Life of Johnson Volume II Part 36

'Oct. 17, Tuesday. At the Palais Marchand I bought

A snuff-box[1175], 24 L.

------------- 6 Table book 15 Scissars 3 p [pair] 18 ---- 63--2 12 6[1176]

'We heard the lawyers plead.--N. As many killed at Paris as there are days in the year. _Chambre de question_[1177].--Tournelle[1178] at the Palais Marchand.--An old venerable building.

'The Palais Bourbon, belonging to the Prince of Conde. Only one small wing shown;--lofty;--splendid;--gold and gla.s.s.--The battles of the great Conde are painted in one of the rooms. The present Prince a grandsire at thirty-nine[1179].

'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[1180]: she would have been pleased. Having now n.o.body to please, I am little pleased.

'N. In France there is no middle rank[1181].

'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 a mere wooden building, at least much of it.

'Oct. 18. Wednesday. We went to Fontainebleau, which we found a large mean town, crowded with people.--The forest thick with woods, very extensive.--Manucci[1182] 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. n.o.body but mean people walk in Paris[1183].

'Oct. 19. Thursday. 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 pa.s.ses:--servants and masters.--Brunet with us the second time.

'The introductor came to us;--civil to me.--Presenting.--I had scruples.--Not necessary.--We went and saw the King[1184] and Queen at dinner.--We saw the other ladies at dinner--Madame Elizabeth[1185], with the Princess of Guimene.--At night we went to a comedy. I neither saw nor heard.--Drunken women.--Mrs. Th. preferred one to the other.

'Oct. 20. Friday. We saw the Queen mount in the forest--Brown habit; rode aside: one lady rode aside.--The Queen's horse light grey; martingale.--She galloped.--We then went to the apartments, and admired them.--Then wandered through the palace.--In the pa.s.sages, stalls and shops.--Painting in Fres...o...b.. 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.

'The King fed himself with his left hand as we.

'Sat.u.r.day, 21. In the night I got ground.--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.

N. Soldiers at the court of justice.--Soldiers not amenable to the magistrates.--Dijon woman[1186].

'f.a.ggots 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.

'Sunday, Oct. 22. To Versailles[1187], a mean town. Carriages of business pa.s.sing.--Mean shops against the wall.--Our way lay through Seve, where the China manufacture.--Wooden bridge at Seve, 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 'cross; 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[1188], 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 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-gla.s.s.--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 small, fit to sooth the imagination with privacy. In the front of Versailles are small basons of water on the terrace, and other basons, 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 play-house was very large.--The chapel 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.--The dinner half a Louis each, and, I think, a Louis over.--Money given at Menagerie, three livres; at palace, six livres.

'Oct. 23. Monday. Last night I wrote to Levet.--We went to see the looking-gla.s.ses 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 gla.s.s 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 aqua fortis: they called it, as Baretti said, _marc de beau forte_, which he thought was dregs. They mentioned vitriol and salt-petre. 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 gla.s.s is slided till it lies upon the plate, having driven much of the quicksilver before it. It is then, I think, pressed upon cloths, and then set sloping to drop the superfluous mercury; the slope is daily heightened towards a perpendicular.

'In the way I saw the Greve, the Mayor's house, and the Bastile.[1189]

'We then went to Sans-terre, a brewer. 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 6d. 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.

'Oct. 24, Tuesday. We visited the King's library--I saw the _Speculum humanae Salvationis_, rudely printed, with ink, sometimes pale, sometimes black; part supposed to be with wooden types, and part with pages cut on boards.--The Bible, supposed to be older than that of Mentz, in 62[1190]: 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_[1191] in 58. 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.--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.

'Oct. 25. Wednesday. 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_,-- _t.i.tus_, from Boccace.--_Oratio Proverbialis_ to the Virgin, from Petrarch; Falkland to Sandys; Dryden's Preface to the third vol. of Miscellanies[1192].

'Oct. 26. Thursday. We saw the china at Seve, cut, glazed, painted.

Bellevue, a pleasing house, not great: fine prospect.--Meudon, an old palace.--Alexander, in Porphyry: hollow between eyes and nose, thin cheeks.--Plato and Aristotle--n.o.ble 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, Naudacus, Mazarine.--Gilded wainscot, so common that it is not minded.--Gough and Keene.--Hooke came to us at the inn.--A message from Drumgold.

'Oct. 27. Friday. I staid at home.--Gough and Keene, and Mrs. S----'s 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.

'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 more. The friar that spoke to us had a pretty apartment[1193].--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 Colbrooke, who had much company:--Foote, Sir George Rodney, Motteux, Udson, Taaf.--Called on the Prior, and found him in bed.

'Hotel--a guinea a day.--Coach, three guineas a week.--Valet de place[1194], three l.[1195] a day.--_Avantcoureur_, a guinea a week.-- Ordinary dinner, six l. a head.--Our ordinary seems to be about five guineas a day.--Our extraordinary expences, as diversions, gratuities, clothes, I cannot reckon.--Our travelling is ten guineas a day.

'White stockings, 18l.--Wig.--Hat.

'Sunday, Oct. 29. We saw the boarding-school.--The _Enfans trouves_ [1196].--A room with about eighty-six children in cradles, as sweet as a parlour.--They lose a third[1197]; take in to perhaps more than seven [years old]; put them to trades; pin to them the papers sent with them.

--Want nurses.--Saw their chapel.

'Went to St. Eustatia; saw an innumerable company of girls catechised, in many bodies, perhaps 100 to a catechist.--Boys taught at one time, girls at another.--The sermon; the preacher wears a cap, which he takes off at the name:--his action uniform, not very violent.

'Oct. 30. Monday. We saw the library of St. Germain[1198].--A very n.o.ble collection.--_Codex Divinorum Officiorum_, 1459:--a letter, square like that of the _Offices_, perhaps the same.--The _Codex_, by Fust and Gernsheym.--_Meursius_, 12 v. fol.--_Amadis_, in French, 3 v. fol.-- CATHOLICON _sine colophone_, but of 1460.--Two other editions[1199], one by ... _Augustin. de Civitate Dei_, without name, date, or place, but of Fust's square letter as it seems.

'I dined with Col. Drumgold;--had a pleasing afternoon.

'Some of the books of St. Germain's stand in presses from the wall, like those at Oxford.

'Oct. 31. Tuesday. I lived at the Benedictines; meagre day; soup meagre, herrings, eels, both with sauce; fryed fish; lentils, tasteless in themselves. In the library; where I found _Maffeus's de Historia Indica: Promontorium flectere, to double the Cape_. I parted very tenderly from the Prior and Friar Wilkes[1200].

_Maitre des Arts_, 2 y.--_Bacc. Theol_. 3 y.--_Licentiate_, 2 y.--_Doctor Th_. 2 y. in all 9 years.--For the Doctorate three disputations, _Major, Minor, Sorbonica_.--Several colleges suppressed, and transferred to that which was the Jesuits' College.

'Nov. 1. Wednesday. We left Paris.--St. Denis, a large town; the church not very large, but the middle isle is very lofty and aweful.--On the left are chapels built beyond the line of the wall, which destroy the symmetry of the sides. The organ is higher above the pavement than any I have ever seen.--The gates are of bra.s.s.--On the middle gate is the history of our Lord.--The painted windows are historical, and said to be eminently beautiful.--We were at another church belonging to a convent, of which the portal is a dome; we could not enter further, and it was almost dark.

'Nov. 2. Thursday. We came this day to Chantilly, a seat belonging to the Prince of Conde.--This place is eminently beautified by all varieties of waters starting up in fountains, falling in cascades, running in streams, and spread in lakes.--The water seems to be too near the house.--All this water is brought from a source or river three leagues off, by an artificial ca.n.a.l, which for one league is carried under ground.--The house is magnificent.--The cabinet seems well stocked: what I remember was, the jaws of a hippopotamus, and a young hippopotamus preserved, which, however, is so small, that I doubt its reality.--It seems too hairy for an abortion, and too small for a mature birth.--Nothing was in spirits; all was dry.--The dog, the deer; the ant-bear with long snout.--The toucan, long broad beak.--The stables were of very great length.--The kennel had no scents.--There was a mockery of a village.--The Menagerie had few animals[1201]. For Dr. Blagden see _post_, 1780 in Mr. Langton's _Collection_.--Two faussans[1202], or Brasilian weasels, spotted, very wild.--There is a forest, and, I think, a park.--I walked till I was very weary, and next morning felt my feet battered, and with pains in the toes.

'Nov. 3. Friday. We came to Compiegne, a very large town, with a royal palace built round a pentagonal court.--The court is raised upon vaults, and has, I suppose, an entry on one side by a gentle rise.--Talk of painting[1203],--The church is not very large, but very elegant and splendid.--I had at first great difficulty to walk, but motion grew continually easier.--At night we came to Noyon, an episcopal city.--The cathedral is very beautiful, the pillars alternately gothick and Corinthian.--We entered a very n.o.ble parochial church.--Noyon is walled, and is said to be three miles round.

'Nov. 4. Sat.u.r.day. We rose very early, and came through St. Quintin to Cambray, not long after three.--We went to an English nunnery, to give a letter to Father Welch, the confessor, who came to visit us in the evening.