France. "Monday, 16th October.-The Palais Royal very Tour in grand, large, and lofty-A very great collection of pictures-Three of Raphael-Two Holy FamilyOne small piece of M. Angelo-One room of Rubens -I thought the pictures of Raphael fine. "The Thuilleries - Statues-Venus-En. and Anchises in his arms-Nilus-Many more-The walks not open to mean persons-Chairs at night hired for two sous a piece-Pont tournant 1. "Austin Nuns - Grate-Mrs. Fermor, AbbessShe knew Pope, and thought him disagreeable— Mrs. has many books-has seen life-Their frontlet disagreeable-Their hood-Their life easyRise about five; hour and half in chapel-Dine at ten-Another hour and half in chapel; half an hour about three, and half an hour more at seven-four hours in chapel—A large garden-Thirteen pensioners-Teachers complained. "At the Boulevards saw 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. 66 Tuesday, 17th October.-At the Palais Marchand I bought [Livres] 63-27. 12s. 6d. ster. "We heard the lawyers plead -N. As many killed 1 [Before the revolution, the passage from the garden of the Thuilleries into the Place Louis XV. was over a pont tournant, a kind of drawbridge.—ED.] 2 [The English convent of Notre Dame de Sion, of the order of St. Augustine, situated in the Rue des Fossés St. Victor.-ED.] 3 [Young ladies, who paid for their education. Before the revolution, there were no boarding schools, and all young ladies were educated in the convents.ED.] VOL. III. T France. Tour in at Paris as there are days in the year-Chambre de question-Tournelle at the Palais Marchand-An old venerable building. "The Palais Bourbon, belonging to the Prince of Condé-Only one small wing shown-lofty-splendid-gold and glass-The battles of the great Condé are painted in one of the rooms-The present prince a grandsire at thirty-nine 3. "The sight of palaces, and other great buildings, leaves no very distinct images, unless to those who talk of them-As I entered, my wife was in my mind *: she would have been pleased. Having now nobody to please, I am little pleased. "N. In France there is no middle rank 5. "So many shops open, that Sunday is little distin [This was one of the rooms of the Conciergerie, where la question-torture— was applied.-ED.] 2 [Again he mistakes, by introducing the word Marchand. The word Tournelle designated that portion of the parliament of Paris which tried criminal causes, and that part of the Palais in which they sat.-ED.] 3 [The Prince de Condé was born in 1736, and died in 1818. The grandson was the celebrated and unfortunate Duke d'Enghein, born in 1775, murdered in 1804. The father, "restes infortuneés du plus beau sang du monde," still lives under his former title of Duc de Bourbon.-ED.] 4 His tender affection for his departed wife, of which there are many evidences in his “Prayers and Meditations," appears very feelingly in this passage. BOSWELL. 5 [This observation, which Johnson afterwards repeats, was unfounded in the sense in which he appears to have understood it. France was in theory divided (as England is) into the clergy, the nobles, and the commons, and so it might be said that there was no middle rank; but not only did the theoretical constitution of society thus resemble that of England, but so did its practical details. There were first the peers of France, who had seats and voices in the parliament, but were of little weight as a political body, from the smallness of their numbers, and because their parliament had only continued to be, what we still call ours, a high court, and had lost its legislative functions ;-next came the noblesse— the gentilhommes-answering to our gentry;—then the middle classes of society, composed of the poorer gentry, lawyers, medical men, inferior clergy, literary men, merchants, artists, manufacturers, notaries, shopkeepers, in short, all those who in every country constitute the middle classes, and they undoubtedly existed in France in their due proportion to the gentry on one hand, and the working classes on the other. Johnson's remark is the stranger, because it would seem that his intercourse while in Paris was almost exclusively with persons of this middle class; but it must be observed, that his intercourse and his consequent sources of information were not extensive. Mrs. Piozzi says to him, talking of the progress of refinement of manners in England, "I much wonder whether this refinement has spread all over the continent, or whether it is confined to our own island: when we were in France we could form little judgment, as our time was chiefly passed among the English.”—Lett.—ED.] France. guished at Paris-The palaces of Louvre and Thuil- Tour in leries granted out in lodgings. "In the Palais de Bourbon, gilt globes of metal at the fireplace. "The French beds commended - Much of the marble only paste. "The colosseum' a mere wooden building, at least much of it. "Wednesday, 18th October.-We went to Fontainebleau, which we found a large mean town, crowded with people-The forest thick with woods, very extensive --Manucci secured us lodgings-The appearance of the country pleasant-No hills, few streams, only one hedge—I remember no chapels nor crosses on the road-Pavement still, and rows of trees. "N. Nobody but mean people walk in Paris. Thursday, 19th October.-At court we saw the apartments-The king's bed-chamber and councilchamber extremely splendid-Persons of all ranks in the external rooms through which the family passes-servants and masters-Brunet with us the second time. 3 2 "The introductor came to us - civil to me-Presenting I had scruples 3-Not necessary-We went and saw the king and queen at dinner-We saw the other ladies at dinner-Madame Elizabeth, with the Princess of Guimené-At night we went to a comedy 1[This building, which stood in the Faubourg St. Honoré, was a kind of Ranelagh, and was destroyed a few years after. The "Memoires de Bachaumont" call it "monument monstreux de la folie Parisienne."—V. i. p. 311.—Ed.] [Perhaps M. J. L. Brunet, a celebrated advocate of the parliament of Paris, author of several distinguished professional works.-ED.] [It was the custom previous to court presentations, that an officer waited on the person to be introduced, to instruct them in the forms. Johnson's scruples probably arose from this-it was an etiquette generally insisted on to present at foreign courts those only who had been presented to their own sovereign at home. Johnson had never been publicly presented to the king, though he had had that honour in private, and may, therefore, have entertained scruples whether he was entitled to be presented to the king of France; but it would seem that those scruples were not necessary, the rule perhaps extending only to formal presentations at court, and not to admission to see the king dine.-ED.] Tour in -I neither saw nor heard-Drunken women-Mrs. Th [rale] preferred one to the other. France. 66 Friday, 20th October.-We saw the queen mount in the forest-Brown habit; rode aside: one lady rode aside1-The queen's horse light gray— martingale She galloped-We then went to the apartments, and admired them-Then wandered through the palace-In the passages, stalls and shops-Painting in fresco by a great master, worn out-We saw the king's horses 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. 66 "The king fed himself with his left hand as we. Saturday, 21st October.-In the night I got round-We came home to Paris-I think we did not see the chapel-Tree broken by the wind-The French chairs made all of boards painted 2. "N. Soldiers at the court of justice 3-Soldiers not amenable to the magistrates-Dijon women *. "Faggots in the palace-Every thing slovenly, except in the chief rooms-Trees in the roads, some tall, none old, many very young and small. "Women's saddles seem ill made-Queen's bridle woven with silver-Tags to strike the horse. 1 66 Sunday, 22d October.-To Versailles, a mean3 [This probably means that the queen was attended by only one lady, who also rode aside, and not that one female attendant rode so, while other ladies rode astride.-ED] [Meaning, no doubt, that they were not of cedar, ebony, or mahogany, but of some meaner wood coloured over, a fashion which had not yet reached England.-ED.] 3 [The marechaussée was posted at the gates of the courts of justice; but the interior discipline was maintained by huissiers, ushers, the servants of the court. -ED.] 4 See ante, p. 271.-BOSWELL. "[There must be some mistake. Versailles is a remarkably stately town.-ED.] France. town-Carriages of business passing-Mean shops Tour in against the wall-Our way lay through Sêve, where the China manufacture-Wooden bridge at Sêve, in the way to Versailles-The palace of great extentThe front long; I saw 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 stag of China, small-Rhinoceros, the horn broken and pared away, which, I suppose, will grow; the basis, I think, four inches across; the skin folds like loose cloth doubled over his body, and cross his hips; a vast animal, though young; as big, perhaps, as four oxen -The young elephant, with his tusks 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 horse-Two camels with one bunchAmong the birds was a pelican, who being let out, went to a fountain, and swam about to catch fishHis feet well webbed; he dipped his head, and turned his long bill sidewise-He caught two or three fish, but did not eat them. “Trianon is a kind of retreat appendant to Versailles-It has an open portico; the pavement, and, I think, the pillars, of marble-There are many rooms, which I do not distinctly remember-A table of porphyry, about five feet long, and between two and three broad, given to Louis XIV. by the Venetian state-In the council-room almost all that was not door or window was, I think, looking-glass-Little Trianon is a small palace like a gentleman's house— The upper floor paved with brick-Little Vienne -The court is ill paved-The rooms at the top are This epithet should be applied to this animal with one bunch.-BOSWELL, 2 [The upper floors of most houses in France are tiled.—ED.] |