YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 1938 THE ^m-¥if/, PRAISE OF PARIS OR, A SKETCH OF THE FRENCH CAPITAL; IN EXTRACTS OF LETTERS FROM FRANCE, IN THE SUMMER OF 1802 ; WITH An Index qf many of the Convents, Churches, and Palaces, not in the French Catalogues, which have furnished Pictures for the Louvre-Gallery. BY S. W., F.R.S. F.A.S. ETyy^avov %-yoo ^stfAa^uv Watga Tiiv (Xnv AEu*s1tdy. I was passing the Winter in my favorite AevnCla, which is the Name the Gauls give to their little Town (nii>.txn.) Julian, p. 340, ed. Leipsic. 1696. fol. " J'ai mi voyage a faire, et Paris au bout." Roussf.au, J.J. LONDON.- PRINTED EY AND FOR C. AND R. BALDWIN, NEW BRIDGE- STREET, 1803. /Op ~Pal 80 2V\| [ iii ] ADVERTISEMENT. JlARIS is derived from Par Isis, be cause it tvas built near the famous Tem ple of that Goddess, not far from the site of the Abbey of Saint Germain des Pres. At the establishment of Christi anity the Temple tvas destroyed, but the idol remained till the beginmng of the sixth century, ivhen it tvas thrown as a trophy into a corner of the church of Saint Germain des Pres, founded by Childebert, zvith the title of The Holy Cross, and Saint Vincent. This same trophy existed in the time of Cardinal Brigconnet, Abbe of Saint Germain, in 2 the [ iv ] the latter end of the fifteenth century, ' who ordered it to be hrohe to pieces, ivhich order was probably never executed, as thc image of Isis nursing Orus is now at the Petits Augustins, and was brought thither, with other monuments, out ofa French church. AevKeria, now called Lu- tetia, is derived from Asvx.orni, whiteness, from the white plaister quarry on which Paris is built. From AiUKolm came Lu- cotesia, and, finally, Lutetia, the second syllable having been dropped for short ness, as in regatta for remigatta, and Saint Meric for Saint Mederic. PREFACE. [ iii ] PREFACE. IN the year 1792 I ran from Paris with fear and trembhng, because she Avas possessed, hke a Demoniac, with a spirit of carnage, and reeked in the blood of August and September. During the interim between ninety- two and eighteen hundred and two, (Avhen I revisited her again) she had continued in a state of siege for ten years, beset Avith troubles from with out, and violent agitations from within, and perpetual spoil. But all things have an end ; and now, on my return a to [ iv ] to the same place, before so full of confusion and disorder, I ifiiid it SAvept and garnished, restored to its senses, and in its right mind. This extraor- dinary change calls aloud for commen dation, and is a sufficient apology for my title, " The Praise of Paris ;" but since Ave all see things and persons Avith different eyes, (and most fortunately for the general content, and the acquisi tion of truth and reality) many, pro bably, will be more inclined to find fault than to commend ; in order, therefore, to preserve some balance between panegyric and pasquinade, and prevent the preponderance of cen sure, I have rcsolved to reserve the good part to myself, and leave the bad for my fellow-travellers ; just as the hero of Ivry served his prime minister, by giving him all his troublesorae affairs [ V J affairs to negotiate, and keeping the taiif of favours, and the dispensation of benefits in his OAvn hands. The marks of a revolution, such as has turned France upside doAvn, and set the pedestrian on horseback, can not be all effaced in the tA^inkling of a decree, or the issue of a programma ; and yet one finds much less feal altera tion at Paris than might have been ex pected ; for if the still life be meta morphosed, and the churches turned into exchanges, and the hotels become eating-houses, yet the living inhabi tants have the same address they ever had ; wear the same smiling counte nances ; and receive you Avith the same open arms ; and even if you touch upon their losses, they bear it with moderation, and console themselves in a couplet. [ vi ] a couplet, and plead reduction of in come as au excuse for not giving you a dinner. They sing to any tune you please, for instance, words like these : Mon salaire sijr 1? grand livre Reduit au tiers fornie mon sort, Avec ce tiers il faut vivre Sous un regime a la Rumfort. It is npt every traveller that Avill give you this account ; many, no doubt, A^ill dwell on the indelible stains of the Tuilleries, the Carousel, the Pont Neuf, and the rue de Crenelle, Avith the ghosts of the slain at the foot of the mountain, the long faces of the ruined, and the luxury of the nouveaux riches, and the total extinction of good company : the rich, they will tell you, are always rnbbing their hands to get out the red spots ; they will go even so [ vii ] so far as to liken them to the famous Poissarde of Paris, Madame Angot, Avho being on a visit to her friends, certain respectable fish-joAvters at Mar seilles, Avas taken prisoner on a party of pleasure at sea, by a Corsaire Arahe, and carried to Constantinople, AA^here being drest in all the magnificence of the female Turkish habit, they per suaded her that she was destined for the Grand Seignior's bed : at this mo ment she meets with Julie, a French resident at Constantinople, disguised as a Poissarde, who addresses her in her oAA'n jargon, and tells her her whole history ; upon this Madame Angot groAA^s furious, and prepares to attack the slanderer, rubbing her hands in a violent rage ; Julie, Avith the utmost coolness, contents herself with saying, " Oh ! tu te les f rotter ais cent ans, elles sentirent toujours la morue" if you rub [ viii ] rub your hands till doomsday they Avill always stink of fish. But surely this is a language which sliould be con fined to its OAvn ward, the Avard of Bil lingsgate. The nouveaux riches have neither laid the egg of the revolution nor hatched it, they have merely assist ed at the breaking of it; they can neither be called Sectaristes, or Or- leanistes, or Fayetistes ; neither Mo- narchistes nor Chibbistes, Girondistes nor Federalistes, Alarmistes nor fZe- hertistes, Terroristes, Maratistes, or Royalistes, but simply Enrichistes. In a word, with respect to the French revolution, the famous prediction, which is nearly an anagram of revolu tion Frangoise, seems to be verifying fast, Un Corse la finira ; and Ave may fairly bid adieu to the numberless fac tions which, for these thirteen years, have disturbed the peace of France. In [ ix ] In addition to those already mentioned we may set doAvn, ahnost in the order they arose, the following : Les Patriotes. Aristocrates. Enrages.Impartiaux. Noirs. Hommes du quatorze. Membres du cot6 droit, et gauche, Feuillans. Jacobins. Cordeliers. Ministeriels. Amis de la liste civile. Chevaliers du poignard. Hommes du dix d'aout. Septembriseurs . Moder es. Hommes d'etat. Brissotins. Les Les Monfagnards. Membres de la plaine, Le Ventre. Les Crapauds du Marais. Avilisseurs. Endormeurs.Apitoyeurs. Amis de Pitt et co. Muscadours.Agents ^Etranger. Contre revolutionnaires. Ultra revolutionaires. Sans culotes. Thermidoriens . Habitues de la Crite. Vendemiaires. Egorgeurs. Compagnons de Jesus. Royalistes. Chouans. Honnites gens, ni egaliseurs, ni revolutionaires. LETTERS, &c. LETTER I. Paris, July 2, 1S02. X HAD an expeditious passage from Dover to Calais of two hours and three quarters, and reached Paris in forty- eight more, allowing twelve for supper and bed at Abbeville and Clermont. The posting from Calais to Ailly le haut clocher, 13 posts and 3i, about 70 miles, costs less than from London to Dover for two persons in an English post-chaise, though you have three horses in France, and only tAvo in B England. [ 2 ] England. The turn-pikes or distances in France are nine French sous for every post, and the postillion thirty. The road from Boulogne to Samers, and from Montreuil to Nampont, re sembles a road in England, running be tween hedges and rows of tufted trees. The living at the Inns is very good and very reasonable for the most part, ex cept at very little houses, where some times advantage is taken of an English traveller, who is supposed to be a Lord, when he has an English carriage. Where you breakfast in the kitchen, as at the post-house at Boulogne, you may learn something though you pay for it, I mean how to fine coffee, for which purpose they keep a dried snake's skin, and put a small portion of it into the coffee-pot. At Breteuil the Master of the Post was a great man and called a Mil- i 3 ;! a Millionaire; at Picquigny also, the Post- Master was worth a million, and filled the place which belonged to the Count d' Artois, who was Lord of Pic quigny. The Count d' Artois had once a law-suit for the Lordship with ^ Monsieur Sel, whom he cast, or as our hostess told us, ilfondif, he melted. The first and the finest carriage I saw at Paris was an English coach, and be longed to Dr. Brodum, who came ex pressly to offer the French nation the advantages of his incomparable Sirop, and regularly announced his arrival, and his departure in the Petites Arches. B 2 LETTER [ 4 ] LETTER II. Paris was ever a place of general rendezvous, but now more so than at any known period ; and since it has drawn within its circle all the curiosities of Holland, and the Low Countries, all' the treasures of Italy, all the wonders of ancient art, it is become the general magazine of Sculpture and Painting, whilst all other Museums are left naked and desolate. This unusual accumula tion of pictures, designs, tessellated pavements, vases and statues, is araassed together in one palace, and distributed through galleries, which, for their un common length, make the objects ap pear as if they were vicAved through an inverted telescope. The various masters r 5 ] masters press close upon one another, and the different schools jostle each other : one moment you are in France, and the next in Flanders ; whilst you are conversing with Poussin and Le Sueur, AntAverp and Rubens appear in vicAV ; from Venice to Naples is but a step, and Florence, Rome, and Bologna are all visited and gone over in a morn ing. Formerly it Avas a very different thing, and from one picture to another it was a week's journey. Every thing however has its inconvenience, the cross lights dazzle the eye, and the want of partitions, Avith the sudden transition from one school to another, so blend the masters together, that you are not only puzzled to distinguish the different painters of the same school, but even one school from another. The elegant forms of the French female artists, 4 mounted t 6 ] mounted on their scaffolds, and the in teresting works of a Cosway on the floor, afford considerable pleasure to the curious as well as the incurious con- iioisseuf of taste and elegance, and heighten the carnations of the grand pasticcio. The galkry of the Louvre is the great feature of Paris, Avhich is itself a A'ast bonbonniere, an immense aCademie de Jeu, and an enormous table d' hote ; where all nations meet, like travellers through a desert at a Avatering place. It is not my intention at present to enter into a detail ofthe pictures of the great gallery, of which a printed cata logue is sold at the door, or to enume rate the wonders of Raphael and Cor reggio, which are so well known to all the r 1 J the lovers of painting. Among the Flemish pieces, however, I could name some, at least, that have been sold in their copies for originals at auctions in London, and at very contjiderable prices. The pictures, it must be naturally supposed, have suffered much in bring ing from their native homes, and, in some instances, haA'e been considerably damaged, but none irreparably, though here and there they have been trans ferred frora board to canvas. The French picture-cleaners repair with oil- colours, which suit well enough the thick body of colouring in the Roman school, but very ill with the thin glaz ing of the Venetian, and totally annihi late the harmonies of Claude Lorraine. The Albanos, in the gallery, seem to have [ 8 ] have been much painted upon. Among the pictures of the Flemish school is one of David Teniers le jeune. No. 579, subject, Les CEuvres de Misericorde. A piece of this master and this subject, probably a copy of the above, was sold in London for seven hundred pounds not very long ago. The Transfiguration, and the sleeping faAvn, or rather the drunken fawn fast asleep, from the Barberini palace, have not yet been exhibited. The Raphael is the best of the master, and the statue the very best of the kind. You may see the Transfiguration, by bribing the keeper of the pictures, that have not yet been exposed to publick view ; but for the statue, I could learn nothing of it, though there is no doubt of its being at P^ris, In order to see all the spoils [ 9 ] spoils of the conquered countries on marble, canvas, and copper, you must go to Lucien Bonaparte's, and Bona parte's uncle, and Madame Bonaparte's, and General Murat's, and Massena's, at Malmaison. LETTER ( io ,] LETTER IIL THE GREAT OPERA, JL HE great opera is called La Repub lique des Arts, and exhibits the most perfect specimen of every species of dance, from the grave and serious to the light, airy, and ridiculous, not ex cluding the buffoonery of the panto mimic, such as is noAv exhibiting in tlie pantomime of Don Quixote, or Cer vantes. It mustnot, hoAvever, be con cealed, that the French themselves, Avith all their zeal and prostrate adoration of every thing in this house, consider Don Quixote as more properly belonging to the Boulevards than the rue de la loi. There E n ] There is a great abundance of excellent seconds, but very feAV firsts upon this stage, and, in its present state, the shades of difference between Vestris, Des Hayes, and Didelot, are not very stronfflv marked. The female dancers are all truly excellent, and the pas de deux betAveen M^^^^ Chevigny and Clotilde, is all that dancing can per form. These ladies indeed exhibit so much grace in all they do, that the world is tempted to inquire if they have as much in all they say, and their so ciety is courted Avith great avidity ; nay, they are invited to all the dinners, which are given gratis at the Salon de la Paix, in order to cheer the flagging spirits of the luckless amateurs who set their all upon the cast. It is by no means an easy thing to get even a single place at the opera, when Semiramis or Tamerlan, £ 12 ] Tamerlan, or any favorite piece is acted, unless you take a box or go at the opening of the doors. At some benefits the price is doubled, and it costs eighteen livres to be admitted, which was the case at Gardel's. The house was full to an overfloAV, and, if he got all that was paid at the door, he might well liA^e upon it for the rest of his life, since all free admissions are suspended at benefits, and the house holds nearly as much again as the opera in the Hay-market. The opera-house at Paris has not room enough for its scenes, and you may see every morning in the rue de la loi an enormous machine, nine feet wide, and thirty feet long, on wheels, that brings the scenes for the jiight, and takes away those of the last ppera. LETTER [ 13 J LETTER IV. THEATRES. X HERE are about sixteen theatres open almost every night. At the Fran cois the best actor is half an English man, his name is Talma, the best actress is Mlie Duchesnoy, who is not twenty years old . Talma's great part is Orestes, and Mile Duchesnoy 's is Phedre. There is a small piece of one act represented every now and then on this stage, which has great merit in exhibiting the man ners de la vieille cour sous I'ancien rdgime. The characters are a Financier's AvidoAV and her daughter, a young Colonel, who is is a Marquis, an old officer, a Baron, a Physician, an Abbe, and a wit, or bel esprit. It was first acted in 1764. LETTER [ 15 ] LETTER V. THEATRE LOUVOIS. At the theatre Louvois, Avhich is in the street of the name near the great opera, you have Tom Jones, and it is fortunate that the name is under the picture, otherAvise it would be difficult to find the resemblance to Fielding's novel — " I fcarcely could believe my ears or eyes, '' Or find the hero in the dark disguise." They play a piece of four acts on this. stage which is called La Petite Ville, or the Little Town, inAvhich the characters are drawn with the greatest truth in the., 6 most C 16 ] most lively manner; it is a great favorite Avith the French, and would no doubt be equally so with the Eng lish, were it fitted for our stage, Avhich it might easily be with very little atten tion to the costume of the two nations. The story is simply this : — ^A young Frenchman, disgusted with the vices of the men, and the infidelity of the women of Paris, quits the capital, and retires to the provinces in search of that virtue among the humbler ranks of life, which he had looked for in vain in the higher circles. Persuaded that he shall succeed, he takes up his residence at the first little town he comes to ; but he has not been here long before he finds that virtue is not the groAvth of the provinces, more than of the metro polis; and he soon experiences the same ill treatment in the couutry as in the [ ir ] the town, finds the same vices, the same intrigues, the same low cunning, and self-interest, the same pride, and the same meanness, without the gild* ing of good manners, or the varnish of politeness ; having made this discovery he is content to return to what he had left, fully satisfied that the farther he went, the worse he should fare. This little piece reminds one of an anecdote of a person who tired of his fine hotel upon the Boulevards, in order to breathe more freely rode into the country to visit a friend, who had often pressed him to go out of town ; he accordingly went, and arrived at an elegant maisonnette at the bottom of a hill in a close vale embosomed in trees. The house was very pretty, but the rooms were small and low, and the weather was sultry. As soon as he C entered [ 18 ] entered the house he found himself oppressed, and cried out, J'etouffe, and turning round was preparing to go out ; his friend alarmed, asked him Avhither he was going ? — going, says he, why I am going back to Paris to take the air. Give me the Boulevards, and I leave you the country. LETTER I 19 j LETTER VI. LE THEATRE DE LA RUE FAYDEAU. At this theatre, which is very ele gant, French comic operas are per formed. La Maison ct Vendre appeared here for the first time last year, and pleased highly. It is a pretty flower that may be easily transplanted into the parterre at Drury-lane, and I un derstand it has been taken up for that purpose. There is another little opera which was brought out last spring, Une Folie, in two acts, in which the intrigue has a good deal of the Spanish cast, and the gallantry is rather antique c 2 and C 20 3 and superannuated, but the music is delightful, and must please on any stage. THEATRE MONTANSIER. This Theatre is truly Cyprian, and abounds with the votaries of Venus. It possesses, however, the first comic actor in Paris for naivete in the style of Weston. V ecole Tragique, ou Ca det Roussel Maitre de Declamation is a piece in which Brunet laughs with great success at the French buskin. LETTER C 21 1 LETTER VII. L'AMBIGU COMIQUE Is on the Boulevards, and was for merly called Audinot's, a name either borrowed from the motto of the curtain Avhich still remains, SICVT INFAN TES AVDI NOS, or the motto was accommodated to the name of the pro prietor Avho first taught children the Comic Art. Here it is that the Juge- menf de Salomon is acted, Avhich was brought out in the beginning of the y^ir X, and ran for forty nights ; and Madame Angot, of which something has been said. At C 22 3 At all the theatres in the course of the year, something or other is played ^ Avhich draws all Paris after it, if not for forty nights, at least for four. THEATRE DE LA RUE VICTOIRE. This Theatre Avas formerly destined for the Opera Buffa, and for architec ture and simplicity of elegance, and decoration, is by far the most beautiful at Paris ; but it is very little used now, owing to its being too far removed fi-om the centre of things, and as it were out of toAvn. It was here that M"e Sainval, caSette, played Iphi- genie en Tauride, for the benefit of some superannuated actor. This fa mous actress had not trod the boards for many years, but at the call of dis tress [ 23 ] tress she came forth. She has still great powers, but excels most in the quiet and the pathetick. LETTER C t4 3 LETTER vm. HOTELS. You may be lodged and fed at Paris on very reasonable terms, if you are single, or few in number, and in small parties ; but if you are numerous, and have families, you cannot be accom modated with good apartments under twenty guineas a month, Avhilst the very best in the first hotels are charged forty, fifty, and sixty. If you have a party, you dine at horae, and if it be large, you will do well to have a cook of your OAvn ; but if single, you raay be abonne at one of the first hotels iq the [ 25 ] the rue de la loi for seven pounds ten a month, with the very best company, and the best eating-room, with a whole suite of magnificent apartments, and a delicious garden at your comraand ; Avine most excellent, coffee and liqueur both included ; with tea at night, and orgeat and lemonade ad libitum. You may be lodged in this hotel also at a very reasonable rate, for three, four, five, or six louis a month. There are other dining places of good credit, where on paying four livres in the rue St. Honori, you go and come as you like after your first introduction, which is necessary wherever you go. In the rue Faydeau, you may be presented as Etranger to the lady of the house, and dine still better for cent sous, or five livres a time. At Beauvillier's, Very's, and Nicolet's, you raay fare excellently well [ 26 ] well for six livres ; and Avhen you are not tied doAvn, you may vary your dinner place at pleasure. The general hom- of dining is fiA^e o'clock ; and the theatres open at seven. During the summer months a carriage may be dis pensed with, and Avhen you go to the Audience on court days, you raay hire a remise for twelve hours, for eighteen livres, or at most for twenty- one, including the coach^man, LETTER [ 27 ] LETTER IX. AUDIENCE. JL HE Audiences are the 15th of every month, and if you* are to be presented you may go to the Minister's the day before. If you go in the dress of an officer, and Avear regimentals, Avith the regiment on your button, it is possible you may be spoken to before the minister has time to present you, which has been the case Avith many an English officer. Bonaparte has a list of all that are to be presented, and if they are distinguished persons, he says something civil to each of them ; his address [ 28 3 address is perfectly easy and conde- jscending. Should you arrive too late to go to the French Minister's levee, and your own be scrupulous of present ing you to the First Consul on this account, the French Minister has been knoAvn to dispense with this preliminary, where the persons were distinguished characters, or of rank and eminence. It has been usual not to invite to diiv ner persons even of the first rank and distinction, till they have been twice at court, but this rule was dispensed with in the case of one gentleman, because his nephew was invited, it being his second time of appearing at the audi ence, when his uncle Avas first presented. The First Consul does not say a great deal to any body, as may be supposed, but he said more, perhaps, to this gen tleman than to any other individual. 6 He [ 29 ] He had already said before his arrival to Members of Parliament presented as such, that he hoped the new Parlia ment would be as pacifick as the old one, but to him he said, I am very happy that you have been presented to me ; I admire your talents and your virtues ; you were the first to put an end to the massacres of the human race ; you were always for peace ; I consider you as the greatest man of a great nation. He then passed on to another, to whom he said, You were Lord Mayor in a year of scarcity, I know full well what it is de reprimer le peuple quand le pain est cher. Then turning to a Hamburgh Merchant, he said. You are very sorry the peace is made. At dinner the conversation turned on the machine infernale, of which the First Consul Ava« strongly inclined [ 30 ] inclined to believe the late Ministry were the abettors ; but the gentleman first mentioned took it up very warmly, and Avitli great eloquence, and force of argument, shoAved that such a con trivance was totally incompatible Avith the principles of any English Adminis tration Avhatsoever. LETTER [ 31 3 LETTER X. LIBRARIES. X ARIS abounds in libraries, and is of all others the most coiwenient resi dence, on this account, of any other city or universily. London is the capital of Great Britain, Rome of Italy, and so forth, but Paris in this respect is the capital of Europe. The access to these treasures of genius and indus- ti'y is easy and inviting to all Avho come hither, whether for idle curiosity, or painful and laborious research. The National Library has been much en riched by the revolution, from Rome, 1 Venice, [ 32 ] Venice, and Florence, and the Ani- brosian Collection at Milan ; but the famous Virgil of Petrarch, in which he had written with his own hand the day he first saAV Laura, and the time of her death, that day tAventy-five years afterwards, has disappeared in its way from Milan to Paris, by some finesse of legerdemain, which remains yet to be aconnted for. There is some pleasantry in this, as the French them selves alloAv, since they say the Virgil has been twice lost, first by arms, next by art. In the Departraent assigned to the Prints, is an engraving of the Assurap tion of the Virgin into Heaven, on a silver paix, patene, or dish, which it is usual to kiss in catholic countries before the offering, or after the conse cration ; [ 33 3 cration ; the date of this engraving is fourteen hundred and fifty- two, fifteen years before the earliest print : the date is not on the print, but in a paper written by Maso Finiguerra, a Floren tine goldsmith and engraver. He gives an account of his work, for whom it was engraved, and when it was begun, and when finished. At the top of the print is the following title, with the letters reversed, which I transcribe and explain : ae)NATIO^aXaSVA AI^AMMVJaDNI T^aATSMV^ZA Assumpta est in celum Maria aug. exercit. ange. Augustorum exercituum angelorum. The letters were engraved from left to right on the plate, and of course when taken off in the print Avere from right to left, or retrograde. Philippo D Carmig- C 34 3 Carmignani, Professor of the fine Arts at Parma, has published an advertise ment, dated 2d July, 1802, in which he proposes to print a new work, of which the title is " Materials for the History, Origin, and Progress of En graving in Wood and Copper, Avith the Exposition of an interesting DiscoA^ery of an original Print of the famous Maso Finiguerra, now extant in the National Library of Paris, and found by the Abbate D. Pietro Zani Fidentino." This work was promised foj the begin ning of August last, but it had not yet appeared at Paris in September. LETTER [ 35 3 LETTER XL GEMS. X HE National Library is uncom monly rich in Gems, upon which, from time to time, Monsieur Millin pub lishes dissertations. He has A'^ery lately sent a cast of a Jupiter of a very large size to Mr. ToAvnly, which was for merly presented by the Senator Juliani to the library of St. Mark at Venice. The great curiosity in the glass cases of the Medal-room is a gold dish found at Rennes in 1774, of the year 960 of Rome, and 208 of Christ. Its size, its preservation, and its workmanship, D 2 are [ 36 3 are all extraordinary. It was found in repairing a house at Rennes, belonging to the Chapter, six feet two inches beloAv the surface, with a clasp, a chain four feet one inch in length, four coins of Posthumus encircled Avith a filligree, and furnished Avith a ring to hang them about the neck, and ninety-three im perials, of Avhich thirty-four, the flower of the die, are placed in the series of emperors. The whole together weighed seventy ounces. For sorae time it was undetermined whether these treasures should belong to the Canons, or the King ; if to the former, they were destined to the melting pot: fortu nately a small majority gave them to the Royal Cabinet. The whole of the National Collection was once, during two hours in the reign of terror, con demned to be melted. The brutal order [ 37 3 order for a general fusion of all the King's medals was actually given, though never executed, owing to the eloquence of some man of taste in the committee, who contrived to delay it, and finally reverse it. I shall dAvell at present principally on the round gold dish and its ornaments, the diameter of Avhich is nine inches four lines, the depth one inch six lines, the weight forty-three ounces French measure, and French Aveight. Round the dish are sixteen imperial heads, let into the border with wreaths of parsley-leaves, or laurel en circling each. The coins begin at Hadrian, and end at Julia Domna. This border surrounds two bass reliefs, one of which, the largest, forms the centre-piece. Of the sixteen imperial coins, three of them have interesting reverses, for in order to exaraine them, the [ 38 3 the coins have been taken out, described, and replaced exactly as they Avere . The reverse of the fourth is of Faustina Aug. Faust. Aug. Pii Aug. Fil. A woman standing, holding in her right hand a wreath, in her left a spear, Lsetitije Publicae, mentioned indeed by Rasche, but not inVaillant, or Eckhel . The four teenth in the circle is Coraraodus when young, with Hilaritas on the rcA^erse. The seventh is Commodus more ad vanced, with a cap of liberty in the right hand of a female, and a spear in her left resting on her shoulder. Li bert. PM. TRP. XIIL IMP. VIIL COS.V.PP. The sixth is of Geta. Sep timius Severus is seated on a throne and full-faced, between his tAvo sons, at that time Consuls, the eldest for tlie third time, and his brother for the second, (in the year of Rome 960, Xti [ 39 3 Xti 208.) Pontif. Cos. IL In this coin the legend is SUP. GIIT A, for SEPT. GETA. InGori,vol.i.p. 161, No. 100, is an inscription with two II's to express an E, in the words Felix fecit, felici ; Fiilix fiicit, fiilici. See also Fabre tti and Gruter. The bass reliefs on the dish represent the Association of Hercules and Bac chus in the center-piece, in which there are eight figures. Hercules is seated on a rock, and has a cup in his hand, which he holds out to Bacchus, as if it were to be filled. Bacchus is also seated in the center, with a pan ther at his feet, a young fawn beloAv him playing on a double flute, and Pan horned behind him on the seven-reed- pipe; on each side of Pan are the Graces, [ 40 3 Graces, and on their right stands Sile- nus crowned with ivy. The exterior bass-relief represents a procession, led by a Bacchanal playing on cymbals, of a variety of groups, all relating to Hercules and Bacchus. Ci tizen A. L. Cointreau was the first who read three papers at the National In stitute on this inestimable treasure of antiquity, on the 13th, 18th, and 23d Fructidor, in the ninth year of the Republick. Citizen Millin has also prepared a Dissertation and a Plate, Avhich will give an improved represen tation of this precious morsel. Citizen Cointreau is of opinion that this dish was presented to Severus either on the promotion of his sons to the Consul- [ 41 3 Consulship, or on his departure for England, signified on his coins by the legend Profect. Aug. This seems to me at least a very forced explanation, and has very little connection with the repose of Hercules, as it Avere in the arms of Bacchus, which the bass-relief evidently exhibits. It might be men tioned Avith some propriety in this place, that the tAvo I I on the coin of Geta, recorded by Cointreau, may liaA^e been intended to show the broad and lengthened sound of the letter E in Geta, as in the Greek H ; or as the tAVO aa's in the word ROMAAN, on a coin of Rome in the possession of Mr. Mihingen at Paris, mark the quan tity of the second syllable of Roma norum. See A A for A longo in Gruter three times, AAceteris DC XXX. Pa- astores CLVII.ThraacumCCCCLXX. 4 LETTER [ 42 3 LETTER XIL MEDALS. 1 HE Cabinet of Medals and coins of the French Republick is well known to be the first in the world, of Avhich Citizen Cointreau has published an abridged history, but the constant ac cessions to the catalogue make this history imperfect. A coin of extreme rarity, and extraordinary beauty, has been very lately added to the collec tion, a Demetrius in gold, with the head of the king on one side, and on the reverse, Eques pileatus decurrens ad dextram, Avith a spear in the right hand [ 43 3 hand of the horseman. This is the type of the coin of Peliima in Thessaly, with this difference, that there the horseman Avith the same sort of cap is galloping to the left. Althougli the National Cabinet be so rich, yet there are articles even in private collections in England, not to be found in this A'ast repository ; I shall just mention one in the possession of Taylor Combe, Esq. JEAia. Placidia, daughter of Va lentinian III. and Eudoxia, and Avife of Olybrius, a Senator of Constanti nople. I am in hopes Mr. T. Combe Avill give the Society of Antiquaries some account of this Placidia, Avho is totally distinct from Galla Placidia to be found in most cabinets, the sister of Arcadius and Honorius. Mr. Combe's coin is in gold, (AEL PLACIDIA ^^VG. Caput Augustas, "^^ol. XX. MVLT. [ 44 3 MVLT. XXX. Victoria Stans d. cru cem oblongam, intermedio astro) and has never been published. LETTER [ 45 3 LETTER XIII. BOOKS. Among the 300,000 volumes of the National Library, there are some Uni ques not to be found elsewhere, and some Uniques in price, for which more has been paid than for the same books by any individual or publick pro prietor. Of the first sort is Vocabu- larium Latino-Teutonicum (in which the word Amaritudo is rendered Bitter- keit) impressum eodem typo quo Ca tholicon Jo. de Janua. 1460, by Wit- temberg, who sold the types to Bech- terraurtze of Altavilla. COLOPHON. [ 46 3 COLOPHON. Presens hoc opusculum non stili aut penne suffragio, sed nova artificiosaque invencione quadam ad Eusebiam dei In dustrie per Henricum Bechtermuntze pie meraoriae in Altavilla, (HauteviUe) est inchoatum, et deraum finitum sub ano dni MCCCCLXVII. ipo die Leo- nardi confessoris qui fuit die mensis Nov. The date of the Duke of Marlbo rough's copy at Blenheim, according to Mr. Bowyer, Origin of Printing, p. 87, is 1469, two years later than the copy in the National Library. See the Colophon in Panzei-, ipo die sancti Bonifacii qui fuit 5ta die mensis Junii. Grammatica Latina et Germanica. La Grammaire Latine et Allemande. s COLOPHON. C 47 3 COLOPHON. Actis terdenl jubilaminis octo bis annis Moguncia Reni me condit et imprimit amnis : Hinc Nazareni sonet Oda per ora Joannis Namque sereni luminis est scaturigo perennis. This Grammar Avas printed accord ing to the Colophon, by Jo. Fust, at Mayence, in 1466, that is, in the six teenth year of the thirteenth Jubilee. A Jubilee consisted of fifty years, twen- ty-nine fifties make 1450+16=1466. The Uniques in price are, (I mean paid by the library) Cicero de Orator e, 1465, and Petrarch, 1470. The.se books cost about six thousand five hundred livres. In the year 1740, Prosper Marchand published his His tory of Printing, in which he tells us, that the first edition of Boccace sold for 2400 livres ; but we could tell him, Avere [ 48 3 were he noAV alive, that fourteen thou sand five hundred and ten livres were given for the Guirlande de Julie, at the Duke de la Valiere's sale in 1784. N. B. Cicero and Petrarch were bought Avith assignats. LETTER [ 49 3 LETTER XIV. THE MAZARINE LIBRARY. IN this hbrary there are many re markable things ; the most curious^of all is, the Bible of 1450, called the Mazarine Bible, printed with cut metal types, supposed not to be the first, for there is another still more ancient, of which the letters are double, made with moveable types, and strung like beads on a rosary, before the invention of carving the characters in a matrix, that each might be cast singly, instead of being cut. In the middle of the volume in folio, and on paper, there E are [ '50 3 are five chapters of Hosea in manu script, from the third to the eighth. In this library is a globe, which was constructed for the purpose of teaching the last Dauphin Geography, in which his father was an extraordinary profi cient ; and a ladder raade for the Queen Antoinette, that moves by a spring, and may be directed to any part of the roora at pleasure, by the person sitting on it. Here is also the ancient stone found at Malta, with an alphabet in Phoenician and Greek cha racters upon it, published by the Abb6 Barthelemi. LETTER C 51 ] LETTER XV. LA MONNOIE. There is in this hotel a cabinet of Natural History, which for the beauty of its arrangeraents, and the magnifi cence of the room* in which it is dis played, is by far the finest thing of the sort in Paris. Over the entrance to the staircase is a motto in Latin, which puts us in mind of the legend on the coinsof Malta, NON iES SED FIDES, Quas effundit opes largo bona copia cornu, Explorat certa religione Fides. * The dimensions of this room are 45 feet high by 40 broad, and 40 long. E % LETTER [ 52 ] LETTER XVL PETITS AUGUSTINS. X HE Petits Augustins are noAV, Avhat St. Denis was once, the Westminster Abbey of France. Monsieur le Noir has published an Historical and Chro nological Description of all the Monu ments of Sculpture, brought together from the churches and cathedrals of France, with a dissertation on the beard, and the dress of each century, and a treatise on painted glass ; et le prods verbal des exhumations de St. Denis. It is easy to conceive how interesting these fragments raust be, recovered [ 53 3 recovered from the Avreck of the revo- « lution, and arranged in different apart ments, according to their order in time, Avith the history of each. LETTER [ 54 3 LETTER XVII. THE LIBRARY OF THE ARSENAL. JjLeRE is the Bibliotheque of the Marquis de Paulray entire, which was purchased by the Corapte d' Artois ; but what is still more precious, Sully's apartraent, of which the furniture and decorations still reraain in the state they were in when he left them. The walls are painted, and represent scrip ture subjects and the history of the Pucelle d'Orleans, with a sword in her hand, such as. she is engraved in Har ding's Shakspeare. Over the chimney is one of the first glasses made at Ve nice, [ ^5 ] nice, of a singular oblong form, en carre penchant aux deux bouts, with the tAVO ends terminating in inclined planes. This library is very rich in manuscripts. One is called the Bre viary of Ren6, king of Naples and Sicily, with a title in Moorish Arabic ; .another is in letters of gold of the ninth century, containing the four Evange listic. , LETTER [ ^6 3 LETTER XVIII. JARDIN DES PLANTES. In the hot-house of the national gar den, I saw two new Geraniums lately- sent from Africa, one of which was perfectly so, not in its flower indeed, which was of two colours, red and white, but in its stalk, which was covered with short spines. The Afri can species of Geraniums are generally distinguishable from their European congeners by the irregularity of the corolla, and the connection of the sta mina. The other Geranium had a flower very like the Alstroemeria, and 3 had [ 57 3 had not been yet named. Citizen Faujas read geological lectures whilst I was at Paris, in the clearest and most perspicuous manner, and Avith the greatest ability, demonstrating as he went on from the best and richest specimens of all sorts, relative to his subject, of Avhich he Avas supplied with the most abundant apparatus ; but what Avas better than all this, he read gratis, by order of the nation, and Avas obliged to you, or any foreigner, who came to hear him. He began, indeed, with a paper, but he soon threw it away ; nor was he less luminous, or more immethodical Avithout it. In one of his lectures he entered into a calcu lation, to shoAV from a position, that human bodies, when buried, turn to calcareous earth ; how much of this material would be produced from all the [ 58 3 the enterres of the globe in seven years, and he found it would be enough to build the church of Saint Genevieve. In his six lectures on Volcanos, he ex hausted the subject, and showed us the difference of the several systems, the Vulcanian, the Neptunian, and the Hut- tonian, which is the Plutonian, and his; own opinion, Avhich will appear when his lectures shall be published. He told us, among other curious particulars, that the fire of the A^olcanos acted under the granit ; that the difference between common fire and volcanic, was in the destruction of the matter by the former, and the preservation of it by the latter, since volcanic furnaces in activity fused the matter without de stroying the parts : that the explosion of a volcano was not to be imitated in the mines. These lectures were always well [ 59 3 Avell attended, and he never seemed to read to a thin audience. There were among his hearers women as well as men, aaIio came to study nature, and partake of the liberality of the nation. Among the animals in the museum there is a new one sent by Sir Joseph Bancks, (Banks) ornithorinhus paradoxus de la nouvelle Hollande. An animal with the skin of a mole, web-footed, and the bill ofa duck. In the middle of the long gallery, betAveen the fishes on one side and the insects on the other, is a piece of clock work, which will go for two years without stopping ; and when it shall be perfectly arranged, it is expected that itwill not stop at all. " Rusti- cus [ 60 3 cus expectat." In this room the birds are to be found. Happy the man Avho has a coloured Buffon ! LETTER [ 61 3 LETTER XIX. 1 HE most agreeable sort of pleasure is that which comes upon you unlooked for. The ncAvspaper of to day says, — " L' opinion n'est rien, et la nature est tout, "¦ Rechercher les plaisirs est une triste chose ; " Les attendre vaut mieux, iis en ont plus de gout, " Des maux qu'on n'a point, le bonheur se compose, ' ' '' Compar'd with Nature Fancy is but coy, " To seek for pleasure is a sad employ; " Better to wait enjoyment's soft caress ;. " To know no evil is true happiness." As I was reading the direction upon the stairs of the National Library, e>>- suyez vos pieds, rub your shoes, I was asked by somebody Avho passed me, if Monsieur L'etranger had seen the plan [ 62 3 plan of Paris at the bottom of the great court ? I said. No ; and my friend took me into a ground-floor, where was la carte of Monsieur le Grand, pasted on board, and laid upon a table of an enormous size. The proportion of this plan is of half a hne to six feet ; the first idea, which he executed in part, was of a line to a foot : he worked at this gigantic labour for thirty years, at the end of which he had lost the use of his right hand, and was obliged to give up all thoughts of finish ing it upon the scale he had begun, and the plan was, in consequence, re duced to its present dimensions. A line is the 12th part of an inch, and an inch of a foot, so that Monsieur le Grand's map would have been the hundred and forty-fourth part of Paris. What a raonster ! LETTER [ 63 3 LETTER XX. 1 WENT this evening to the Franpois to see Les mceurs dujour, in which the last line of the following passage was applauded : A II faut qu'on rit ici, car on pleure ailleurs. B votre Paris a I'ancienne mode met Paris d'aujourdhui aux Antipodes. A — la moitie des humains rit I'autre moitie, B pardonnez moi, J'ai pitie. In some piece at the Ambigu Comi- que, one of the characters says to two messengers from Germany, Je vous pe- trifierai ; to which the Germans reply — Cest inutile, nous sommes Allemands. In Madam Pompadour's time the Ger mans were not well received at court, 6 and [ 64 3 and an ambassador frora thence in delivering his credentials, in his speech to the king, began thus, — Sire, L'Em pereur mon maitre.— Parlez plus haut, cried the Master of the Cereraonies, upon Avhich the ambassador, sans de- ferer, Avithout a pause, changed his style in an instant with great address, and re-commenced his speech by put ting the emperor before the king, L'Empereur mon maitre, Sire. I dined in corapany with Monsieur de Grave, Avhom I believe to be the same person that Madame Roland speaks of in a certain Avay not too favourable. De Grave dqns l' embarras de tout concilier n etoit veritablement rien; parlant peu comme par reserve, mais parce qu'il manquait d'idees. I thought even by the little I saw of Monsieur de Grave, that this Avas a false character, for he talked [ 65 J talked freely, and what he said was very good. Perhaps Madame Roland meant that he had none of her ideas of government. Dinner, hoAvever, is no bad moment to judge of a man, for then it is that his heart, like his mouth,' is generally open. LETTER t 66 3 LETTER XXL The upholsterer's shops at Paris are full of fine furniture, where you raay see commodes from tAvo hundred gui neas up to five hundred, but the gene rals' houses are the finest. General Murat's is very complete, in which there is a bed trimmed with very rich lace. A lace-merchant told a friend of mine, that he had an order to make coloured lace ; and he actually atterapt ed it, by dying the threads ; but it Avould not ansAver ; and he was obliged to relinquish the project. Madarae Bonaparte's apartments in the Tuille ries are superbly furnished, and with great taste ; they Avere the apartments of [ 67 3 of the late King and Queen, now of the First Consul and his Consort. The furniture, however, is not the same. Here is the Madonna della Sedia, and Domenichino's Sibyl, and Anne Bolen, by Leonardo da Vinci, and Lise Napo- litaine La Femme de Frangois del Gio- condo, a portrait, of which the painter Avas A^ery fond, if you may judge from his frequent repetition of it in liis vari ous pictures. Erasmus and Sir Thomas More, by Holbein. In the First Con sul's dressing room is a piece of furni ture of English Avorkmanship, a gen tleman's toilet, contained in a box beautifully ornamented Avith high-po lished steel. In one of the rooms is a clock, Avith a figure of time vvith a scythe in his hand, and a beautiful female pointing to the hour : beneath, on a square pedestal, is a Greek in- F 2 scription. [ 68 3 scription, which says. Look not at time for he is deaf and merciless ; but pay your court to the fair one, for to obtain her is excellence. MHAETIJEI- KUCOZTE ©EOI, KAI XEIPEJ AUHNEIS TAN AE ITEPFE KAAAN, TA2 TE TTXEIN APETA. LETTER [ 69 3 LETTER XXIL At the Italian opera, I heard la Signora Strinasacchi, whose sister plays finely on the violin in Germany. There is also in Paris an Italian lady of Milan, by name Dealberganti, who is a very great proficient on this instrument ; but she must disguise herself en homme, if she raeans to make a fortune in Paris, since the French think it perfectly in elegant and ungraceful for a woman to draAV a bow. I was much pleased with the Italian in Londra, who goes thi ther per veder la belle Inglese. The Mameluks walk about Paris in their dresses, and appear at all the thea- 5 tres [ 70 3 tres, and frascati ; they are about six feet English ; wear a sort of robe of scarlet cloth ; a white turban with a good deal of gold about it ; a rich girdle", and a po niard, or couteau, with an ivory handle stuck in it. Others are dressed different ly. Two of them ride behind the First Consul at the parade, and sometimes the whole corps is reviewed with the rest of the troops. At all the parades, and atthe audience, there are abun dance of English officers in uniforms, who make a very raartial and soldier like appearance ; which induced a foreign ambassador to remark, that he thought the English officers were as well look ing as the French, Ma fm, dit il, les officiers Anglois ont une aussi jolie tour nure que les Frangois. My friend who heard this, made him a bow for the army. Bonaparte said to an English officer, [ n ] officer, " In what regiment are you ?" "' In the Queen's regiment and the King's guards." " HaA^e you serA^ed against the French ?" " Oui, mon Gene ral, en Hollande." To another, a naval officer, he said, " Your ships fought Avell this Avar," " Yes, Sir, and I hope they Avill fight as Avell in thc next." To another, of the London Light-horse Volunteers, ¦' Your uniform is very pretty." LETTER [ T2 3 LETTER XXIIL 1 HE Tuilleries are kept in nice order, and exceedingly clean, Programmas are stuck up against the walls on the terrace of Very, in Avhich all indigni ties and degradations are forbid, on, pain of imprisonment in the guard house. Some people, it seems, were offended at this, and lampooned the order very severely, and verses full of mechancete, but not much wit, Avere circulated in manuscript. In all go- A^ernments there seem to be some sub jects who are impatient of any restraint, and, like the men of Corcyra of old,* and of Venice in raodern tiraes, think their liberty abridged, if they raay not * EAETGEP' H2K0PKYPA XEZEnOT BEAHU. be [ 73 3 be permitted a dung-heap at ev^ery door, and one higher than the rest at the Doge's. This is the case at Paris ; and the Avhole length of the National Library, under the Avails, you have the deposits of all ranks, from a general to a private. On the Quay de Voltaire there is a plan of Swisserland, exhibited in relief, that comprehends seventy leagues in length, from the lake of Constance to the lake of Geneva, and thirty-two in breadth, from Basle to St. Gothard, in a length of fifteen feet and a breadth of five, Avith a very small relief. In the library of St. Genevieve there is also a plan of Rome, in relief, of an inch to ninety feet, made in the year 1776. General Pfiffer's plan of the mountainous parts of Swisserland, as far as it went, was most complete, in Avhich the woods of oak, beech, and pine, [ 74 3 pine, Avere marked, and the strata of rock delineated, Avith those of granite, gravel, and calcareous stone. The plan com prised rivers, toAvns, villages, and forests ; every cottage, torrent, road, and path, Avith sixty square leagues of the Can tons of Zug, Berne, ScliAveitz, Under- Avalden, Lucerne, and Uri, in twelve feet long, and nine and a half broad, in, the year 1776. Li 1785 it AV'as com pleted, and then it consisted of 142 compartments put together, or taken to pieces like a dissected map. With Lucerne in its center, it takes in eighteen leagues and a lialf in length, and eleven and a half in breadth ; tAVO hundred and three square leagues and a half are represented on a parallelogram of 246 feet ; or about two English miles and a half, by a square English foot. The highest point of i 75 3 of the model is ten inches, equal to 900 feet each inch, to the top of the highest mountains above the level of Lucerne. See Coxe's Travels. LETTER [ 76 j LETTER XXIV. JL OU are tempted to Avalk in the streets of Paris though they are not too clean, and have no foot-paths to pro tect you against the dashing cabriolets, which cry gare so faintly, at least the noise they make droAvns their cry so completely, that they seem to come upon you without any notice, like sud-' den death ; Avith whom, as Moliere says finely, there is no gare : " La mort, sans dire, gare, abat tous Ies humains." Still you are induced to go on foot in dry weather, though not too soon after a shower, in order to see at your leisure the extraordinary things which are to be *^ [ 77 3 be found in the various parts of this vast metropolis. In a carriage you can examine nothing, where the street is so narrow that it will not permit you to draw up and block the way ; for instance, if you were in a coach, and wanted to look at the Portal of St. Ger- vais, you must get out, and send away the carriage. The portal of this church is the finest in Paris ; it is composed of three orders, Doric, Ionic, and Corin thian, from a drawing of Deshrosses, and is remarkable for its regular pro portions, simplicity and fine execution. This will be ever the case when you drive about to see sights, you will either miss them entirely, or are obliged ta dismount and stand in the street to look at them. You may pass ten times through the rue du Bouloi Avith out [ 78 ] out observing the gate-way of the Llotel de St. Simon, the highest in Paris, Avhich is more like a triumphal arch than a Porte cochere ; and through the rue Varennes Avdthout noticing the no ble entrance to the hotel of Mons. de Lauzun ci-devant Marechal de Biron. These are little things to sce, to Avhich there is no index in the guides and manuals, and Avhich you must find out by your OAvn industry. At the end of the Boulevards, near the Faubourg St. Honore, are a number of unfinished columns, opera interrupta, of a church, to be dedicated to Saint Mary Mag dalen ; but little else has been done, by thc intervention of the revolution, than raise the pillars Avhich support nothing. These pillars, indeed, have given birth to a calambour, Avhich accounts for 3 the [ 79 3 the interruption pf the Avork. On a otd les colons, mais on a laiss6 les co~ lonnes. LETTER [ 80 3 LETTER XXV. It is still the fashion to run to Ver sailles of a Sunday to see the palace, which is now a museura, and the Petit Trianon, which is now an eating-house, and particularly when the Avaters play. The water-works of Versailles are the third in magnificence, after those of Hesse-Cassel and Herenhausen, then comes the jet d'eau of ChatsAvorth, which might have been made the best of all, by sinking the bason as deep as the bed of the river. There were also fine water- works at Boughton in North amptonshire, where the great Duke of Marlborough once commended their excellency in very high terms, which made [ 81 3 made their Avitty owner, the Duke of Montagu, reply with great quickness, " But they are by no means comparable to your Grace's fire- works." I throw out this hon mot for the use of the French courtiers, if they can find a happy opportunity to use it ; for it must not be attempted, nisi dextro tem pore, but at some lucky moment. G LETTER I 8^ :i LETTER XXVL JL HE French funds, or five per cents. at the price they now are, produce near ten per cent, and they are gua ranteed by domains and lands in the Provinces, which have been mortgaged to government. Estates in France pro-- duce about four per cent, and a quarter to the purchaser, after all out-goings are paid ; in which are included the prix d' adjudication, and the sale-tax, which is a heavy one, of twelve per cent, upon the capital. Certain per sons who came to France with large suras in their pockets to buy lands, on finding the terms were so high, have returned with their raoney unemployed. The . I 83 3 The best property in Paris, perhaps, is in houses. You buy an hotel for six thousand pounds, retain an apartment for yourself, and let out the rest to loidgers, and make from twelve to fifteen per cent, ofyour raoney, with the risk, indeed, of being burnt out without in surance : fires, however, are very rare at Paris. The taxes on doors, windows, and chimnies, are paid by the occu piers. G 2 LETTEE [ 84 3 LETTER XXVIL At the Theatre de la Cite, I saw a piece in which there is a dialogue be tween a Chaudronnier and a Ramoneur, or a Tinker and a Chimney-sweeper ; they alternately praise and abuse Paris ; one says, it is so fine, that it is fit only for Kings and Princes, or Generals and Consuls, to inhabit, and should be kept in a case ; that the Seine, enamoured of its grandeur, murmurs as it flows tlirough it, and quits it with regret. The other describes it either all dust or all mud, and its streets so narrow, and its houses so high, that the eye cannot reach to the top of them ; and you look in vain for Paris in Paris itself. LETTER [ 85 3 LETTER XXVIIL J- HE ncAV Salle LegislatiA'e is by far the prettiest novelty at Paris ; the form of it resembles the Court of Justice at Ches ter. It is semi-circular, of Avhich the diameter is about 90 feet. The Tri bune is in the center. BeloAV the Pre sident's seat on each side, are three Clerks. The hall has four series or divisions of seats, and in all 300 places numbered, Avhich the members occupy for a time, and then change, in order to prevent the possibility of forming parties du cote droit, ou gauche. In the Palais Royal is a Afuseum of Anatomy, in which you may find pre parations [ 86 3 parations of all the diseases incident to the huraan frame. Among a multi tude of every sort, the raost disgusting are. La Colique du misere. L'ejfet d'un rasoir sale. CEU carcinomateux, — gueri. Opthalmie tres rehelle, occasionie par trop de lecture. Noyau de cerise dans la trachie artere. Epingle dans Yoesophage, etc. etc. etc. At the Institution in the street of the Observatory, No. 115, a question was put to a pupil of the Abbe Sicard, which would have puzzled any person to have resolved in five words, though he had had the perfect use of his ears and his tongue, and answered with great quickness by one that had nei ther.—" What is gratitude?" " The rnemory pf the heart." LETTER C B7 3 LETTER XXIX. X HE Gardens of Tivoli consist of thirty-seven acres, and are let for twenty-five thousand livres, and cost from eight to ten more in keeping up. They are uncommonly Avell laid out, and the fee of admission is two livres, except on grand f^tes with fire-works, then three or four. Dinners have been given here, at a table eighteen feet wide, twelve for the plateau, and three on each side for the dishes, by five hundred feet long ; in the middle of the table the victories of Marengo, Lodi, etc. etc. AVere represented, with a multitude of military devices and portraits ; in short all the French army triumphant. [ 88 3 triumphant. Here is a stage for danc ing, and spring boards, which now and then let you through to the ground. EA^ery body brings his own partner, and if you wish ever so much to dance the Avalze or valze, you will find it difficult to be accommodated on the spot ; but at the Hameau de Chantilly, or Paphos, there are partners enough. Formerly here, as Avell as at other places, there was a crowd of fine carriages, but par ticularly on the Boulevards du Temple; but now all you see is a row of hackney coaches, Avhich are very reasonable, and will carry you from one end of Paris to, the other for fifteen pence English. LETTER [ 89 3 LETTER XXX. X ARIS is full of characters, as you may easily imagine, from most parts of the globe. Tiie English formerly made the greatest figure in expense, IIOAV the Russians take the lead, and Avhere Ave giv^e one Louis they give tAvo. The Germans live snug and comfort able, and make no display of their quarters ; they are content to dine en pension, and mount a cabriolet one day, and se promener a cheval the other, and ride and dii', e alternately in search of the summum bonum. The mode of dress ing A'aries more Avith the women than the men. At one time it Avas all the rage to tye the bonnet under the chin, 3 Avhich C 90 3 which Madame Roland called very well, la ligature d' enfant sous le menton ; now nothing does but the greasy spiral cork-screAv curls upon the forehead, and one like the spring of a Avatch, that terminates on both sides of the face, at the corner of the eye. The women dress as they like ; and dress as they will, whether like the females of Van dyke and Sir Peter Lely, or Watteau, they are sure to please ; for France is the heaven of women, though it be the hell of horses, and the purgatory of men. Polygamy and infidelity thrive here surprisingly ; and the victims of these diseases are no longer considered as formerly, des malades imaginaires ; since numbers labour mider them, some fcAv die of them, and many live by them. LETTER I 91 ] LETTER XXXL As long ago as Addison's time, the Parisian milliners Avere in the habit of sending to the famous Madame ~ in Leicester-fields, a doll completely equipped in the fashionable robe of the day. The Marchandes des Modes in the Palais Royal improA^e upon this, for they dress up a livdng idol, and send it to Avalk round and round the garden till all adraire it. Many a lady makes her fortune by being a proper peg to hang clothes upon. At the opera last night, in the saloon, betAveen the acts, I saw several English Avho had been at Madame Recamier's, at Clichy, to breakfast magnificently, at one o'clock. [ 92 3 o'clock, and after that they amused themselves as they liked, Avith hunting and shooting, and there was a cry for two hours of more fusils, more ca briolets, more horses, till CA^ery one was served. Madame Recamjer came the other night to Frascati, and was folloAved, I believe I told you in a former letter, Uke the Gunnings ii^ St. James's Park. The print, hoAV- ever, made of her in England, for half a guinea, and sold hei-e (having been copied exactly) for half a croAvn, is the portrait of a beauty of Windsor, or Hampton Court, and no resemblance of Madame Recamier, who has, as you know, something of the Chinese in her countenance, Avhich is not much like European features. LETTER [ 93 3 LETTER XXXIL Rousseau, who saw aii objects through the prism of his imagination, Avhich nothing could equal in richness of colours, used to say, that the English Avere free but once in scA'eii years, and then they Avere mad. If he could but see Paris at this moment, from the Pantheon, assembled nightly, like Milton's infernals, in a small house and garden at Frascati, he would, per haps, exclaim with as much justice and propriety, Voila mon contrat social! Whilst you remain in Paris you cannot form any exact judgment of Avhat you hear and see ; to do this you must retire ; [ 94 } retire; the hubbub is too great when you are in the midst of it, but reraove a little way off, and the sounds unite and becorae harraonious ; just like bells at a distance, which to those in the tour are in one continued j angle . When you see the lion and the larab, the plaintiff and the defendant, the di- A'orcer and the divorced, the judge and the culprit, together, bowing to one another, in the same house, across the same table, you naturally say this can not be, it is a mistake ; but in a very short time you find out that it is really so ; and that, at a proper distance, what appeared to you to be an extra vagant pentimento in the piece, by some peculiarity of time and circum stance, falls into its place, and unites with the ground of the picture. These may seem to be monstrous congruities, 2 but C 95 3 but they are all explicable, and a reason raay be given for CA^ery one of them. LETTER [ 96 ] LETTER XXXIIL At the Abbey Saint Martin there are several rooms set apart for raodels of machines and buildings, that are all curious in their kind ; such as the model of the roof of a Gothic church, by Avhich the internal striicture is ex hibited. There is alsp a model of the kitchen of Saint Marie, a hospital at Florence, where twelve pots are boiled, and meat is roasted on three spits, all at the same time, with a very small fire. In the court is a newly-invented machine, of the celebrated Citizen JMongolfier, by which he can raise water with a fall of five feet to the top of the house, by a single soupape, or plate of brass. [ 97 3 brass, so disposed as to open to admit the water, and shut Avhen it is to be raised by compression : by increasing this compression, he has raised it to eleven hundred feet, and can carry it to tAVO thousand . The process of the expe riment, Avhich he shows you in his own garden, is the simplest of all mechani cal operations. During the reign of Mongolfier-balloons, an ingenious and Avell known epigrammatist of our own, then at Paris, was so forcibly struck Avith the possibility of posting through the air, from Paris to London, in an afternoon, and so delighted with the good cheer of the one, and the conve nience of the other, that he snatched a pen, and Avrote an extempore, of Avhich the folloAving is an imitation ; H So [ 98 3 So choice their wine, so rich theic- meat^ So vile their necessary seats. No more I'll pass a day entire In France, not even on the Loire ; But mount in air without dismay. And with Mongolfier wing my way. In Paris dine, in London bring To Cloacine my offering. LETTER [ 99 3 LETTER XXXIV. 1 HE French cavalry make a fine appearance in the Carousel on parade- days, and yet, here and there, the women will cry out, Voila un gargon peruquier a cheval .' The fashion is, to wear great whiskers, and cover the facei Avith hair, Avhich makes the troops look more like fierce philosophers in armour than Spartans, who wore no moustaches, or followers of Scipio Afri canus, who shaved his beard every day. So various, indeed, are the French uniforms, and military costume, that you might find out among them Bo hemians, Hungarians, Croats, Hu- H 2 lans. C 100 3 lans, Tirolians, Pandours, and Hus sars. Bewhisker'd each visage, besabred each thigh. The espionnage of Paris is, they say, rauch increased, 'and yet there is no persecution for opinions ; you may say what you will, if you do not act upon it. No man would be reported to the police for observing that the laws of the tAvelve tables, of Draco, and the guillotine, were all of the same colour ; or that Fortune always paid her debts ; and if she let Theodore die in thc King's bench, she set Napoleon upon the throne at St. Cloud ; if she ruined one King of Corsica, she gave another Corsican a better kingdom ; indeed, the very best she has to give. LETTER [ 101 3 LETTER XXXV. IT is so hot at Paris, that in spite of brick floors, and marble tables, we want some of your tateh-men to throw sweet water, and cool our apartments. In defiance, hoAvever, of the Aveather, I contrive to go out, and have been to day to the glass manufactory, to see the whole process of melting, in the first place ; then uniting by the means of sand ; then softening Avith einery ; then polishing with putty ; then quicksilver ing, that is, laying on the back of the glass quicksilver, first united with tin foil, on which it is poured. I have told you already that some of the first Venetian glass is still at Paris. I went to I 102 3 to the gardens, after the glass manu factory, to take another view of the .Cabinet, and to get some farther information from Mr. Faujas, Avho is as communicatiA^e as he is well in formed ; but it Avould take ' a twelve7 month to see every thing within doors and Avithout, and examine all the scarce specimens with the attention they re quire. In the lecture-room at the gardens is a statue of Buffon, under Avhich is Avritten, Majestati nature^ par ingenium. The person Avho shews this room, it is said, upon being asked the name of the artist who made the statue, said, he believed it Avas nnder the figure ; and looking again, he ob served. Qui, Monsieur, le nom y est; eest par Ingenium. You are not to suppose the French ignorant of the dead languages, because an individual 6 Avhp [ 103 3 Avho shoAvs the lions does not understand Latin. Both Greek and Latin are thoroughly aa^cU known at Paris ; but the knoAvledge of them is in fcAV hands, such as Villoison, Chardon de Rochette, Coray, Clavier, Millin, etc. etc. The praise of Bonaparte's A^ctories has been sung in a poem of some length, in Greek Hexameters : this AVork is sold at the Palais d'egaliti, but I have never read it. LETTER [ 104 3 LETTER XXXVL JdOUCHE, the famous Republican Minister of Police, is removed to a more lucrative office ; he was as great in his department as any of his prede cessors, not excepting Monsieur de Sartine, whose name is given to a street. Just before he went out, an additional impost Avas announced, from his bureau, to the farmers of the tax on gaming-houses ; upon which the wits repeated the line of Cresset's fare- Avell to the Jesuits, that had been be fore applied to Louis XV, on the tax published by the Abbe Terrai, the very day the King died, " C'est ainsi qu'en partantje vous fais mes adieux." 1 The [ 105 ] The tax, hoAvever, no more belonged to Fouche than to the Abbe Terrai, it went into the National purse in both instances, I do not say without passing through the gridiron. The I^rench are very angry Avith a certain great states man and orator in the House of Com mons, for having said, that, were the French to come to England, they Avould cut off his head, as they had cut off the woman's, in order to make her good, or silent ; whereas they insist on it, that the good Avoman, or Avoman without a head, is nothing more than an emblem of a female under the direc tion of her hu.sband, and in no want of a head-piece. This device, they say, Avas invented by King Pharamond, to illustrate the Sahc LaAv, which forbad women, in some cases, to inherit ; and also [ 106 3 also to preserve the sceptre of France from being en quenouille par la regence dune reine. LETTER C 107 3 LETTER XXXVIL At the Tuilleries there are tAvo eatr ing-rooms, in Avhich Bonaparte dines in publick. In the small one, the table holds just fifty ; in the large one, Avhich is a gallery Avith tAvo roAvs of French heroes in marble, three hundred. Llere you dine Avith Catinat, De Tourville, Vauban, Bayard, Turenne, and all the great generals of France. Beyond this gallery is the council-chamber, in Avhich is a globe, and a curious clock, that shows the time of day in cA^ery part of tlie northern hemisphere. In another room is a clock with emblematical devices, representing Time present and Time past, in the Avay that Young describes [ 108 3 describes him, concealing his wings as he advances, and displaying them as he flies aAvay, so as to keep his body out of sight. The ground behind Marechal Biron's house, in the rue Varennes, of fourteen acres, is still a garden. In Mr. Wal pole's time it consisted of alleys and Avalks, buttoned on each side Avith lines of floAver-pots, succeeding one another in their season, to the number of nine thousand, of Asters, or Reines Mar guerites only. The alleys still exist, but the Asters are no more : the house and gardens are to let, for 18,000 livres a 5^car, oi- seven hundred pounds near ly. The hotel is furnished at least Avith verj^ fine glasses, and iioav belongs to the house of Lauzun, that inter married Avith the royal family. The Marechal [ 109 ] Marechal took as much delight in show ing his toAvn-garden, as Louis XIV. did his country one at Versailles to the JcAV Bernard, of whom he borroA^ed a fcAV millions. LETTER C 110 3 LETTER XXXVIIL JlN the rue St. Dominique, at the an cient Convent of the Jacobins, is the Salle d armes, or armoury of France. In order to see this magazine of guns, match-locks, called in India Burhindez, or darters of lightning, arquebuses, pistols, swords, daggers, sabres, hang ers, cutlasses of all sorts and all times, you must have a letter to Mr. Regnier, to Avhose care they are comraitted, and by whose favour only they are shown. Monsieur Regnier is a very ingenious mechanic, and has invented a number of different cadenas de sureti, or secret padlocks, which cannot be picked ; also, a dynanometre, which measures and [ Ul 3 and compares the relative strength of different men ; also, a potamometre, that tells the force of running streams, and raeasures the currents of rivers. Among other curious things under his care, is the armour of Louis XIV. presented to that monarch by the Ve netian state ; by which it appears, that the grand monarch was only five feet one inch high, French measure, and shorter, perhaps, than Alexander or Bonaparte. Here is also a model of the bridge of Schafouse, or Schaff- hausen, noAV demolished ; and the fa mous machine infernale de la rue Ni- caise, that consisted of a fusil, termi nating in a powder-barrel, Avithin a hogshead of combustibles. A dupli cate of this machine was found at the house of the inventor, that in its ex plosion Avas very far from hitting its aim. [ 112 3 aim, Bonaparte, for he Avas gone by, but A'^ery near destroying his aide de camp Lani-iston, a\ ho escaped to bring the happy tidings of peace to this country LETTER i 113 ] LETTER XXXIX. I MENTIONED in a former letter the ncAv Geraniums I saw at the Jardin des Plantes ; the professors seemed to think little of these novelties from Africa, when compared with the tree- Piony, which they had heard was in Mr. Greville's garden at PaddingtOn, lately arrived from China, and the first of the sort that ever carae to Europe. I assured them that I had seen it, that it was a very extraordi nary production, and worth going to England to have ocular proof of its existence. You know the Hortensia Mutabilis, which has now changed its name ; but, possibly, you may not I have [ 114 ] have heard why. ' At the first appear ance of the plant raised from seed, sent home by the first navigateur Bou gainville, they called it Hortensia, in compliment to his daughter of that name ; but Avhen they found that it belonged to the Genus Hydrangea, they changed the order and put the Genus first, and the lady last. Hydrangea Hortensia. The hotels at Paris have changed their forms and their masters, so rauch, for the most part, that you Avould hardly recollect them,, though they stand on the same ground they used to occupy in your time. The Hotel de Montmorency, for instance, has lost all the family statues that adoi-ned its parapet ; its ground-floor is a series of shops ,^ and its premier, ready furnished lodgings. [ 115 3 lodgings. The fine house of the two brothers, Taille-pied de Garenne and Taille-pied de Bondi, is the famous frascati; and the elegant palazzo of Durouet Banquier de la Cour, a board ing-house, the property of the Surin- te?idant of all the Academies dujeu. Ifyou Avill but step across from Dover to Calais, and travel thirty-five posts, I Avill show you Henry the Eighth's love letters, that are come from the Vatican, and save you a fortnight's journey to Rome ; and, what you will like much better, an original letter of Pope to Racine, and an Aldus edition of the Greek Tragedians, Avith the re marks of the latter, and an analysis of the Plays in the margin, in his owi> hand-writing. You must not, hoAV- ever, expect to find more than one or I 2 tAVO [ 116 3 two of your old acquaintance, the last time you were here. Madame de Boccage is dead, and all the rest you knew, except old Grand Jean, who still continues to help other mens' eyes, though he cannot improve his own. LETTER [ 117 3 LETTER XL. Mirabeau, the father of the great Mirabeau, Avrote a book, which he called I'Ami des Hommes. Another French author has composed a vohime, which he is about to publish, with the title of I'Ami des Animaux, in order to prevent, as much as in him lies, the baiting of lions, tygers, and bulls, and the Avorr5dng of all sorts of animals ; but particularly the unnecessary tor ture of horses, by drivers, dray, and hackney-coachmen. A Frenchman, Avho is ahvays sighing for universal con quest, is not satisfied Avith dictating to the Continent, unless he can command the seas also, has lately proposed, in one C 118 ] one of those daily prospectuses of ncAv improvements in war and politics that are in perpetual motion at Paris, to unite the French fire-works on the Continent to the English /ez/a: d' artifice on the seas, and thus divide Sichem, and mete out the A^alley of Succoth between the two nations. There is but one little objection to the carrying of this plan into execution, that is, a change in the laAvs of nature, by an union of opposites, fire and water \ otherwise it Avould be no very difficult matter for France and England, joined together, to dictate to the Avhole globe, LETTER [ 119 3 LETTER XLI. JL SEND you a translation of a para graph Avhich appeared on the l6th of August, in the Strasburgh Weltbote. " Hoav can there be any comparison made, or parallel formed, betAvcen a nation that drinks beer, and eats half- raAv flesh ; that warms itself at a coal- fire ; breathes a cold and clouded at mosphere ; passes half of its life at sea ; converses very little with Avomen, and is not partial to the tender intercourse of female society, with a people that drinks Avine ; eats bread ; Avarras itself at a clear fire ; breathes a pure air ; lives familiarly in honorable intercourse Avith AVomen of an enlightened under- standing ; [ 120 3 standing ; and passes its time in read ing books of taste and rational enter- tainment ? How is it possible to bear the abuse of an English Journal, or to put up Avith its excessive dearness ; its horrible emiui; and its tiresome length ; which can only be read through in England, and even there js little esteem ed?" This is, evidently, of French growth and manufacture ; and has been transplanted into the German parterre of the World's Messenger, LETTER [ 121 3 LETTER XLIL JL HE environs of Paris are ali delight ful, but few excursions are made, ex cept to St. Cloud, Versailles, St. Ger main's, Vincennes, Meudon, etc. At Arcueil, within a league of Paris nearly, are the ruins of an aqueduct, which conducted the w^aters to Julian's Palace, in the rue de la Harpe, of which there are still good remains, and full suffici ent to show how the ancients construct ed their houses, and built with an everlasting cement, of which ^e have not yet discovered the composition. These antiquities within and without Paris are among the most remarkable hi this part of France. For beauty of 6 country. [ 122 3 country, and inequality of ground, in order to have a fine vicAv of the capital, you must go to Montraorency, and the Terrace of St. Leu. The Chateau of Montmorency is now the property of a banker ; And Hemsley, once proud Buckingham's delight. Slides to a Scrivener, or a City-Knight. This excursion is about eleven miles from the gate of St. Denis ; in your way, you pass La Barre, Choisi, and Aubin, Avhich supply Paris in abundance Avith plums and cherries ; but this year has not been very productiA^e, since July Avas all Avater, and August all fire, After you have passed St. Denis, you turn to the left, a little beyond the grande caserne, ci-devant a chateau, that is made to hold fifteen hundred 3 soldiers. [ 123 J soldiers. A little farther is Lisle, a Ducal Palace, noAV the residence of a rich Bourgeois ; it is near the river, and looks, at a little distance, like Ford- Abbey in Devonshire, or Knoll in Kent. Farther on still, on the right, is the house of a Citizen, formerly un marchant de rats dans la rue Tire-chappe St. Honore, a great discounter of bills, broker, and stock-jobber, Avho has bought up all the country round about him. As you approach Montmorency, where Avas Rousseau's hermitage, Avith Emile, Julie, and Contrat social on the urns, vases, chairs, and commodes, you haA^e in vicAV the pretty villages of Molyon and St. Pris, and La Reveil- liere le Pau's house, the great Theo- philanthropist. Ifyou do not mean to go to Montmorency, you continue your j-o&d'on to the village of St. Leu, and then [ 124 3 then mount the hill to the right, and go to the Chateau ofthe Seigneur, Avho keeps a boarding-house. The Chateau is not in the very best repair, and the grounds Avant improvements ; but as ¦they are, they must charm and delight all visitors ; the prospect they com mand is very extensive ; and the pro tection they afford in their woods, against the excessive heat of such a siummer as the last, is the best recom mendation I can give them; to say nothing of the society, the cheer, which is admirable, and the very moderate terms on Avhich so many comforts are procured, all conspire to make foreign ers very ambitious of paying their re spects to the Lord of St. Leu. The neighbouring Chateau, whose grounds are Avatered from the springs that arise in the woods I have been just praising, was t 125 3 Avas once the property of the Duke of Orleans, and purchased by his Grace of the Lord of St. Leu, but never paid for, and by the operation of the rcA^o- lution never will, since it has been seized as the Duke of Orleans's own, by one of his creditors. Citizen Homberg, of Havre. LETTER [ 12(? ] LETTER XLIIL JlN order to be an eye witness of the distress, and coraplicated raisery the revolution has brought on the French nation, it is necessary that you should mix Avith the people in their priA^ate societies, and be introduced into their families, and live with them for months together ; and Avlien you are a little acquainted, and let into their confi dence, you may hear of as many curi ous cases, as many crimes, and as many infidelities, as it would be necessary to read the causes celebres all through to equal the number of Divorces have been, and still are, the fruitful source of [ 127 3 of much disorder in French families. It is not uncommon to find women abandoned by their husbands, and left Avrth children on their hands, to which they consent, in order to prevent the husbands being imprisoned for seduc tion. A case of this sort occurred Avhilst I Avas in France. A French officer marries a young lady, makes a settlement on her, Avhicli is good for nothing, spends her fortune, has chil dren by her, i.s sued by another woman for a prior marriage, from whose mo- ther-in-laAV he had been div^orced ; the last wife relinquishes her claim to him, in order to save him from a jail, and is obliged to look out for another husband to maintain her and her family, because her first is utterly incapable of paying back either her doAver. [ 128 3 dower, or her rente cdimentaire out of his appointments, which are but barely sufficient for Ijiis own subsistence. LETTER C 129 ] LETTER XLIV JL HERE is a piece now playing at the Ambigu Comique, on the Boule vards, which represents a Prince in his minority conspired against by evil guar.-^ dians, who consult together how they may get rid of him ; one proposes the bow-string, another a feather bed, a third a poniard, but the fourth ob serves, that the easiest, and surest way is, via de VApoticaire. Here is a singular resemblance to what some- body in the reign of terror is reported t-o have said of the Dauphin, that to dispatch him was the business of an Apothecary, l'affaire d'un Apoticaire. %. I believe [ 130 3 I believe there were never more English at Paris, at the conclusion of any war, than there are at this moment. Paris seems to be a fair, Avhich it is the interest or the pleasure of every body to keep. It is a sort of Limbo, or Paradise of fools, Avhere one man comes to look for his Avife, another for his mistress, a third for a cockade, Simon for a new dish, and Limmer for a hogshead of claret. If you wish to have good firuit, and at a reasonable price, you must send to.. the Marchi des Innocents, the Covent- garden of Paris, at seven o'clock iu the morning ; and should you happen to-be inthat quarter, you may, , per haps, -find out where you are, by the.- arms of Lombardy, wit^Qiat having .re.-. course [ 131 1 eourse to the corner of the street." These arms have been taken up by the brokers in London, or rather have de scended to them from the Italians, Avho first settled in this country. Many have been the guesses at the meaning of the three balls, but the most plausi ble is, that it is three to one against you, that what you put in you do not take out. Not far from hence is ano ther street, which was the theatre, in its day, of some very extraordinar)' transactions, in the year 1719, when the celebrated projector, LaAV, raised his paper-money to more than eighty times the value of all the specie in the kingdom. There is a satirical print of the rue Quinquempoix, 1720, that ex hibits 'just such another scene as you see in Hogarth's South-Sea, -".'here Pope is represented picking Gay's pocket, to K 2 whopi. [ 132 3 Craggs had given a South-Sea share : Pope never forgave this trait of Ho garth ; and shoAved his resentment by the sullenness of his silence, having never once mentioned or alluded to him, or his performances, though the world rang with the praises of his Har lot's Progress, full ten years before the poet's death. It is not a little remark able, that the Mississippi and the South-Sea bubbles both burst at Paris and in London in the same year. LETTER [ 133 3 LETTER XLV. JL HE First Consul continues to sur prise the English at every Audience, by the extent and variety of his talents, which enable him to speak to every one in his OAvn language. With the Natural Philosophers, his discourse is on double animals, such as the Oxyrinchus Paradoxus, sent by Sir Joseph Banks to the Cabinet du Jardin des Plantes ; from thence lie goes to Galvanism, on >vhicli he delivered his opinion, at the Institute, in a grey frock, like a com mon member. With the Bankers, and Hamburgh Merchants, he talks of the difference of the aggio in Holland and Venice, or the vantaggio of current coin t 134 3 over banli-stock ; of the men of Phy- sick he enquires, whether they are Sthenics or Asthenics, and if they ap prove of the Brunian system, of which he had heard so much in Italy. In the compleraentary days, when he made the tour of the shops in the court ofthe old Louvre, he surprised the glass- manufacturers exceedingly, by telling them the chymical process they used to give the deep purple colour to their decanters. In all these things, however multifa rious, he seldom betrays himself, &T, like Alexander, asks qu^estions that ttlakt the colour-grinders smile at his igfl©* rance. It is very extraordinary that t man, whose ambition prompts him tQ subdue the world aftd govern it, and 5 who I 135 3 who has made no inconsiderable pro gress towards the attainraent of his wishes, should have still leisure and mchnation left to inquire, and inform himself not only of what is doing in general, but of the occupation and em ployment of individuals. Every artist tries his hand at Bonaparte's features, but they do not all succeed in giving an idea of him to the best advantage, Avhich is, when he smiles ; but to paint the First Consul smiling, they per haps think contrary to etiquette. When the Duke of Orleans sat to Greuze for his picture, the painter asked his high ness hoAv he liked it, " Very well, but, Greuze, you have not given me a smile ;" Monseigneur, ce n'est pas noble. The best likeness of Bonaparte on horse back, with his hat on, is, that of the picture exhibited. No. 22, Piccadilly ; the [ 136 3 the best without a hat, is a print with the narae of Le Fevre to it. There is a bust of Julius Caesar, when young, not unlike the First Consul. The French themselves describe him thus : // a une figure chatoyante, a &ce emit ting rays like a cat's-eye stone ; son sourire est agreable, mais sa figure al" longie, ou baissee, est pleine de melan" cholie, like the cheerless OA'al visage of the Stuarts, LETTER [ 137 3 LETTER XLV. rrs J. HE French complain, that the Eng lish speak so much between their teeth, that it is hard to understand them ; they make so little use, they say, of their tongues, that they do not seem to be wanted, at least to talk with, L' An glois, disent iis, est la seule langue pour qui il nefaut pas une langue. They are at this moment crying the New Constitution about the streets, in eighty-seven articles ; the first of which is, the nomination of the three Consuls for life. The four preceding Consti tutions were sold for eighty sous, upon which an Englishman gave the hawker , : a piece :f 138 3 a piece of cent sous, and he offered twenty in exchange, " Keep it," says the buyer, "it is not worth while to take the change now ; it will do for the fifth, and then the next is paid for. LETTER [ 139 ] LETTER XLVL li»NGLISH travellers arrive here fre quently from making the tour of Flan kers. They have been at Brussels, Spa, Cambray, from which last place they bring the following intelligence : the Cathedral at Cambray is completely gutted, and as great a ruin as St. Denis, Of Fountain Abbey. The Passion of our Saviour, in nine large Chiaro-scu- ros, Avas taken doAvn during the revo lution, and preserved unhurt, in Order to be put up again, as soon as the troubles were over ; which has been done with great care at St. Aubert, and eight of them are in the church, and the ninth in tbe Sacristy. The relief [ 140 3 relief of the figures is so great, that they appear more like solid statues than shadows. They were the work of Gerard. The only original picture left of Rubens is, a Descent from the Cross, in the church now used for the cathedral, at Cambray. Ghent is un touched. The cathedral of Antwerp has been gutted of its pictures ; froni this church, alone, three hundred haA'e been taken, of which there are only thirteen now at Paris that have been exhibited. By the removal of the pictures, the columns, also, have been remoA'ed, and the church restored to its first principles, and its original proportions of the greatest beauty to an architect ; so that what one artist has lost, another has gained, and the revolution has been like the ocean, prcedaior et restitutor. ^ LETTER [ 141 ] LETTER XLVIL -1 HERE was a French General to night at Frascati, who is as like Louis XV. as one fig to another. He com manded in Italy, against Soworrow, and was of course obliged, like other commanders in critical situations, to take a retrograde position. It is now past ten o'clock, and the company is floAving in fast from the theatres. Phe-- dre has been played to night at the French house. The connoisseurs pre-' fer Mademoiselle Duchesnoy to Mile Xavier, because she has more feeling and less rant ; but they say the piece itself is too much laboured, and the pathetic Aveakened by abundance of description. C 142 3 description and excess of high finish ing: this is not at all uncomraon in our own immortal man, who frequent ly, by some petty addition to his pic ture, not knowing when to have done, destroys his own pathos. Racine, how ever, is more like Callimachus, the famous statuary, than Shakspeare, of whom Pliny says, he was never satiS'- fied of his labours, or contented with what he had done ; from Avhich he got the name of Cacizotechnos, because he made his own work Avorse by retouch ing it. His dancing girls are extremely correct ; but they are top much labour ed to be graceful. LETTER [ 143 3 LETTER XLVIIL mOME people attached to the Repub lick, seem to carry their approbation of the levelling system much beyond the French themselves, who were the first institutors, and, for a time, the zealous patrons of it ; and in order to abolish all titles, they agree to for feit a hundred zecchins, if it can be proved that it is by their orders, or consent, that they are called Counts. The Frenfh on the other hand, come back little by httle to their old love of distinction, and they say Avith Count Lawaguais, that although nobihty is but a souvenir, yet it is a^ grand soU" vemr; they havg &>und out, also, that tu [ 144 3 tu et toi ; ou la parfaite egalite, et le valet maitre, are pieces that can never be played for a length of time with applause on any stage. Distinctions are reviving fast at the Tuilleries ; and no doubt, that in a short time they Avill grow thick, in proportion as they haA'e been close shorn. Madame Bona parte has appointed four dames d'hon neur to attend her, and the First Con sul's gentlemen are all as splendid, and full-dressed, as lace and embroidery can make them. The Ambassadors at Paris give concerts and f&tes, which make admission tp their assemblies much in request ; the company consists of the first people, and, at some of them, nobody is received, however high the rank, that is not perfectly correct. The Turkish Ambassador very lately gave a brilliant f6te, and illuminated [ 145 3 iUurainated his house and garden in the raost splendid style. A lady of high rank AA'as invited, but on the Am bassador's discovering that she Avas la chere amie of a certain persoii Avhom he could not Avell leave out, he ordered her to be desired not to come to the fHe. This you may easily conceive was thought a very extraordinary pro ceeding, hut it was literally just so. LETTER [ 146 3 LETTER XLIX. At the Theatre des Vaudevilles, or Ballads and popular Songs, they play a little piece which is highly flattering to Lord Selnon, or Nelson. The name of the piece is, Le Peintre a Londres, The story is simply this : a painter from France, residing in London, Avith scarcely business enough to keep him from starving, is offered two hundred pounds to paint the Battle of Aboukir, in which the French fleet was sunk, burnt, and destroyed. Delighted with the opportunity of rescuing himself and family from poverty and distress, he prepares his canvass, and begins to paint ; when a thought strikes him on reflection. [ 147 3 reflection, that what he is going to d6 Avill perpetuate the disgrace of his own country, and immortalize its riA'al. Wherefore he rejects the offer, however pressed by hunger, and urged by the cries of his children, to accept it. This heroism, and patriotic zeal in an emi- gri, does not go unrcAvarded. My lord gives him the money, and sits for his picture, Avithout insisting on the painter's recording the victory. At the Theatre Louvois is played a piece, called Michael Cervantes, full of intrigue, a I'Espagnole, but like a tale told by an idiot, signifies nothing. The two A'a- lets of the opposite parties are intro duced upon the stage, and made to personate dead bodies. The grimaces of these gentlemen, Avhen the doctor is passing from one to the other, at the opposite ends of the stage, and the L 2 dread [ 148 3 dread they show of being di.ssected, excite roars of laughter-. Mademoi* selle Moliere, Avho is a great favorite, plays the Duenna, and is described as having more airs than her guitar. The author, in order to give the appearance of business to his play, brings many of his characters on the stage together, thougli they have nothing to say or do ; and you see them stealing off, one by one, Avithout rhyme or reason ; by Avhich means he cuts the knot which he cannot untie. LETTER [ 149 3 LETTER L. X DINED in compary, yesterday, with a mixt party of Frent:h and Eng lish, AA-here the good Avine circulated in glasses betAveen the courses. At the dessert, it was discovered by some accidental raention of a name, that it Avas the fete of the protecting saint of the lady ofthe house ; Avhen the French men began to say abiinclance of fine things ; and ' as soon as they A\'ere at the end of their alphabet of compli ments, they drew out their pencils, and Avrote quatrains and sixains upon the fair subject of J:heir oral panegyric. The English said too Avhat they could, but they were soon distanced in talk- 3 ing, [ 150 3 ing, and folloAved the example set them by the French, of having recourse to their pencils. As soon as any thing was Avritten it Avas handed to the lady ofthe house, who appointed a reader ; but as this was a difficult task, it was moved that each should read his oavu composition first, and the reader the second time ; by this arrangement, every quatrain and sixain Avas read tAvice ; and out of five I carried away tAVO, which I send you as a specimen of the difference of tournure in French and English exterapores. Je cherche les graces legeres, Un coeur honnete ; I'esprit fin j Retires beautez grossieres, C'est la fete de Victoire Merlin. Si [ 151 3 II. Si ma langue soit digne de foi, Boila ne chante pas mieux que toi ; La France ne voit pas ta pareille, Victoire est aussi bonne que belle. Vive l'amour, Tamour divin, C'est la fete de Victoire Merlin. I should like to have recollected more ; but the loss you sustain, perhaps, is not A'ery great of any thing produced solely on the spur of occasion. Italian is a better language for impromptus than French, witness the famous lines of Metastasio, on a lady sleeping : Occhi stelle mortali, Ministri di miei mali, Se chiusi m'accidete Aperti che farete ! I quote these particularly at this moment, because last week they were given. [ 152 3 given, not to Metastasio, but to Mil ton, by a French journalist. The French deal much in vers de societi, Avhich only circulate in manuscript ; of this sort are tl\e following, made by a Frenchman, and sent to an English man, of whom he had borroAved a great coat : Epitre a, la Redingote, et cetera. De bon cceur je vous remercje. Utile et simple vetement ; Vous garantissez de la pluie Et de la froidure, et du vent ; Majs voudriez vous bien me dire, Ce qui vous fait differer tant, De ce manteau dont Dejanire Au pauvre Hercule fit present. Miraculeuse redingote ! Des queje fus sous votre abri Soudain je me crus d'Aristote, Lt la profondeur, et I'esprit, Soudain, car c'est une magie, Je crus d'avoir d'Anacreon, La [ 153 3 La gaite toujours reunie Au sentiment, a la raison. Mais helas ! ce joli prodige N'a dure qu'un foible moment. C'est un beau rosier dont la tige Ne pouvait croitre dans mon champ, Heureux habit, sers a ton maitfe, Je profanerois tes contours, D'un Francois les defauts toujours Maigre toi se feroient connoitre. Souvent tes plis sont sur un coeur Que Tamitie, que la tendresse Font palpiter avec douceur j Le mien les cultive sans cesse: Mais I'amitie que j 'interesse Seule me revolt sans rigueur. J^a Reponse du Maitre de la Redingote^. Ah mon habit Queje vous remercie ! Vous m'avez valu hier Bien plus qu'Aristote : Ah ma redingote ! C'est de toi je suis fier. Ah mon manteau Plus cher et plus beau flue la Grece entiere ! Du I 154 3 Du vent, et de la pluie Vous avez mis a I'abri ' Le poete des volontaires,* Allez vivre avec lui, Emule du parapluie, Et payes ses beaux vers, * Volunteers of his department on whom he h»d written a copy of verses. LETTER C 155 3 LETTER LL 1 OU haA'e asked me more than once if I have not found Paris much altered in point of expense ? I ansAver, that in some particulars it certainly is, but by no means in all. In order that you may judge of the difference between the charges of the first restaurateurs, hi the years 1792 and 1802, I set down the same articles, extracted from Meot's bill a la chancellerie d'Orleans, 1792, and Very's large earte of the same size, au Jardin des Tuilleries, 1802. MEOT, I 156 3 :ME0T, 1792. VERY, 1802. Pofages. Potages, Liv. Sols. Liv. Sols. Au ris naturel a la Au ris naturel a la puree 0 12 puree 0 12 Printanier 0 12 Printanier ...... 012 De Sante 0 10 r Consomme..... 0 10 Consomme ,... 6 15 Hors D' (euvres. CEufsfrais la piece 0 5 Oi^ufsfraislapiece 0 5 Anchois aux fines Aiichois aux fines herbes 0 15 hcrbes 1 O Porniphoiis .... 012 Cornichons . . , . OIQ Pceuf. Au choux 0 15 Bceuf a la sauce 0 12 Au jus 0 0 Au choux 0 15 Roast beef a 1' ^ngloise ..... 015 Koast beef .... 110 glutton, Cotelette au natu- Cotelette au natu rel 0 6 rei a 16 Rognons auvin de Rognonsauvinde Champagne.. 0 IS Chapipagne . . 1 Q Fptlta [ 157 1 MEOT, 1792. VERY, 1802, Liv Sots. Liv. SoU. Petits pates auj US 0 5 Petits pates au jus 0 15 Vol au vent a la financiere .... Vol au vent a la financiere aux truffes Chapon au con- Chapon au con somme lequart 2 5 somme lequart 2 5 Fricassee de poulet Fricasseede poulet la moitie .... 2 10 la moitie .... 2 10 Entrees de Veau, Tendons de veau aux petits pois 1 4 Veau de Pontoise. Tendons de veau aux petits pois 1 O Canneton aux pe- Canneton, etc. ou tits pois ou a la a la Macedoine 1 10 Macedoine ... 2 0 Poissons. Raye aux capres 1 10 Raye aux capres 1 10 Saumon frais aux Saumon frais aux capres 2 0 capres 2 0 Pendreau roti . . 3 0 Pendreau roti . . 4 O Entremets. Omelette soufHee 1 4 Omelette soufflee 1 10 Dessert [ 158 3 MEOT, 1792, VERY, 1802. Dessert. Liv. Sols. Liv. Sols, Poire de St. Ger- Poire 0 8 main 0 10 FromagedeGruy- FromagedeGmy- ere 0 8 ere O 6 Vins. Vin ordinaire Vin ordinaire rouge de Bour- rouge de Bour- gogne 1 0 gogne 1 10 Champagne Rose 4 10 Champagne Rose 5 10 Madere sec .... 9 0 Madere sec .... 5 O Liqueurs. Marasquin le vere 0 15 Marasquin le verre 1 O LETTER [ 159 3 LETTER LII. A SEPULCHRAL Urn, with a Greek inscription on it, has been found at Marseilles, in a part of the ancient Abbey of Saint Victor, Avhich AA^as demolished in the revolution, in order to erect on its site a soap-manufac tory. About eight feet below the cellars many urns were found, one in particular, Avith a Greek inscription upon it, which has been published by Monsieur Fauris Saint Vincent, in Citizen Millin's Magazin Encychpe- dique, for the year V. of the French Republick ; having been first revised by the very learned D'Ansse de Vil- 4 loison. [ 16-0 3 loison, who has corrected it all through, except in the last line : he is of opinion that it is of an age later than Augustus, from the form of the letters, or, per haps he might say, than Severus. The monument was in an horizontal posi tion when found, though originally intended to be set upright. It is made of a common, though very hard stone ; its length is five feet ; and its breadth nineteen inches below, and seventeen above the inscription, which is en graved long ways on the stone. Fauris Saint Vincient is of opinion, that this monument served first for the person in the inscription ; and in process of time, was used for some other person ; and h^ had its position changed from up right to horizontal. The urn is with out a coA^er, though it appears that it once had one, and, perhaps, a small statue [ 161 3 statue on it in its erect state; some few bones were found in it. The in scription is thus engraved on the mo nument : TAATKIA EITI TA$0 HAIS AANE0HKE NE02 AEIZA2 EK MEIKPOT nPOSHA TEP ET2EBIHN OTK E<&©HS fi TAHMON lAEIN TONON OIOS AN HN SOI rHPAIft TETXEIN OT TA$ON AAAA BION H 0 NEPA ATMAS HANT AAIKOT SA TYXH MHTPI MEN EN EN THPA AAKPT 0HXATO THAE TTNAIKI XHPIAN ATSTHNOT HAIAOS AM OP$ANIH This is the form of the inscription, as published by the French ; and it consists of two hexameters and five pentameters. Monsieur Villoison has M filled [ 162 3 filled up the lacunae, and corrected the slips of the graver ; and presented it in the following form : rAami'a EiTTi rdtpoi;, Trail's J^ai/sG/iHE i/eog' Oux sipOn; 3 T^rifAOi* \Sm y'ovov oio; osi/ nv ros 'H ^9ot£fla S'vfAa.g irxvr oiSmovo'x Tiij^ri* Xrifliai/ ^UTTiiKJU TTOnJ'of ajiA ojipan*?. J« English : This is the tomb of Glaucias, that a youth has consecrated to his father, as a testimony of his filial affection, of which he has given proofs from his infancy. It was not thy lot, O wretch ed Glaucias ! to live long enough to see what thy son was able to do for thee ; not in providing thee with a monu- t 163 j monument, but in procuring thee the means of living in thy old age. To thee, and thine. Fortune has been uni formly unjust ; to thy aged mother she has given tears ; to thy AVife widow hood, with a wretched orphan-son 1 In order to correct the measure of the seventh verse. Monsieur Villoison writes Xn'^a, Avhich by no means ex presses the sense required of widoAV- hood, as he seems ready to confess. What is then to be done ? "Kn^lav may be lonice for Xw^eiav, as, it is Avell knoAvn, T^ofjLtihlri and aufjiTTa^in are for x^ojttJiSgja and (TUfA-n-d^eix, in Herodotus and Are- toeus, and eua-eSin in the inscription it self ; and then it may also be short, like the adjectives in tov ; quorum pe- nultima corripitur lonici, et Dorice, of M 2 which [ 164 3 which Dr. Burney has collected all the instances in his review of Mr. Professor Porson and Wakefield, tou fjia.y.a^l'TQv ; but the next word is unmanageable as it stands, and must be corrected ; I read, instead of ATSTHNOT ASTHNOT, which means the same thing, and the sense is preserved, and the metre re stored. Affljji/oV" in Hesychius is ex plained (Tuo-lneov* ^^^aAgTToV. See also the Etymologicon magnum, where aa-lnvos is a poor wretch who has no place to set his foot. This agrees very well with an orphan. It is not at all improbable that A should be engraved for A, since fjisiK^cv has been written for fjuK^ov, Qn^cclo for ^moclo, and S'ei^a.i for .TgJ^as ; and it is highly so, that the author should have thought x^^Uv could be made a dissyllable. The correction here pro posed [ 165 3 posed is effected by leaving out one letter ; in the sixth line there are two too many, EN. LETTER [ 166 3 LETTER LIIL In order to identify, in some measure, some of the most remarkable pictures of the different masters that have ap peared in the National Gallery, it would not, perhaps, be amiss to set down the places from whence they have been brought out of Italy and Flanders, to Paris. The numbers are from the printed catalogue of the Musie cenfral des arts. ALBANO. No. Places. Subjects, 676 Turin. King of Sardinia's Palace and the Santa Croce-Palace at Rome .,..,, The Elements and the Seasons. 677 Ditto Ditto 678 Pitto Ditto 673 Ditto Ditto em Milan, [ 167 3 BAROCCIO. No. Places. Suljects. 686 Milan. Archeve- che de Milan . . The Virgin and St. An thony, and St. Lucy. 687 Santa Maria della Vittoria at Rome. Annunciation of the Vir gin. 688 Convent of St, Francis atPesaro. Saint Micheline kneeling on Mount Calvary. THE CARRACCI. 703 T Ludovico Earth. 704 J Modena Water. 705 Augustin Modena. The Duke's Col lection Fire. 706 Annibal. Ditto Air. AUGUSTIN CARRACCI. 707 Bologna, in a cha pel of St. Salva tore Augustin . . Assumption of the Virgin, 709 Chartreux near Bo logna .,..,,,, Communion of Jerom. 712 Bologna. [ 168 3 LUDOVICO CARRACCI. No. Places. Suljects. 7 1 2 Bologna. San Do menico Hyacinto with the Virgin. 713 Bologna. Mendi- canti Vocation of St. Matthew. 715 Bologna. San Georgio ...... Annunciation of the Vir gin. 716 Versailles Christ's Nativity. 7 1 6 Versailles ....... Virgin and Infant Jesus, ANNIBAL CARRACCI, 719 Parma. Church ofthe Capucins. The Mother of Pity. 723 Bologna. Corpus Domini The Resurrection. 726 > > Versailles ..,.¦.,. Fishing. Hunting. 729-),^ .„ ( Nativity of Christ. ' >¦ Versailles i „ . , , 730 J I Christ entombed. 732 Bologna. Sacris tie des Peres de I'oratorie de St. Philippo The Annunciation, in two parts. 734 Ver- E 169 3 No.734' 735 737 Places, 738 739 740 741 742J vVersaUles Suljects. Martyrdom of St. Ste phen. Ditto,composition varied. St. John preaching ia the Wilderness. The Annunciation. The Assumption. Hermit in Meditation. Secrifice of Isaac. _Dcath of Absalom. CORREGGIO. 753 Parma. Dupal Collection Virgin, Jesus, St. Jerom,, and Ma^ifialen. 754 Parma. San Se- pulchro. Peres Rochettins .... Madonna della Scodella, 755 Versailles ....... Antiope asleep. 757^ Parma /"The taking down from thc ( J Cross. 758 1 Benedictine Abbeyl Martyrdom of St. Placido •^ of St. John . . . .^ and St. Flavia. 760 Versailles Christ crowned with Thorns — a head. DOMINICHINO. 763 San Gerolimo della Carita, at Rome. The Communion of St, Jerom. 764 Bologna [ 170 3 No. Places. Subjects. 764 Bologna. St. Gio vanni in Monte. The Virgin of the Rosary, 765 Bologna, St, Ag nese The Martyrdom of St. Agnes. 'David playing on the 766' 768 769 770 Harp. .^neas carrying off An- chises- Saint Cecilia, A Concert. 771 S-Verjailles .^' The Virgin and St An thony of Padua. 772773 776 777 The Virgin with a Shell' Timocles before Alexan der. A Landscape. God cursing Adam and Eve. GUIDO RHENI. 804 ¦) ,^ .„ f Union of colour & design {¦Versailles •{ _, ,, ,, ° 807 i i The Magdalen. Bologna. Sacris tie of St. Salva tore St. Sebastian. Versailles The Good Samaritan. 810 Ver- 808 809 [ 171 3 No. Places, Subjects. 810 Versailles Christ in the Garden. 8 1 1 Capucins near Bo logna Christ crucified, and Mag dalen. 813"} r Hercules killing the Hy- I ) dra. ^j ^Versailles j fighting Achil- 817 Bologna. High Al tar Mendicant! . . Mother of Pity. 819 Bologna. San Do menico Massacre ofthe Innocents. 622 Bologna, Ver sailles , Tbe Child Jesus asleep. 827 Paris. Hotel de Thoulouse The Rape of Helen, JULIO ROMANO. No number, VersaiUes. The Circumcision. Q15^ r His own portrait. 916[vcrsaUIes ] ^ LoJes^"^'""' '"'^ ^^ 9 1 7 3 ' Abundance in Grisaille. LEO- [ 172 3 LEONARDO DA VINCI. Ni>. Places. Subjects!' 920 Virgin, Infant Jesus, and St. John. 993 Versailles. Tuil leries , . Lise, wife of Giocondo, 924 Versailles ....... Portrait of a woman in scarlet, RAPHAEL. Foligno. Convent delle Contesse ,, Christ in the Virgin's arms, St. Francis, St. John, and St. Jerom. Rome Transfiguration. San P. Montorio No number Portrait of Leo X. 932 Versailles .* . St. Michael. 933 St. Michael. 934 St. George. 937 , A Youth meditating. 938 Versailles ....,., A young Man supporting his Head with his Hand. TITIAN. 941 942-' ' '¦Portrait of a Man in black. }--Ghristcarriedtothegrave. Versailles i »• Portrait nf a A/Tan in blarV. 2 RUBENS, [ 173 3 RUBENS. No. Places. Subjects. 479 480481 The Education of Mary of Medicis. From the Luxem- . , . , , y -^ Accouchement or Mary. The Blessings of Peace. burgh Gallery 482J ^Confirmation. 483 Brussels, Church of the Capucins. Christ lying dead on hi3 Mother's lap. 484 Antwerp Cathe dral. High Altar. Assumption of the Virgin. 485 Recollects Church, Antwerp ..¦.,. St. Francis dying — receiv ing the Communion. 4863 Antwerp. St.Wal- fElevation of Christ on the I burgh on the '. Cross. 487 ' backs of the Bat- • St. Jean, the Virgin, and I tants, St. Elizi- ,' Holy Women in tears. 488 I us, and St. Ca- i' Preparation for the Cru- j tharine, very fine. L cifixion of the thieves. AntwerpCathedral./- Christ taken down from Monument of the J the Cross. Michaelson fa- } Virgin and Infant Jesus. mily V St. John Evangelist. St. Therese interceding for the Souls in Purga- •^ tory. St. Ann teaching the Virgin to read. 496 Ver- Antwerp. Little Carmelites , . . [ 174 3 No. Places, Subjects. 496 Versailles Rain-bow. 497 (Doubtful) Flight into Egypt. Mooa light, 500 Antwerp Academy. Holy Family. 501 Dominicans, Ant werp The Flagellation. 502 Rubens'-Chapel, St.James's,Ant-werp Rubens, in the Character of St. George, who, with St. Jerom and St* Bonaventure, present Rubens's three Wives to the Virgin. ^Antwerp Cathedral ^ ^°^ \ on the Battants. (descent from the Cross, *°*i St. Christopher r""^'=^^'°"- '°a not here JVisitation. 506 Jesus Christ shewing his Wounds to St. Thomas. Nicolas Rockox, Burgo master of Antwerp, and friend of Rubens. f I Antwerp, Monu ment of Rock h08 ox, Recollects Church ^^7^ ^Adrienne de Peres, wife of Nicolas Rockox, ou the Battants of No. 506. S09 Cologn. [ 17^ 3 No. Places. Subjects. 509 Cologn. St.Peter.'s Church St. Peter crucified, 510 Antwerp. Great Altar of the Re collects Christ crucified between the Thieves. The Centi nel piercing his Side. 512 Antwerp. St. Michael's high Altar Admiration of the Kings. (figures larger thanlife.) 513 Alost, Church of.. St, Roch interceding for the Sick of the Plague. ?From the same ^ „ „ jSt. Church. Small r pictures under ( „, , a i *^ \ Plague byan Angel. the other J 517 fHigh Altar of St.T Adoration of the Magi. 518 I John's Church. ) Decollation of St. John 519 i St. John Baptist, I Baptist. j St. John Evan- -St. John Evangelist plunged into a Tub of boiling Oil. 522^Mechlin. St. -^The Birth of Christ (a sketch.) 523 1 small pictures I The Resurrection (a under No. 517. -' sketch.) 524 Ver- Roch fed by a Dog. Roch cured of the I gelist,ontheBat- L tantsofNo.517., 2 /-Mechlin. St. -\1 J John's. Two f 3I small pictures (l V under No. .517. -' C 176 3 No. Places. Suljects, 524 Versailles Lot and Family coming out of Sodom, conduct ed by Angels. 525 Versailles Virgin ofthe Angels. 526 Versailles La Kermesse, or Village Festival. 527 Antwerp Chapel in the Convent of the Recollects . . Sketch of 503. 428 NotreDame. Cha pel of the Fish mongers ...... Miraculous Draught of Fishes. 529 Ditto , . The Apostles finding a Piece of Money to pay the Tribute. LETTER [ 177 ] LETTER THE LAST. I HINTED in a former letter that Paris was either all mud or all dust, like some soils in other countries ; all ire or all mire, not very sweet at any time, and uglier in many parts than any town you ever saw ; and yet the Parisians are prouder of their capital than the Neapolitans or the Venetians, v/ho repeat for ever, Vedi Napoli e poi mori, Vedi Venetia ed andate farsi impiccar : see Naples and die, see Ve nice and go and hang yourself. This has ever been the style of talking of great cities. If you have not seen Athens, says Lysippus, in Diccearcho et Grotii excerpt, p. 876, you are a N stock ; [ 178 3 stock ; and if you have seen it, and are not delighted with it, you are an ass ; and ifyou are delighted with it, and run away from it, you are a stupid hound. Nor are the natives of th^ Persian Athens, according to Mandelslo, at all behind the Athenians in praising their darling Shirauz ; one of whom is recorded to have said, that if Mahomet had tasted of the delights of his city, he would have begged God to have made him immortal there instead of Paradise. When Shirauz was in its greatest glory, says Sir John Chardin, Cairo was but a suburb to it. The French allow that few things can surpass the magnificence of the shops of London, though it have nothing to compare with the palaces of Paris or the Boulevards. This may be true enough, but Paris is only fine at particular seasons, and London is a charraing [ 179 3 charming residence all the year. In visiting Paris, some management is required, il faut aller a Paris dans la helle saison, et entrer par la helle porte ; you must go to see Paris in the sum mer, and by the way of St. Germain en Laye. For this purpose there is not the least occasion to expose your self to an eighteen hours mean passage by sea to Dieppe, but you may go from Abbeville to Rouen with great ease, and enter Paris by the grand ave nue that terminates in the Tuilleries. Maffei, in his Select Antiquities of Gaul, 1733, 4to. p. vi. inhis dedication to Lewis XV, has the following pas sage : " No one will deny, who is not blinded by envy or jealousy, that Paris may justly be called the Athens of France. It is really astonishing what pains [ 180 3 pains have been taken, and what sums have been expended, to accommodate students of all descriptions in the King's library, whi<;h is twice as large, and twice as rich in books and manuscripts, as it ever was ; and still is growing more and more so every day." Maffei concludes this panegyric, which applies to the present state of the Bibliotheque Nationale, by a quotation from Cicero, which says, that the Roman people hated private luxury, and loved pub lick magnificence. Adieu. EXPLANATION. On the left side are the Heads of the First Con sul and Madame Bonaparte, with NA. and BO. the initials of Bonaparte's name, and below PAGERIE, the family -name of his Consort. On the reverse is a Ship in full Sail, the well-known emblem of Paris, in the form ofa Roman Consular Coin, C. and R. Baldwin, Printers, New Bridge-Street, Londsn. [ 183 3 INDEX. ARSENAL-Library, letter xvii. Audience, letter ix. Angot, Madame, Preface — Audience, letter xxii, Addison, letter xxxi. Ambigu Comique, letter xliii. Aqueduct, Julian's, letter xlii. Breteuil — Brodum, letter i. — Books, letter xiii. Bibliotheque Nationale, letter xix. Brunet, Actor, letter vi. Bolen, Anne, letter xxi. Characters, letter x.xx. Callimachus, Statuary, letter xlvii. Cervantes, Michel, letter xlix. Duchesnoy, letters iv. xlvii. Dames d'Honneur, letter xlviii. Epigram, letter xxxiii. Environs of Paris, letter xlii. English at Paris, letter xliv. Extempores, letter \. Fauris, Saint Vincent, letter lii. Furniture, ie«er xxi.— French Funds, letter Faujas, [ 184 j Faujas, lettets xviii. xxxv. First Consul, letter xlv.- — The First Consul gives audience the fifteenth of every month to Ambas sadors and Foreign Ministers ; on the Tuesday of the first and third weeks of every month he goes to the Conservative Senate ', on the Thursday of the same weeks, to the Legislative Body ; on the Saturday of the same weeks to the Tribunate, and the Tribunal of Cassation ; and on the first Thursday of the month to the Commissioners of the National Accounts. Flanders — Churches, letter xki. Frascati, letteis xxxi. xlvii. Fetes, letter}. Gems, letter xi. Grave, Monsieur de, letter xx. Gardens of Tivoli, letter xxix^ Geranium, new, letter xviii. Grand's Map of Paris, letter xix. Gateways, letter xxiv. Hotels, letters viii. xxxix. Hydrangea Hortensia, letter xxxix. Hackney Coaches, letter xxix. Julian, Emperor — ^Title— Palace, letter xlii. .Jardin des Plantes, letter xviii. Inscription, ancient, explained and corrected, let ter lii. Libraries, [ 185 3 Libraries, letter x. Madonna della Sedia, letter xxi. Millin, letter xi. Marseilles, letter lii. Millionaires, letter i. Medals, letter xii. Mazarine Library, letter xly. Mint, letter xv. Museum of Anatomy, letter xxviii. Mirabeau, letter xl. Models, letter xxxiii. Montgolfier, lette>- xxxiii. Montmorency Hotel, letter xxxix. — Chateau, let ter xlii. Meot's Carte, letter Y\. Nelson, anagram of his Name, letter xlix. National Library, letter xix. Opera, letter iu. — Italian, letter -xjiii. Orleans, Duke of, letter xlii. Oxyrinchus Paradoxus, letter xlv. Posting in France reasonable, letter i. Polygamy, letters xxx. xliii. Pictures of Paris, letters ii. liii. ult. Petits Augustins, letter xvi. Palais Royal, letter xxxi. Peintre \ Londres, letter xlix. 6 Regnier, [ 186 3 Regnier, letter xxxviii. Road from Samers to Boulogne, letter i. Recamier, letter xxxi. Rousseau, letter xxxii. Salle Legislative, letter xxviii. Snake's Skin, use of, letter i. Swisserland, Model of, letter xxiii. St. Gervais, letter xxiv. Scipio Africanus, letter xxxiv, Salic law, letter xxxviii. Theatres, letters iv, v, vi, vii. Theatre Francois, letter xx. Tuilleries, letters xxiii. xxxvii. Talma, letter iv. Versailler, letter xxv. Venetian Glass, letter xxv. Vaudeville's, letter xlix. Very's Carte, letter li. Villoison, letter lii. Um, Sepulchral, letter Iii. Weltbote, World's Messenger, letter xli. Weston the Actor, letter vi. Xavier, letter xlvii. IH^^^^^^^^^^^^^H