1775. and other bafons, I think, below them.-There are little courts.-The great gallery is wainscotted with mirrors, not very large, but joined by frames. I Ætat. 66. suppose the large plates were not yet made. The play-houfe was very large.The chapel I do not remember if we faw.-We faw one chapel, but I am not certain whether there or at Trianon.-The foreign office paved with bricks. The dinner half a Louis each, and, I think, a Louis over.-Money given at Menagerie, three livres; at palace, fix livres. "Oct. 23. Monday. Last night I wrote to Levet.We went to fee the looking-glaffes wrought. They come from Normandy in caft plates, perhaps the third of an inch thick. At Paris they are ground upon a marble table, by rubbing one plate on another with grit between them. The various fands, of which there are faid 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 fent up with their furfaces ground, but not polished, and fo continue till they are befpoken, left time should fpoil the furface, as we were told. Those that are to be polished, are laid on a table covered with feveral thick cloths, hard ftrained, that the resistance may be equal; they are then rubbed with a hand rubber, held down hard by a contrivance which I did not well understand. The powder which is used last seemed to me to be iron diffolved in aqua fortis: they called it, as Baretti faid, marc de l'eau forte, which he thought was dregs. They mentioned vitriol and faltpetre. The cannon ball swam in the quickfilver. To filver them, a leaf of beaten tin is laid, and rubbed with quickfilver, to which it unites. Then more quickfilver 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 flided till it lies upon the plate, having driven much of the quickfilver before it. It is then, I think, preffed upon cloths, and then fet floping to drop the fuperfluous mercury; the flope is daily heigthened towards a perpendicular. "In the way I faw the Grêve, the mayor's house, and the Baftile. "We then went to Sans-terre, a brewer. He brews with about as much malt as Mr. Thrale, and fells his beer at the fame price, though he pays no duty for malt, and little more than half as much for beer. Beer is fold retail at 6d. a bottle. He brews 4,000 barrels a year. There are seventeen brewers in Paris, of whom none is fuppofed to brew reckoning them at 3,000 each, they make 51,000 a year. malt, for malting is here no trade. "The moat of the Baftile is dry. : more than he :- -- L 1775. "Oct. 24. Tuesday. We visited the King's library-I faw the Speculum Etat. 66. bumane Salvationis, rudely printed, with ink, fometimes pale, fometimes black; part supposed to be with wooden types, and part with pages cut on boards.The Bible, fupposed to be older than that of Mentz, in 62: 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, fuppofed to have been printed with wooden types;-I think, Durandi Sanctuarium in 58. This is inferred from the difference of form, fometimes seen in the fame letter, which might be ftruck with different puncheons.-The regular fimilitude of moft letters proves better that they are metal.-I faw nothing but the Speculum which I had not feen, 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.-Hiftoire Genealogique of France, 9 vol.-Gallia Chriftiana, 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 fmall; yet may hold many ftudents.-The Doctors of the Sorbonne are all equal;-choose those who fucceed to vacancies.-Profit little. “Oct. 25. Wednesday. I went with the Prior to St. Cloud, to see Dr. Hooke. We walked round the palace, and had fome talk.-I dined with our whole company at the Monaftery.-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 Mifcellanies 3. "Oct. 26. Thursday. We faw the china at Séve, cut, glazed, painted. Bellevue, a pleasing house, not great: fine profpect.-Meudon, an old palace.— Alexander in porphyry: hollow between eyes and nofe, thin cheeks.—Plato and Ariftotle.-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, fo common that it is not minded.-Gough and Keene.Hooke came to us at the inn.-A meffage from Drumgould. "Oct. 27. Friday. I ftaid 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 eafy in this country. "Sat, Oct. 28. I vifited the Grand Chartreux built by St. Louis.It is built for forty, but contains only twenty-four, and will not maintain 3 He means, I fuppofe, that he read these different pieces, while he remained in the library. more more. The friar that fpoke to us had a pretty apartment.-Mr. Baretti fays, four rooms; I remember but three.-His books feemed to be French.His garden was neat; he gave me grapes.-We faw the Place de Victoire, with the statues of the King, and the captive nations. "We faw the palace and gardens of Luxembourg, but the gallery was fhut. We climbed to the top stairs.-I dined with Colbrooke, who had much company-Foote, Sir George Rodney, Motteux, Udfon, 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.Avant-coureur, a guinea a week.-Ordinary dinner, fix 1. a head. Our ordinary feems to be about five guineas a day. Our extraordinary expences, as diverfions, gratuities, clothes, I cannot reckon.→→ Our travelling is ten guineas a day. "White stockings, 18 1. Wig.-Hat. Sunday, Oct. 29. We faw the boarding-school.-The Enfans trouvés.— A room with about eighty-fix children in cradles, as fweet as a parlour. They lofe a third; take in to perhaps more than feven [years old]; put them to trades; pin to them the papers fent with them.-Want nurses.-Saw their chapel. "Went to St. Euftatia; faw an innumerable company of girls catechifed, in many bodies, perhaps 100 to a catechift.-Boys taught at one time, girls at another. The fermon; the preacher wears a cap, which he takes off at the name his action uniform, not very violent. "Oct. 30. Monday. We faw the library of St. Germain.-A very noble collection.-Codex Divinorum Officiorum, 1459-a letter, fquare like that of the Offices, perhaps the fame.-The Codex, by Fuft and Gernsheym.Meurfus, 12 v. fol.—Amadis, in French, 3. v. fol.-CATHOLICON fine colophone, ́› but of 1460.-Two other editions, one by Auguflin. de Civitate Dei, without name, date, or place, but of Fuft's square letter as it seems. "I dined with Col. Drumgould ;-had a pleafing afternoon. "Some of the books of St. Germain's ftand in preffes from the wall, like thofe at Oxford.. * 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 Bodinus." I have depofited the original MS. in the British Museum, where the curious may fee it. My grateful acknowledgements are due to Mr. Planta for the trouble he was pleafed to take in aiding my researches. 1775. Ætat. 66. 1775. "Oct. 31. Tuesday. I lived at the Benedictines; meagre day; foup Etat. 66. meagre, herrings, eels, both with fauce; fryed fifh; lentils, taftelefs in themfelves. In the library; where I found Maffeus's de Hiftoriâ Indicá: Promontorium flettere, to double the Cape. I parted very tenderly from the Prior and Friar Wilkes. "Maitre es Arts, 2 y.-Bacc. Theol. 3 y.-Licentiate, 2 y.-Dottor Th. 2 y. in all 9 years. For the doctorate three difputations, Major, Minor, Sorbonica. Several colleges fuppreffed, and transferred to that which was the Jefuit's College. "Nov. 1. Wednesday. We left Paris.-St. Denis, a large town; the church not very large, but the middle ifle is very lofty and aweful.-On the left are chapels built beyond the line of the wall, which deftroy the fymmetry of the fides.-The organ is higher above the pavement than any I have ever seen. The gates are of brass.-On the middle gate is the history of our Lord. The painted windows are hiftorical, and faid to be eminently beautiful.—We were at another church belonging to a convent, of which the portal is a dome; we could not enter further, and it was almost dark. "Nov. 2. Thursday. We came this day to Chantilly, a feat 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 ftreams, and fpread in lakes.-The water feems to be too near the house.-All this water is brought from a fource or river three leagues off, by an artificial canal, which for one league is carried under ground.-The house is magnificent.— The cabinet feems well ftocked: what I remember was, the jaws of a hippopotamus, and a young hippopotamus preferved, which, however, is so small that I doubt its reality.-It seems too hairy for an abortion, and too small for a mature birth.-Nothing was in fpirits; all was dry.-The dog; the deer; the ant-bear with long fnout.-The toucan, long broad beak.-The ftables were of very great length. The kennel had no fcents.-There was a mockery of a village.—The Menagerie had few animals .-Two fauffans, or Brafilian weafels, fpotted, very wild.-There is a foreft, and, I think, a park. 5 The writing is fo bad here, that the names of feveral of the animals could not be decyphered without much more acquaintance with natural history than I poffefs. Dr. Blagden, with his ufual politeness, moft obligingly examined the MS. To that gentleman, and to Dr. Gray, of the British Museum, who alfo very readily affifted me, I beg leave to exprefs my best thanks. It is thus written by Johnson, from the French pronunciation of Foffane. It fhould be obferved, that the perfon who fhowed this Menagerie was mistaken in fuppofing the foffane and the Brafilian weafel to be the fame, the foffane being a different animal, and a native of Madagascar. I find them, however, upon one plate in Pennant's "Synopfis of Quadrupeds." 2 I walked I walked till I was very weary, and next morning felt my feet battered, and with pains in the toes. "Nov. 3. Friday. We came to Compiegne, a very large town, with a royal palace built round a pentagonal court.-The court is raised upon vaults, and has, I suppose an entry on one fide by a gentle rife.-Talk 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 epifcopal city.-The cathedral is very beautiful, the pillars alternately, Gothick and Corinthian.-We entered a very noble parochial church. Noyon is walled, and is faid to be three miles round. "Nov. 4. Saturday. 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 confeffor, who came to vifit us in the evening. "Nov. 5. Sunday. We saw the cathedral.—It is very beautiful, with chapels on each fide.-The choir fplendid.-The baluftrade in one part brafs.-The Neff very high and grand.-The altar filver as far as it is feen.The vestments very splendid.-At the Benedictines church Here his journal' ends abruptly. Whether he wrote any more after this time, I know not; but probably not much, as he arrived in England about the 12th of November. These short notes of his tour, though they may feem minute taken fingly, make together a confiderable mass of information, and exhibit fuch an ardour of enquiry and acutenefs 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 fee; and, if he had taken the trouble to revise and digeft them, he undoubtedly could have expanded them into a very entertaining narrative. When I met him in London the following year, the account which he gave me of his French tour, was, " Sir, I have seen all the vifibilities of Paris, and around it; but to have formed an acquaintance with the people there, would have required more time than I could stay. I was just beginning to creep into acquaintance by means of Colonel Drumgould, a very high man, Sir, head of L'Ecole Militaire, a most complete character, for he had first been a profeffor of rhetorick, and then became a foldier. And, Sir, I was very kindly treated by the English Benedictines, and have a cell appropriated to me in their convent." 7 My worthy and ingenious friend, Mr. Andrew Lumifdaine, by his accurate acquaintance with France, enabled me to make out many proper names, which Dr. Johnfon had written indiftinctly, and fometimes fpelt erroneously. $775. Etat. 66. He |