[Livres] 63--2. 12s. 6d. ster. "We heard the lawyers plead-N. As many killed at Paris as there are days in the year-Chambre de question 2-Tournelle at the Palais Marchand 3-An old venerable building. "So many shops open, that Sunday is little distinguished at Paris-The palaces of Louvre and Thuilleries granted out in lodgings. "In the Palais de Bourbon, gilt globes of metal at the fireplace. "The French beds commended-Much of the marble only paste. "The colosseum 7 a mere wooden building, at least much of it. "Wednesday, 18th October.-We went to Fontainbleau, which we found a large mean town, crowded with people-The forest thick with woods, very extensiveManucci secured us lodgings-The appearance of the country pleasant-No hills, few streams, only one hedge-I remember no chapels nor crosses on the road-Pavement still, and rows of trees. "N. Nobody but mean people walk in Paris. 66 Thursday, 19th October.-At court we "The Palais Bourbon, belonging to the saw the apartments-The king's bed-chamPrince of Condé-Only one small wing ber and council-chamber extremely splendid shown-lofty-splendid-gold and glass--Persons of all ranks in the external rooms The battles of the great Condé are painted in one of the rooms The present prince a grandsire at thirty-nine 4. "The sight of palaces, and other great buildings, leaves no very distinct images, unless to those who talk of them-As I entered, my wife was in my mind 5: she would have been pleased. Having now nobody to please, I am little pleased. "N. In France there is no middle rank 6. [Young ladies, who paid for their education Before the revolution, there were no boarding schools, and all young ladies were educated in the convents.-ED.] 2 [This was one of the rooms of the Conciergerie, where la question-torture-was applied. -ED.] 3 [Again he mistakes, by introducing the word Marchand. The word Tournelle designated that portion of the parliament of Paris which tried criminal causes, and that part of the Palais in which they sat.-ED.] 4 [The Prince de Condé was born in 1736, and died in 1818. The grandson was the celebrated and unfortunate Duke d'Enghein, born in 1755, murdered in 1804. The father, "restes infortunés du plus beau sang du monde," still lives under his former title of Duc de Bourbon.-ED.] 5 His tender affection for his departed wife, of which there are many evidences in his "Prayers and Meditations," appears very feelingly in this passage.-BosWELL. [This observation, which Johnson afterwards repeats, was unfounded in the sense in which he appears to have understood it. France was in theory divided (as England is) into the clergy, the nobles, and the commons, and so it might be said that there was no middle rank; but not only did the theoretical constitution of society thus resemble that of England, but so did its practical details. There were first the peers of France, who had through which the family passes-servants and masters-Brunet 8 with us the second time. "The introductor came to us-civil to me-Presenting-I had scruples 9-Not ne seats and voices in the parliament, but were of little weight as a political body, from the smallness of their numbers, and because their parliament had only continued to be, what we still call ours, a high court, and had lost its legislative functions-next came the noblesse-the gentilhommes-answering to our gentry;-then the middle classes of society, composed of the poorer gentry, lawyers, medical men, inferior clergy, literary men, merchants, artists, manufacturers, notaries, shopkeepers, in short, all those who in every country constitute the middle classes, and they undoubtedly existed in France in their due proportion to the gentry on one hand, and the working classes on the other. Johnson's remark is the stranger, because it would seem that his intercourse while in Paris was almost exclusively with persons of this middle class; but it must be observed, that his intercourse and his consequent sources of information were not extensive. Piozzi says to him, talking of the progress of refinement of manners in England, "I much wonder whether this refinement has spread all over the continent, or whether it is confined to our own island when we were in France we could form little judgment, as our time was chiefly passed among the English."-Lett.-ED.] Mrs. 7 [This building, which stood in the Faubourg St. Honoré, was a kind of Ranelagh, and was destroyed a few years after. The "Memoires de Bachaumont" call it "monument monstreux de la folie Parisienne."-V. i. p. 311.-ED.] 8 [Perhaps M. J. L. Brunet, a celebrated advocate of the parliament of Paris, author of several distinguished professional works.-Ep.] [It was the custom previous to court present cessary-We went and saw the king and queen at dinner-We saw the other ladies at dinner-Madame Elizabeth, with the Princess of Guimené-At night we went to a comedy-I neither saw nor heard Drunken women-Mrs. Th[rale] preferred one to the other. "Friday, 20th October.-We saw the queen mount in the forest-Brown habit; rode aside one lady rode aside The queen's horse light gray-martingale-She galloped-We then went to the apartments, and admired them-Then wandered through the palace-In the passages, stalls and shops -Painting in fresco by a great master, worn out-We saw the king's horses and dogs-The dogs almost all English-Degenerate. "The horses not much commended-The stables cool; the kennel filthy. "At night the ladies went to the operaI refused, but should have been welcome. "The king fed himself with his left hand as we. "Saturday, 21st October.-In the night I got round-We came home to Paris-I think we did not see the chapel-Tree broken by the wind-The French chairs made all of boards painted 2. "N. Soldiers at the court of justice 3Soldiers not amenable to the magistrates Dijon women 4 "Faggots in the palace-Every thing slovenly, except in the chief rooms-Trees in the roads, some tall, none old, many very young and small. "Women's saddles seem ill madeQueen's bridle woven with silver-Tags to strike the horse. ations, that an officer waited on the person to be introduced, to instruct them in the forms. Johnson's scruples probably arose from this-it was an etiquette generally insisted on to present at foreign courts those only who had been presented to their own sovereign at home. Johnson had never been publickly presented to the king, though he had had that honour in private, and may, therefore, have entertained scruples whether he was entitled to be presented to the king of France; but it would seem that those scruples were not necessary, the rule perhaps extending only to formal presentations at court, and not to admission to see the king dine.-ED.] [This probably means that the queen was attended by only one lady, who also rode aside, and not that one female attendant rode so, while other ladies rode astride.-ED.] 2 [Meaning, no doubt, that they were not of cedar, ebony, or mahogany, but of some meaner wood coloured over, a fashion which had not yet reached England.-ED.] 3 [The marechaussée was posted at the gates of the courts of justice; but the interior discipline was maintained by huissiers, ushers, the servants of the court.-Ev.] See ante, p. 12.-BOSWELL. Sunday, 22d October.-To Versailles, a mean 5 town-Carriages of business passing-Mean shops against the wall-Our way lay through Sève, where the China manufacture-Wooden bridge at Sève, in the way to Versailles-The palace of great extent-The front long; I saw it not perfectly-The Menagerie-Cygnets dark; their black feet; on the ground; tameHalcyons, or gulls-Stag and hind, young -Aviary, very large; the net, wire-Black stag of China, small-Rhinoceros, the horn broken and pared away, which, I suppose, will grow; the basis, I think, four inches across; the skin folds like loose cloth doubled over his body, and cross his hips; a vast animal, though young; as big, perhaps, as four oxen-The young elephant, with his tusks just appearing-The brown bear put out his paws-all very tame-The lionThe tigers I did not well view-The camel, or dromedary, with two bunches called the Huguin6, taller than any horse-Two camels with one bunch-Among the birds was a pelican, who being let out, went to a fourtain, and swam about to catch fish-His feet well webbed; he dipped his head, and turned his long bill sidewise-He caught two or three fish, but did not eat them. "Trianon is a kind of retreat appendant to Versailles-It has an open portico; the pavement, and, I think, the pillars, of marble-There are many rooms, which I do not distinctly remember-A table of porphyry, about five feet long, and between two and three broad, given to Louis XIV. by the Venetian state-In the council-room almost all that was not door or window was, I think, looking-glass-Little Trianon is a small palace like a gentleman's house-The upper floor paved with brick-Little VienneThe court is ill paved-The rooms at the with privacy-In the front of Versailles are top are small, fit to soothe the imagination small basins of water on the terrace, and other basins, I think, below them-There 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 D [There must be some mistake. Versailles is a remarkably stately town.-ED.] This epithet should be applied to this animal with one bunch.-BOSWELL. 7 [The upper floors of most houses in France are tiled.-ED.] [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 if we saw 1-We saw one chapel, but I am | brews 4,000 barreis a year-There are sevnot certain whether there or at Trianon-enteen brewers in Paris. of whom none is The foreign office paved with bricks 2-The supposed to brew more than ne-Reckoning dinner half a louis each, and, I think, a louis them at 3,000 each, they make 51,000 a year over-Money given at menagerie, three li- They make their malt, for malting is here vres; at palace, six livres. no trade. "The moat of the Bastile is dry. “Monday, 23d October.-Last night I wrote to Levet 3-We went to see the look- Tuesday, 24th October.-We visited ing-glasses wrought-They come from Nor- the king's library-I saw the Speculum humandy in cast plates, perhaps the third of mana Salvationis, rudely printed, with ink, an inch thick-At Paris they are ground sometimes pale, sometimes black; part supupon a marble table, by rubbing one plate posed to be with wooden types, and part upon another with grit between them-The with pages cut in boards. The Bible, supvarious sands, of which there are said to be posed to be older than that of Mentz, in five, I could not learn-The handle, by 1462; it has no date; it is supposed to which the upper glass is moved, has the have been printed with wooden types-I am form of a wheel, which may be moved in all in doubt; the print is large and fair, in two directions-The plates are sent up with folios-Another book was shown me, suptheir surfaces ground, but not polished, and posed to have been printed with wooden so continue till they are bespoken, lest time types-I think, Durandi Sanctuarium in should spoil the surface, as we were told-1458-This is inferred from the difference Those that are to be polished are laid on a of form sometimes seen in the same letter, table covered with several thick cloths, hard which might be struck with different punstrained, that the resistance may be equal: cheons-The regular similitude of most letthey are then rubbed with a hand rubber,ters proves better that they are metal-I saw held down hard by a contrivance which I did not well understand-The powder which is used last seemed to me to be iron dissolved in aquafortis; they called it, as Baretti said, marc de l'eau forte, which he thought was dregs-They mentioned vitriol and saltpetre-The cannon-ball swam in the quicksilver-To silver them, a leaf of beaten un 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 Grève. the mayor's house 4, and the Bastie 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'sMarbone and Durandi, q. collection 14 vol. Scriptores de rebus Gallicis, many foliosHistoire Genealogique of France, vol.Gallia Christiana, the first edition, 4to. the last, f. 12 vol.-The prior and librarian dined with us-I waited on them homeTheir garden pretty, with covered walks, but small; yet may hold many studentsThe doctors of the Sorbonne are all equalchoose those who succeed to vacanciesProfit little. Wednesday, 25th October.-I went with the prior to St. Cloud, to see Dr. Hooke 6-We walked round the palace, and had some talk-I dined with our whole com pany at the monastery-In the library, Beroald-Cymon-Titus, from BoccaceOratio Proverbialis to the Virgin, from Petrarch; Falkland to Sandys-Dryden's Preface to the third vol. of Miscellanies 7. 66 "We then went to Sans-terre, a brewer 5 -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 Thursday, 26th October.-We saw the little more than half as much for beer-china at Sève, cut, glazed, painted-BelBeer is sold retail at sixpence a bottle-He levue 8, a pleasing house, not great: fine prospect-Meudon, an old palace--Alexander, in porphyry: hollow between eyes and nose, thin cheeks-Plato and AristotleNoble terrace overlooks the town. and their unhappy sovereigns, the rebels, by misrepresentations and calumnies, made so serious an affair.-ED.] 1 [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.] 2 [Tiles.-ED.] 3 [Ante, p. 9.-ED.] • [The Hôtel de Ville.-ED.] [Santerre.] The detestable ruffian who afterwards conducted Louis the Sixteenth to the scaffold, and commanded the troops that guarded it during his murder.-MALONE. St. Cloud-Gallery not very high, nor grand, but pleasing-In the rooms, Michael Ange 6 [Second son of Hooke, the historian, a doctor of the Sorbonne.-ED.] 7 He means, I suppose, that he read these different pieces while he remained in the library.— BosWELL. s [At that period inhabited by the king's aunts -ED.] Friday, 27th October.—I staid at home -Gough and Keene, and Mrs. S- 's friend dined with us-This day we began to have a fire-The weather is grown very cold, and, I fear, has a bad effect upon my breath, which has grown much more free and easy in this country. nary 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, 18 1.6 Wig-Hat. Sunday, 29th October.-We saw the boarding-school-The Enfans trouvés-A room with about eighty-six children in cradles, as sweet as a parlour-They lose a third; take in to perhaps more than seven [years old]; put them to trades; pin to them the papers sent with them-Wan nurses-Saw their chapel. "Went to St. Eustatia 7; saw an innu merable 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. "Saturday, 28th October.-I visited the Grand Chartreux 2, built by St. Louis-It is built for forty, but contains only twentyfour, 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 "Monday, 30th October.-We saw the -We saw the Place de Victoire, with the library of St. Germain 8-A very noble statues of the king, and the captive nations. collection-Codex Divinorum Officiorum, "We saw the palace and gardens of 1459-a letter, square like that of the OffiLuxembourg, but the gallery was shut- ces, perhaps the same-The Codex, by We climbed to the top stairs-I dined with Fust and Gernsheym-Meursius, 12 v. fol. Colebrooke 3, who had much company——Amadis, in French, 3 vol. fol.—CATHOL Foote, Sir George Rodney 4, Motteux, Ud- ICON sine colophone, but of 1460-Two son, Taaf-Called on the prior, and found other editions 9, one by. Augustin. de him in bed. Civitate Dei, without name, date, or place, but of Fust's square letter as it seems. "I dined with Col. Drumgould; had a "Hotel-a guinea a day-Coach, three guineas a week-Valet de place, three L. a day-Avantcoureur 5, a guinea a week-pleasing afternoon. Ordinary dinner, six l. a head-Our ordi "Some of the books of St. Germain's stand in presses from the wall, like those a Oxford. [Mrs. Strickland, the sister of Mr. Charles Townley, who happened to meet the party at Dieppe, and accompanied them to Paris. She Benedictines; meagre day; soup meagre, "Tuesday, 31st October.-I lived at the introduced them to Madame du Bocage.-Rey-herrings, eels, both with sauce; fried fish; nolds's Recollections.-ED.] * [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. i. p. 262.-ED.] [The celebrated Admiral, afterwaras 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's Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 270.-ED.] 5 [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.] lentils, tasteless in themselves—In the libraTy; where I found Maffeus's de Historia Indica: Promontorium flectere, to double the Cape-I parted very tenderly from the prior and Friar Wilkes. "Maitre des Arts, 2 y.-Bacc. Theol. 3 y.-Licentiate, 2 y.-Doctor Th. 2 y. in 6 i. e. 18 livres. Two pair of white silk stockings were probably purchased.-MALONE. 7 [No doubt an error for Eustatius. He means the well-known parish church of St. Eustache.-ED.] 8 [St. Germain des Près, the too celebrated abbaye. Its library was said-after the king's library in Paris, and that of the Vatican-to be the richest in Europe in manuscripts.-ED.] 9 I have looked in vain into De Bure, Meerman, Mattaire, and other typographical books, for the two editions of the "Catholicon," which Dr. Johnson mentions here, with names which I cannot make out. I read "one by Latinius, one by Boedinus." I have deposited the original MS. in the British Museum, where the curious may see it. My grateful acknowledgments are due to Mr. Planta for the trouble he was pleased to take in aiding my researches.-BOSWELL. all 9 years-For the Doctorate three disputations, Major, Minor, Sorbonica-Several colleges suppressed, and transferred to that, which was the Jesuit's College. "Wednesday, 1st November.-We left Paris-St. Denis, a large town: the church not very large, but the middle aisle is very lofty and awful-On the left are chapels built beyond the line of the wall, which destroyed the symmetry of the sides-The organ is higher above the pavement than I have ever seen-The gates are of brassOn the middle gate is the history of our Lord-The painted windows are historical, and said to be eminently beautiful-We were at another church belonging to a convent, of which the portal is a dome; we could not enter further, and it was almost dark. Thursday, 2d November. We came this day to Chantilly, a seat belonging to the Prince of Condé-This place is eminently beautified by all varieties of waters starting up in fountains, falling in cascades, running in streams, and spread in lakes-The water seems to be too near the house-All this water is brought from a source or river three leagues off, by an artificial canal, which for one league is carried under ground-The house is magnificent-The cabinet seems well stocked; what I remember was, the jaws of a hippopotamus, and a young hippopotamus preserved, which, however, is so small, that I doubt its reality-It seems too hairy for an abortion, and too small for a mature birth-Nothing was [preserved] in spirits; all was dry-The dog; the deer; the ant-bear with long snout-The toucan, long broad beak-The stables were of very great length-The kennel had no scents-There was a mockery of a village -The menagerie had few animals -Two faussans 2, or Brasilian weasels, spotted, very wild-There is a forest, and, I think, a park-I walked till I was very weary, and next morning felt my feet battered, and with pains in the toes. "Friday, 3d November.-We came to Compeigne, a very large town, with a royal palace built round a pentagonal court-The court is raised upon vaults, and has, I suppose, an entry on one side by a gentle riseTalk of painting-The church is not very large, but very elegant and splendid--I had at first great difficulty to walk, but motion grew continually easier-At night we came to Noyon, an episcopal city-The cathedral is very beautiful, the pillars alternately Gothick and Corinthian-We entered a very noble parochial church-Noyon is walled, and is said to be three miles round. "Saturday, 4th November.-We rose very early, and came through St. Quintin to Cambray, not long after three-We went to an English nunnery, to give a letter to Father Welch, the confessor, who came to visit us in the evening "Sunday, 5th November.-We saw the Cathedral-It is very beautiful, with chapels on each side-The choir splendid-The balustrade in one part brass-The Neff very high and grand-The altar silver as far as it is seen-The vestments very splendid-At the Benedictines' church Here his Journal 3 ends abruptly. Wheth- | arrived in England about the 12th of Noer he wrote any more after this time, Ivember. These short notes of his tour, know not; but probably not much, as he 'The writing is so bad here, that the names of several of the animals could not be deciphered without much more acquaintance with natural history than I possess. Dr. Blagden, with his usual politeness, most obligingly examined the MS. To that gentleman, and to Dr. Gray, of the British Museum, who also very readily assisted me, I beg leave to express my best thanks. BOSWELL. ? It is thus written by Johnson, from the French pronunciation of fossane. It should be observed, that the person who showed this menagerie was mistaken in supposing the fossane and the Brasilian weasel to be the same, the fossane being a different animal, and a native of Madagascar. I find them, however, upon one plate in Pennant's "Synopsis of Quadrupeds."-BOSWELL. My worthy and ingenious friend, Mr. Andrew Lumisden, by his accurate acquaintance with France, enabled me to make out many proper names which Dr. Johnson had written indistinctly, and sometimes spelt erroneously.-BOSWELL. though they may seem minute taken singly, make together a considerable mass of information, and exhibit such an ardour of inquiry and acuteness of examination, as, I believe, are found in but few travellers, especially at an advanced age. They completely refute the idle notion which has been propagated, that he could not see1; and, if he had taken the trouble to revise 4 [Miss Reynolds, who knew him longer, and saw him more constantly than Mr. Boswell, says, "Dr. Johnson's sight was so very defective, that he could scarcely distinguish the face of his most intimate acquaintance at half a yard, and in general it was observable, that his critical remarks on dress, &c. were the result of very close inspection of the object, partly from curiosity, and partly from a desire of exciting admiration of his perspicuity, of which he was not a little ambtious."-Recollections. And if we may believe Baretti's account to her, on their return, his defect of sight led him into many inaccuracies.-ED.] |