France.

--

Tour in small, fit to soothe the imagination with privacy-In the front of Versailles are small basins of water on the terrace, and other basins, I think, below themThere are little courts-The great gallery is wainscotted with mirrours not very large, but joined by frames I suppose the large plates were not yet made-The playhouse was very large'-The chapel I do not remember if we saw-We saw one chapel, but I am not certain whether there or at TrianonThe foreign office paved with bricks3-The dinner half a louis each, and, I think, a louis over-Money given at menagerie, three livres; at palace, six livres.

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

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

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

3 [Tiles.-ED.]

4 [Ante, p. 264.—ED.]

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

"We then went to Sans-terre, a brewer 2-He brews with about as much malt as Mr. Thrale, and sells his beer at the same price, though he pays no duty for malt, and little more than half as much for beer Beer is sold retail at sixpence a bottle-He brews 4,000 barrels a year-There are seventeen brewers in Paris, of whom none is supposed to brew more than he-Reckoning them at 3,000 each, they make 51,000 a year-They make their malt, for malting is here no trade.

"The moat of the Bastile is dry.

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

[The Hôtel de Ville.-ED.]

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

France.

Tour in with pages cut in boards. The Bible, supposed to be older than that of Mentz, in 14621; it has no date; it is supposed to have been printed with wooden types -I am in doubt; the print is large and fair, in two folios Another book was shown me, supposed to have been printed with wooden types I think, Durandi Sanctuarium in 1458-This is inferred from the difference of form sometimes seen in the same letter, which might be struck with different puncheonsThe regular similitude of most letters proves better that they are metal-I saw nothing but the Speculum, which I had not seen, I think, before.

"Thence to the Sorbonne--The library very large, not in lattices like the king's-Marbone and Durandi, q. collection 14 vol. Scriptores de rebus Gallicis, many folios-Histoire Genealogique of France, 9 vol-Gallia Christiana, the first edition, 4to. the last, f. 12 vol.-The prior and librarian dined with us I waited on them home-Their garden pretty, with covered walks, but small; yet may hold many students-The doctors of the Sorbonne are all equal choose those who succeed to vacancies-Profit little.

Wednesday, 25th October.-I went with the prior to St. Cloud, to see Dr. Hooke-We walked round the palace, and had some talk-I dined with our whole company at the monastery-In the library, Beroald Cymon-Titus, from Boccace-Oratio Proverbialis to the Virgin, from Petrarch; Falkland to Sandys - Dryden's Preface to the third vol. of Miscellanies 2.

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

[Second son of Hooke, the historian, a doctor of the Sorbonne.-ED.]

2 He means, I suppose, that he read these different pieces while he remained in the library.BOSWELL.

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

France.

palace-Alexander, in porphyry: hollow between eyes Tour in and nose, thin cheeks Plato and Aristotle-Noble terrace overlooks the town. St. Cloud-Gallery not very high, nor grand, but pleasing-In the rooms, Michael Angelo, drawn by himself, Sir Thomas More, Des Cartes, Bochart, Naudæus, Mazarine Gilded wainscot, so common that it is not minded-Gough and Keene-Hooke came to us at the inn-A message from Drumgould.

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

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

"We saw the palace and gardens of Luxembourg, but the gallery was shut-We climbed to the top stairs-I dined with Colebrooke3, who had much com

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

2 [There was in France but one Grand Chartreux, the monastery near Grenoble, founded by St. Bruno, to the 13th prior of which St. Louis applied for an off-set of the order to be established in Paris, where he placed them in his chateau de Vauvert, which stood in the Rue d'Enfer. The good people of

Paris believed that the chateau of Vauvert, before St. Louis had fixed the Carthusians there, was haunted, and thence the street was called Rue d'Enfer.ED.]

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

France.

Tour in pany-Foote, Sir George Rodney', Motteux, Udson, Taaf-Called on the prior, and found him in bed.

"Hotel-a guinea a day--Coach, three guineas a week-Valet de place, three 1. a day—Avantcoureur2, a guinea a week-Ordinary dinner, six la headOur ordinary seems to be about five guineas a dayOur extraordinary expenses, as diversions, gratuities, clothes, I cannot reckon Our travelling is ten guineas a day.

"White stockings, 181.' Wig-Hat.

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Sunday, 29th October.-We saw the boardingschool-The Enfans trouvés-A room with about eighty-six children in cradles, as sweet as a parlourThey lose a third; take in to perhaps more than seven [years old]; put them to trades; pin to them the papers sent with them-Want nurses-Saw their chapel.

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

"Monday, 30th October.-We saw the library of St. Germain -A very noble collection-Codex Di

5

[The celebrated Admiral, afterwards Lord Rodney; he was residing abroad on account of pecuniary embarrassments, and, on the breaking out of the war in 1778, the Marshal Duc de Biron generously offered him a loan of a thousand louis d'ors, to enable him to return to take his part in the service of his country. See a letter of the Baron D'Holbach to Miss Wilkes, in Wilkes' Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 270.-ED.]

2[There is a slight mistake here. Princes, ambassadors, marshals, and a few of the higher nobility, had coureurs, that is, running footmen. The word avant-coureur was commonly used in a moral sense. Johnson, no doubt, meant a courier who rode post.-ED.]

3 i. e. 18 livres. Two pair of white silk stockings were probably purchased. -MALONE.

4 [No doubt an error for Eustatius. He means the well-known parish church of St. Eustache.-ED.]

[St. Germain des Près, the too celebrated abbaye. Its library was saidafter the king's library in Paris, and that of the Vatican-to be the richest in Europe in manuscripts.-ED.]