The "château " built by Levan and Mansard for Louis XIV between 1661 and 1710. the difference of form sometimes seen in the same letter, which might be struck with different puncheons.-The regular similitude of most letters proves better that they are metal. I saw nothing but the 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 Généalogique of France,' 9 vol.- Gallia Christiana,' the first edition, 4to, the last, f. 12 vol.-The Prior and Librarian dined [with us] :-I waited on them home. Their garden pretty, with covered walks, but small; yet may hold many students.-The doctors of the Sorbonne are all equal;-choose those who succeed to vacancies.-Profit little.

"Oct. 25. Wednesday. I went with the Prior to St. Cloud, to see Dr. Hooke.— We walked round the palace and had some talk.-—I dined with our whole company at the Monastery. In the library, Beroald-Cymon-Titus, from Boccace.-'Oratio Proverbialis' to the Virgin, from Petrarch; Falkland to Sandys :-Dryden's Preface to the third vol. of Miscellanies.' 1

Oct. 26. Thursday. We saw the china at Sévres, cut, glazed, painted. Bellevue, a pleasing house, not great: fine prospect.-Meudon, an old palace. Alexander, in Porphyry hollow between eyes and nose, thin cheeks. Plato and Aristotle.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 Drumgold.

"Oct. 27. Friday. I stayed at home.-Gough and Keene, and Mrs. S—

1 He means, I suppose, that he read these different pieces, while he remained in the library. 2 [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.-Croker.]

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.

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

"We saw the palace and gardens of Luxembourg, but the gallery was shut. We climbed to the top stairs. I dined with Colbrooke, who had much company :— Foote, Sir George Rodney, 1 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.-Avant coureur, a guinea a week.-Ordinary dinner, six 1. a head.Our ordinary seems to be about five guineas a day. Our extraordinary expenses, as diversions, gratuities, clothes, I cannot reckon.-Our travelling is ten guineas a day.

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White stockings, 18 liv. 2 Wig.—Hat.

Sunday, Oct. 29. 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.-Want nurses.-Saw their chapel.

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

Oct. 30. Monday. We saw the library of St. Germain.-A very noble collection. Codex Divinorum Officiorum,' 1459: a letter, square like that of the 'Offices,' perhaps the same. The 'Codex,' by Fust and Gernsheyn. Meursius,' 12 v. fol.—' Amadis,' in French, 3 v. fol.-CATHOLICON sine colophone, but of 1460. -Two other editions, 3 one byAugustin de Civitate Dei,' without

name, date, or place, but of Fust's square letter, as it seems.

"I dined with Colonel Drumgold; had a pleasing afternoon.

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

"Oct. 31. Tuesday. I lived at the Benedictines; meagre day; soup meagre, herrings, eels, both with sauce; fried fish; lentils, tasteless in themselves. In the library; where I found Maffeus's 'De Historia Indica : Promontorium flectere, to double the Cape.' I parted very tenderly from the Prior and Friar Wilkes. Maitre des Arts, 2 y.-Bacc. Theol. 3 y.-Licentiate, 2 y.-Doctor Th. 2 y. in all 9 years. For the Doctorate three disputations, Major, Minor, Sarbonica.Several colleges suppressed, and transferred to that which was the Jesuits' College.

1 [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 take part in the service of the country.-Croker.]

2 [i.e., 18 livres. Two pairs of white silk stockings were probably purchased. M.]

3 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 Litinius, 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.

Etat. 66]

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CHANTILLY

551 Nov. 1. Wednesday. We left Paris. St. Dennis, 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 destroy the symmetry of the sides. 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 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 farther, and it was almost dark.

Nov. 2. Thursday. 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 underground. The house is magnificent. The cabinet seems well stocked; what I remember, was the jaws of a hippopotamus, and a young hippopotamus preserved, which, however, is so small, that I doubt its reality. It seems too hairy for an abortion, and too small for a mature birth.-Nothing was in spirits; all was dry. The dog; the deer; the ant-bear with long snout.-The toucan, long broad beak. The stables were of very great length. The kennel had no scents. There was a mockery of a village. The Menagerie had few animals. 1-Two

1 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,

Built in 1662, a palace with one story, it is associated with Louis XV, as the Petit Trianon is with

Marie Antoinette.

1

faussans, 1 or Brazilian 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.

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Nov. 3. Friday. 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 rise.-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 episcopal city. -The cathedral is very beautiful, the pillars alternately Gothic and Corinthian.We entered a very noble parochial church. Noyon is walled, and is said to be three miles round.

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"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 confessor, who came to visit us in the evening. We saw the Cathedral. It is very beautiful, with chapels on each side.—The choir splendid. The balustrade on 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

Nov. 5. Sunday. We saw the Cathedral.

Here his Journal 2 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 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 see: and, if he had taken the trouble to revise and digest them, he undoubtedly could have expanded them into a very entertaining narrative.

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.

1 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 Brazilian 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.

2 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.

CHAPTER XXIX-1775-1776

FRENCH IMPRESSIONS

Character of the French-Madame Bocage-Foote on Johnson's Dress-Converses in Latin while in France-Père Boscovich-Dr. Burney's Records of Johnson's Table Talk-Miss Aitken-MusicGarrick-The Laird of Col-Boswell's Family History-Johnson and Boswell on the Entailing of the Auchinleck Estates-Lord Hailes's Opinion—Johnson and Mrs. Boswell's Letter.

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 visibilities 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 Drumgold, a very high man, Sir, head of L'Ecole Militaire, a most complete character, for he had first been a professor of rhetoric, and then became a soldier. And, Sir, I was very kindly treated by the English Benedictines, and have a cell appropriated to me in their convent.”

He observed, "The great in France live very magnificently, but the rest very miserably. There is no happy middle state, as in England. The shops of Paris are mean the meat in the markets is such as would be sent to a gaol in England; and Mr. Thrale justly observed that the cookery of the French was forced upon them by necessity; for they could not eat their meat unless they added some taste to it. The French are an indelicate people; they will spit upon any place. At Madame [Du Bocage]'s, a literary lady of rank, the footman took the sugar in his fingers, and threw it into my coffee. I was going to put it aside but hearing it was made on purpose for me, I e'en tasted Tom's fingers. The same lady would needs make tea à l'Anglaise. The spout of the tea-pot did not pour freely; she bade the footman blow into it. France is worse than Scotland in everything but climate. Nature has done more for the French; but they have done less for themselves than the Scotch have done."

It happened that Foote was at Paris at the same time with Dr. Johnson, and his description of my friend, while there, was abundantly ludicrous. He told me that the French were quite astonished at his figure and manner, and at his dress, which he obstinately continued exactly as in London; 1-his brown clothes, black stockings and plain shirt. He mentioned that an Irish gentleman said to Johnson, Sir, you have not seen the best French players." JOHNSON: Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces

1 [Mr. Foote seems to have embellished a little in saying that Johnson did not alter his dress at Paris ; as in his Journal is a memorandum about white stockings, wig, and hat. In another place we are told that "during his travels in France he was furnished with a French-made wig of handsome construction." That Johnson was not inattentive to his appearance is certain from a circumstance related by Mr. Steevens, and inserted by Mr. Boswell in his work between June 15 and June 22, 1784. I. B.] [Mr. Blakeway's observation is farther confirmed by a note in Johnson's diary (quoted by Sir John Hawkins," Life of Johnson," p. 517), by which it appears that he had laid out thirty pounds in clothes for his French journey. M.]