horses not much commended The stables cool; the kennel filthy. "At night the ladies went to the opera · but should have been welcome. I refused, "The king fed himself with his left hand as we. Saturday, Oct. 21. chapel In the night I got round We came home to Paris-I think we did not see the Tree broken by the wind The French chairs made all of boards painted. (1) "N.B. Soldiers at the court of justice (2) - Soldiers not amenable to the magistrates - Dijon women. (3) 66 Fagots 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. 66 Sunday, Oct. 22. — To Versailles, a mean (4) town Carriages of business passing Mean shops 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 extent The 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; (1) 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. — C. (2) 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. (4) There must be some mistake. Versailles is a remarkably stately town. — C. 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 (1), taller than any horse 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 sideways - 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 rocms, 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 (2) Little Vienne - The court is ill paved The rooms at the top are 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 mirrors not very large, but joined by frames-I suppose the large plates were not yet made. The playhouse was very large (*) — The chapel (1) This epithet should be applied to this animal with one bunch. (2) The upper floors of most houses in France are tiled.-C. (3) 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 of 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. C.-[When at Versailles the people showed us the theatre. I do not remember if we saw- -We saw one chapel, but I am not certain whether there or at Trianon The foreign office paved with bricks [tiles] — The dinner half a louis each, and, I think, a louis over Money given at menagerie, three livres ; at palace, six livres. - 66 Monday, Oct. 23. 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 rabbing 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 then rubbed with a hand rubber, held down hard by 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 highThen 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, As we stood on the stage, looking at some machinery for playhouse purposes-'Now we are here, what shall we act, Dr. Johnson? The Englishman at Paris?'. No, no,' replied he, 'we will try to act Harry the Fifth.' — Piozzi.] 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 (1), 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. 66 Tuesday, Oct. 24 - We visited the king's library I saw the Speculum Humanæ Salvationis, rudely printed, with ink, sometimes pale, sometimes black; part supposed to be with wooden types, and part with pages cut in boards. The Bible, supposed to be older that that of Mentz, in 1462; 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 foliosAnother 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 puncheons · The 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 not in lattices like the king's The library very large, q. collection 14 vol. Scriptores de rebus Gallicis, many (2) Santerre, the detestable ruffian who afterwards conducted Louis XVI. to the scaffold, and commanded the troops that guarded it during his murder. — M. folios · Histoire Généalogique 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. - "Wednesday, Oct. 25. — I went with the prior to St. Cloud, to see Dr. Hooke (1) – 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. (2) 66 Thursday, Oct. 26. — We saw the china at Sêve, cut, glazed, painted Bellevue (3), a pleasing house, not great: fine prospect― Meudon, an old palace Alexander, in porphyry: hollow between eyes and nose, thin cheeks Plato and Aristotle - Noble terrace overlooks the town. St. Cloud Gallery not very - In the rooms, Michael Angelo, drawn by himself, Sir Thomas More, Des Cartes, Bochart, Naudæus, Mazarine scot, so common that it is not minded Keene Hooke came to us at the inn from Drumgould. high, nor grand, but pleasing "Friday, Oct. 27. Keene, and Mrs. S. - Gough and - I staid at home This day we began to have a fire-The weather is (1) Second son of Hooke, the historian, a doctor of the Sorbonne.-C. (2) He means, I suppose, that he read these different pieces while he remained in the library. (3) At that period inhabited by the king's aunts. C. (+) 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. — C. |