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, youngAviary, 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 houseThe upper floor paved with brick-Little Vienne -The court is ill paved-The rooms at the top are

1 This epithet should be applied to this animal with one bunch.-BosWELL. 2 [The upper floors of most houses in France are tiled.-ED.]

France.

Tour in small, fit to soothe the imagination with privacy-In the front of Versailles are small basins of water on the terrace, and other basins, I think, below them— There are little courts-The great gallery is wainscotted with mirrours not very large, but joined by frames-I suppose the large plates were not yet made The playhouse was very large'-The chapel I do not remember if we saw 2-We saw one chapel, but I am not certain whether there or at TrianonThe 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, six livres.

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Monday, 23d October.--Last night I wrote to Levet -We went to see the looking-glasses wrought -They come from Normandy in cast plates, perhaps the third of an inch thick-At Paris they are ground upon a marble table, by rubbing one plate upon another with grit between them-The various sands, of which there are said 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 sent up with their surfaces ground, but not polished, and so continue till they are bespoken, lest time should spoil the surface, as we were told-Those that are to be polished are laid on a table covered with several thick cloths, hard strained, that the resistance may be equal: they are

[That magnificent building, which was both a theatre and a ball-room. It was rarely used; the lighting and other expenses for a single night being 100,000 francs. It is celebrated in the History of the Revolution as the scene of the entertainment given by the Gardes du Corps, on the 1st October, 1789; of which innocent and, indeed, laudable testimony of attachment between them and their unhappy sovereigns, the rebels, by misrepresentations and calumnies, made so serious an affair.-ED.]

2 [It is surprising how this should have escaped Johnson's observations. It is, both externally and internally, one of the most remarkable objects of Versailles.--ED.]

3 [Tiles.—ED.]

1 [Ante, p. 264.-ED.]

France.

then rubbed with a hand rubber, held down hard by Tour in a contrivance which I did not well understand-The powder which is used last seemed to me to be iron dissolved in aquafortis; they called it, as Baretti said, marc de l'eau forte, which he thought was dregs-They mentioned vitriol and saltpetre―The cannon-ball swam in the quicksilver-To silver them, a leaf of beaten tin is laid, and rubbed with quicksilver, to which it unites-Then more quicksilver is poured upon it, which, by its mutual [attraction] rises very high-Then a paper is laid at the nearest end of the plate, over which the glass is slided till it lies upon the plate, having driven much of the quicksilver before it-It is then, I think, pressed upon cloth, and then set sloping to drop the superfluous mercury: the slope is daily heightened towards a perpendicular. "In the way I saw the Grêve, the mayor's house', and the Bastile.

"We then went to Sans-terre, a brewer 2-He brews with about as much malt as Mr. Thrale, and sells his beer at the same price, though he pays no duty for malt, and little more than half as much for beer-Beer is sold retail at sixpence a bottle-He brews 4,000 barrels a year-There are seventeen brewers in Paris, of whom none is supposed 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.

"The moat of the Bastile is dry.

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Tuesday, 24th October.—We visited the king's library-I saw the Speculum humane Salvationis, rudely printed, with ink, sometimes pale, sometimes black; part supposed to be with wooden types, and part

2

[The Hôtel de Ville.-ED.]

[Santerre.] The detestable ruffian who afterwards conducted Louis the Sixteenth to the scaffold, and co.nmanded the troops that guarded it during his murder.-MALONE.

Tour in with pages cut in boards.

France.

The Bible, supposed to be older than that of Mentz, in 14621; 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 1458-This is inferred from the difference of form sometimes seen in the same letter, which might be struck with different puncheonsThe regular similitude of most letters proves better that they are metal-I saw nothing but the Speculum, which I had not seen, 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-Histoire Genealogique of France, 9 vol.-Gallia Christiana, the first edition, 4to. the last, 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 students-The doctors of the Sorbonne are all equal -choose those who succeed to vacancies-Profit little.

66

Wednesday, 25th October.-I went with the prior to St. Cloud, to see Dr. Hooke-We walked round the palace, and had some talk-I dined with our whole company at the monastery—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.

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Thursday, 26th October.-We saw the china at Sêve, cut, glazed, painted-Bellevue3, a pleasing house, not great: fine prospect -Meudon, an old

[Second son of Hooke, the historian, a doctor of the Sorbonne.—ED.] He means, I suppose, that he read these different pieces while he remained ia the library.-BoswELL,

3 [At that period inhabited by the king's aunts.-Ed.]

France.

palace-Alexander, in porphyry: hollow between eyes Tour in and nose, thin cheeks-Plato and Aristotle-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 Cartes, Bochart, Naudæus, Mazarine-Gilded wainscot, so common that it is not minded-Gough and Keene-Hooke came to us at the inn-A message from Drumgould.

1

Friday, 27th October.—I staid at home-Gough and Keene, and Mrs. S's1 friend dined with us -This day we began to have a fire-The weather is grown very cold, and, I fear, has a bad effect upon my breath, which has grown much more free and easy in this country.

“Saturday, 28th October.—I visited the Grand Chartreux, built by St. Louis-It is built for forty, but contains only twenty-four, and will not maintain more-The friar that spoke to us had a pretty apartment-Mr. Baretti says four rooms; I remember but three-His books seemed to be French-His garden was neat; he gave me grapes-We saw the Place de Victoire, with the statues of the king, and the captive nations.

"We saw the palace and gardens of Luxembourg, but the gallery was shut-We climbed to the top stairs I dined with Colebrooke 3, who had much com

[Mrs Strickland, the sister of Mr. Charles Townley, who happened to meet the party at Dieppe, and accompanied them to Paris. She introduced them to Madame du Bocage.-Reynolds's Recollections.—ED.]

[There was in France but one Grand Chartreux, the monastery near Grenoble, founded by St. Bruno, to the 13th prior of which St. Louis applied for an off-set of the order to be established in Paris, where he placed them in his chateau de Vauvert, which stood in the Rue d'Enfer. The good people of Paris believed that the chateau of Vauvert, before St. Louis had fixed the Carthusians there, was haunted, and thence the street was called Rue d'Enfer.ED.]

3 [Sir George Colebrooke: see ante, v. ii. p. 95.-ED.]