books She was offended, and shut up, as we heard afterwards, her apartment. "Then we went to Julien le Roy, the king's watchmaker, a man of character in his business, who showed a small clock made to find the longitude. A decent man. "Afterwards we saw the Palais Marchand (') and the courts of justice, civil and criminal- Queries on the Sellette (2) This building has the old Gothic passages, and a great appearance of antiquity. Three hundred prisoners sometimes in the gaol. me. "Much disturbed; hope no ill will be. (3) "In the afternoon I visited Mr. Freron the journalist. He spoke Latin very scantily, but seemed to understand His house not splendid, but of commodious size. His family, wife, son, and daughter, not elevated, but decent. I was pleased with my reception. He is to translate my books, which I am to send him with notes. "Sunday, Oct. 15.-At Choisi, a royal palace on the banks of the Seine, about 7 m. from Paris. The terrace noble along the river. The rooms numerous and (1) It was not quite correct to apply the name of Palais Marchand to the whole of that vast building called generally the Palais, which from being the old palace of the kings of France had (like our own palace of Westminster) become appropriated to the sittings of the parliament and the courts of justice; and the Conciergerie of that palace (like the Gate-house of ours) became a prison. The Palais Marchand was properly only the stalls (like what are now called bazaars) which were placed along some of the galleries and corridors of the Palais. - C. (2) The sellette was a stool on which the criminal sat while he was interrogated by the court. This is what Johnson means by "queries." - .C. (3) This passage, which so many think superstitious, reminds me of "Archbishop Laud's Diary." -B.-It, perhaps, had no superstitious meaning. He felt, it would seem, his mind disturbed, and may naturally have been apprehensive of becoming worse.- - C. grand, but not discriminated from other palaces. The chapel beautiful, but small China globes inlaid tables - labyrinth — sinking table (1) — toilet tables. "Monday, Oct. 16. The Palais Royal very grand, large, and lofty A very great collection of pictures three of Raphael· two Holy Family piece of M Argelo-one room of Rubens the pictures of Raphael fine. one small I thought Æn. and "The Thuilleries Statues Venus Anchises in his arms - Nilus-many more The walks Chairs at night hired for two sous a piece Pont tournant. (2) "Austin Nuns (3) — Grate — Mrs. Fermor, abbess She knew Pope, and thought him disagreeable Mrs. has many books-has seen life- Their frontlet disagreeable-Their hood. Their life easy - Rise 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 (4) – Teachers complained. "At the Boulevards saw nothing, yet was glad to be there - Rope-dancing and farce — Egg dance - N. B. Near Paris, whether on week-days or Sundays, the roads empty. (1) A round table, the centre of which descended by machinery to a lower floor; so that supper might be served and removed without the presence of servants. It was invented by Louis XV. during the favour of Madame du Barri. — C. (2) 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. (2) The English convent of Notre Dame de Sion, of the order of St. Augustine, situated in the Rue des Fossés St. Victor.-C. (4) Young ladies, who paid for their education. Before the revolution, there were no boarding schools, and all young ladies were educated in the convents. C. "We heard the lawyers plead―N. As many killed at Paris as there are days in the year Chambre de question (1) — Tournelle at the Palais Marchand (2) -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 (4); she would have been pleased. Having now nobody to please, I am little pleased. "N. B. In France there is no middle rank. (5) (1) This was one of the rooms of the Conciergerie, where la question-torture—was applied. — C. (2) 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. — C. (3) The grandson was the celebrated and unfortunate Duke d'Enghien, 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.-C. 1830. He died in Aug. 1830, under most melancholy circumstances. - C. 1835. (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. (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 "So many shops open, that Sunday is little distinguished 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. "The French beds commended-Much of the marble only paste. "The colosseum (1) a mere wooden building, at least much of it. "Wednesday, Oct. 18. - 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 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."—C. (1) This building, which stood in the Faubourg St. Honoré, was a kind of Ranelagh, and was destroyed a few years after. - C. remember no chapels nor crosses on the road - Pavement still, and rows of trees. "N. B. Nobody but mean people walk in Paris. "Thursday, Oct. 19. At court we saw the apartments — The king's bed-chamber and council-chamber extremely splendid - Persons of all ranks in the external rooms through which the family passes servants and - Brunet (1) with us the second time. masters "The introductor came to us civil to me — Presenting I had scruples (2) - Not necessary · We went and saw the king and queen at dinner - We saw the other ladies at dinner - - Madame Elizabeth, with the Friday, Oct. 20. Mrs. - We saw the queen mount in the forest-Brown habit; rode aside: one lady rode aside (3) 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 (1) Perhaps M. J. L. Brunet, a celebrated advocate. — C. (2) It was the custom previous to court presentations, that an officer waited on the persons 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 George III., 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. - C. (3) 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. — C. |