfe light grey;martingale. She galloped. We then went to the apartments, and admired them. Then wandered through the palace. In the paffages, ftalls and fhops.Painting in fresco by a great mafter, worn out. We faw the King's horfes and dogs.-The dogs almost all English.-Degenerate. "The horses not much commended.-The stables cool; the kennel filthy. "At night the ladies went to the opera. I refused, but should have been welcome. His tender affection for his departed wife, of which there are many evidences in his "The 1775. Ætat. 66. 1775. Etat. 66. "The King fed himself with his left hand as we. Saturday, 21. In the night I got ground.-We came home to Paris.I think we did not fee the chapel.-Tree broken by the wind.-The French chairs made all of boards painted. "N. Soldiers at the court of juftice.-Soldiers not amenable to the magiftrates.-Dijon woman'. Faggots in the palace.-Every thing flovenly, except in the chief rooms. Sunday, Oct. 22. To Versailles, a mean town.-Carriages of business pafling. Mean fhops against the wall.-Our way lay through Séve, where the China manufacture.-Wooden bridge at Séve, in the way to Verfailles.The palace of great extent.-The front long; I faw it not perfectly.-The Menagerie. Cygnets dark; their black feet; on the ground; tame.-Halcyons, or gulls. Stag and hind, young.-Aviary, very large: the net, wire.-Black ftag of China, finall.-Rhinoceros, the horn broken and pared away, which, I fuppofe, will grow; the bafis, I think, four inches crofs; the fkin folds like loofe cloth doubled over his body, and crofs his hips; a vast animal though young; as big, perhaps, as four oxen.-The young elephant, with his tufks just appearing. The brown bear put out his paws;-all very tame.-The lion. The tigers I did not well view.-The camel, or dromedary with two bunches, called the Huguin, taller than any horfe.-Two camels with one bunch.-Among the birds was a pelican, who being let out, went to a fountain, and swam about to catch fish. His feet well webbed: he dipped his head, and turned his long bill fidewife. He caught two or three fish, but did not eat them. " Trianon is a kind of retreat appendant to Verfailles. It has an open portico; the pavement, and, I think, the pillars, of marble.-There are many rooms which I do not diftinctly remember.-A table of porphyry, about five feet long, and between two and three broad, given to Lewis XIV. by the Venetian. State. In the council-room almost all that was not door or window, was, I think, looking-glafs.-Little Trianon is a fmall palace like a gentleman's houfe. The upper floor paved with brick.-Little Vienne.-The court is ill paved. The rooms at the top are small, fit to footh the imagination with privacy. In the front of Versailles are small bafons of water on the terrace, • See p. 503. This epithet fhould be applied to this animal with one bunch. and 1 and other bafons, I think, below them.-There are little courts.-The great gallery is wainscotted with mirrors, not very large, but joined by frames. I fuppofe the large plates were not yet made.-The play-house was very large. The chapel I do not remember if we faw.-We faw one chapel, but I am not certain whether there or at Trianon.-The foreign office paved with bricks. The dinner half a Louis each, and, I think, a Louis over.-Money given at Menagerie, three livres; at palace, fix livres. -- "Oct. 23. Monday. Laft night I wrote to Levet. We went to see the looking-glaffes wrought. They come from Normandy in caft plates, perhaps the third of an inch thick. At Paris they are ground upon a marble table, by rubbing one plate on another with grit between them. The various fands, of which there are faid to be five, I could not learn. The handle, by which the upper glass is moved, has the form of a wheel, which may be moved in all directions. The plates are fent up with their furfaces ground, but not polished, and fo continue till they are befpoken, left time should spoil the furface, as we were told. Those that are to be polished, are laid on a table covered with feveral thick cloths, hard ftrained, that the resistance may be equal; they are then rubbed with a hand rubber, held down hard by a contrivance which I did not well understand. The powder which is used laft feemed to me to be iron diffolved in aqua fortis: they called it, as Baretti faid, marc de l'eau forte, which he thought was dregs. They mentioned vitriol and faltpetre. The cannon ball fwam in the quickfilver. To filver them, a leaf of beaten tin is laid, and rubbed with quickfilver, to which it unites. Then more quickfilver is poured upon it, which, by its mutual [attraction] rifes very high. Then a paper is laid at the nearest end of the plate, over which the glafs is flided till it lies upon the plate, having driven much of the quickfilver before it. It is then, I think, preffed upon cloths, and then fet floping to drop the fuperfluous mercury; the flope is daily heigthened towards a perpendicular. "In the way I faw the Grêve, the mayor's houfe, and the Baftile. "We then went to Sans-terre, a brewer. He brews with about as much fame price, though he pays no duty for malt, and little more than half as much for beer. Beer is fold retail at 6d. a bottle. He brews 4,000 barrels a year. There are seventeen brewers in Paris, of whom none is fuppofed to brew more than he :reckoning them at 3,000 each, they make 51,000 a year.-They make their malt, for malting is here no trade. malt as Mr. Thrale, and fells his beer at the "The moat of the Baftile is dry. 1775. 1775. "Oct. 24. Tuesday. We vifited the King's library-I faw the Speculum Etat. 66. bumane Salvationis, rudely printed, with ink, fometimes pale, fometimes black; part supposed to be with wooden types, and part with pages cut on boards.The Bible, fupposed to be older than that of Mentz, in 62: it has no date; it is supposed to have been printed with wooden types.-I am in doubt; the print is large and fair, in two folios.—Another book was shown me, supposed to have been printed with wooden types;-I think, Durandi Sanctuarium in 58. This is inferred from the difference of form, fometimes feen in the fame letter, which might be ftruck with different puncheons.-The regular fimilitude of most letters proves better that they are metal.-I saw nothing but the Speculum which I had not feen, I think, before. "Thence to the Sorbonne.-The library very large, not in lattices like the King's. Marbone and Durandi, q. collection 14 vol. Scriptores de rebus Gallicis, many folios.-Hiftoire Genealogique of France, 9 vol.—Gallia Chriftiana, the first edition, 4to. the laft, f. 12 vol.-The Prior and Librarian dined [with us]:-I waited on them home. Their garden pretty, with covered walks, but small; yet may hold many ftudents.-The Doctors of the Sorbonne are all equal;-choose those who fucceed to vacancies.-Profit little. Oct. 25. Wednesday. I went with the Prior to St. Cloud, to fee Dr. Hooke. We walked round the palace, and had fome talk.-I dined with our whole company at the Monaftery.-In the library, Beroald,-Cymon,— Titus, from Boccace Oratio Proverbialis; to the Virgin, from Petrarch; Falkland to Sandys;-Dryden's Preface to the third vol. of Miscellanies 3. "Oct. 26. Thursday. We faw the china at Séve, cut, glazed, painted. Bellevue, a pleasing house, not great: fine prospect.-Meudon, an old palace.— Alexander in porphyry: hollow between eyes and nofe, thin cheeks.-Plato and Ariftotle.-Noble terrace overlooks the town.-St. Cloud.-Gallery not very high, nor grand, but pleasing.-In the rooms, Michael Angelo, drawn by himself, Sir Thomas More, Des Caites, Bochait, Naudæus, Mazarine.— Gilded wainscot, fo common that it is not minded.-Gough and Keene.Hooke came to us at the inn.-A meffage from Drumgould. "Oct. 27. Friday. I ftaid at home.-Gough and Keene, and Mrs. S's friend dined with us.-This day we began to have a file.The weather is grown very cold, and I fear, has a bad effect upon my breath, which has grown much more free and eafy in this county. "Sat. Oct. 28. I visited the Grand Chartreux built by St. Louis.It is built for forty, but contains only twenty-four, and will not maintain He means, I fuppofe, that he read thefe different pieces, while he remained in the library. more |