The Idler In France - free ebook by Marguerite Blessington

THE IDLER IN FRANCE

By MARGUERITE GARDINER, THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON 1841....

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NISMES.

I have omitted to notice the route to this place, having formerly described the greater portion of it. I remarked a considerable improvement in the different towns we passed through: the people look cleaner, and an air of business has replaced the stagnation that used to prevail, except in Marseilles and Toulon, which were always busy cities. Nismes surpasses my expectations, although they had been greatly excited, and amply repays the long détour we have made to visit it. When I look round on t

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ARLES.

We stopped but a short time at Beaucaire, where we saw the largo plain on the banks of the Rhone, on which are erected the wooden houses for the annual fair which takes place in July, when the scene is said to present a very striking effect. These wooden houses are filled with articles of every description, and are inhabited by the venders who bring their goods to be disposed of to the crowds of buyers who flock here from all parts, offering, in the variety of their costumes and habits, a very a

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ST.-RÉMY.

The town of St.-Rémy is delightfully situated in a hollow that resembles the crater of an extinct volcano, and is surrounded by luxuriant groves of olive. The streets, though generally narrow, are rendered picturesque by several old houses, the architecture of which is striking; and the place —for even St.-Rémy has its Place Publique and Hôtel-de-Ville—is not without pretensions to ornament. In the centre of this place is a pretty fountain, of a pyramidal form. The antiquities which attracted us

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SEXTVS · LVCIVS · MARCVS · JVLIEI · CVRAV · ERUNT · FIERE · SUEIS;

which he translates into Sextus, Lucius, Marcus (all three), of the race of Julius, elevated this monument to the glory of their relations. M. Malosse believes that the mausoleum was erected to Julius, and the arch to Augustus Cæsar—the first being dead, and the second then living; and that the statues in the former, in the Roman togas, were intended to represent the two. He imagines that the subjects of the bassi-relievi on the four fronts of the mausoleum bear out this hypothesis. That of the

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LYONS.

I see little alteration at Lyons since I formerly passed through it. Its manufactories are, nevertheless, flourishing, though less improvement than could be expected is visible in the external aspect of the place. This being Sunday, and the Féte-Dieu , the garrison, with flags flying, drums beating, trumpets sounding, and all in gala dress, marched through the streets to attend Divine worship. The train was headed by our old acquaintance General Le Paultre de la Motte, (whom we left at Lyons on

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PARIS.

June , 1828.—A fatiguing journey, over dusty roads, and in intensely hot weather, has brought us to Paris, with no accident save the failure of one of the wheels of our large landau—a circumstance that caused the last day's travelling to be any thing but agreeable; for though our courier declared the temporary repair it received rendered it perfectly safe, I was by no means satisfied on the point. We have taken up our abode in the Hôtel de la Terrasse, Rue de Rivoli, are well-lodged, but somewha

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CHAPTER VI.

To my surprise and pleasure, I find that a usage exists at Paris which I have nowhere else met with, namely, that of letting out rich and fine furniture by the quarter, half, or whole year, in any quantity required for even the largest establishment, and on the shortest notice. I feared that we should be compelled to buy furniture, or else to put up with an inferior sort, little imagining that the most costly can be procured on hire, and even a large mansion made ready for the reception of a fam

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CHAPTER VII.

Took possession of our new house to-day, and are delighted with it. Its repose and quiet are very agreeable, after the noise and bustle of the Rue de Rivoli. Spent several hours in superintending the arrangement of my books, china, bijouterie , and flowers, and the rooms look as habitable as if we had lived in them for weeks. How fortunate we are to have found so charming an abode! A chasm here occurs in my journal, occasioned by the arrival of some dear relatives from England, with whom I was t

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CHAPTER VIII.

Charles Kemble dined here yesterday, and in the evening read to us his daughter Fanny's Tragedy of Francis the First —a very wonderful production for so young a girl. There is considerable vigour in many parts of this work, and several passages in it reminded me of the old dramatists. The character of "Louisa of Savoy" is forcibly drawn—wonderfully so, indeed, when considered as the production of so youthful a person. The constant association with minds deeply imbued with a love of the old write

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CHAPTER IX.

An agreeable party dined here yesterday—Lord Stuart de Rothesay, our Ambassador, the Duc and Duchesse de Guiche, the Duc de Mouchy, Sir Francis Burdett, and Count Charles de Mornay. Lord Stuart de Rothesay is very popular at Paris, as is also our Ambassadress; a proof that, in addition to a vast fund of good-nature, no inconsiderable portion of tact is conjoined—to please English and French too, which they certainly do, requires no little degree of the rare talent of savoir-vivre . To a profound

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CHAPTER X.

Made the acquaintance of the celebrated Dr. P——, today, at Madame C——'s. He is a very interesting old man; and, though infirm in body, his mind is as fresh, and his vivacity as unimpaired, as if he had not numbered forty instead of eighty summers. I am partial to the society of clever medical men, for the opportunities afforded them of becoming acquainted with human nature, by studying it under all the phases of illness, convalescence, and on the bed of death, when the real character is exposed

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CHAPTER XI.

In no part of Paris are so many children to be seen us in the gardens of the Luxembourg. At every step may be encountered groups of playful creatures of every age, from the infant slumbering in its nurse's arms, to the healthful girl holding her little brother or sister by the hand as her little charge toddles along; or the manly boy, who gives his arm to his younger sister with all the air of protection of manhood. What joyous sounds of mirth come from each group—the clear voices ringing pleasa

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CHAPTER XII.

Spent last evening in the Rue d'Anjou: met there la Marquise de Pouleprie, and the usual habitués . She is a delightful person; for age has neither chilled the warmth of her heart, nor impaired the vivacity of her manners. I had heard much of her; for she is greatly beloved by the Duchesse de Guiche and all the De Gramont family; and she, knowing their partiality to me, treated me rather as an old than as a new acquaintance. Talking of old times, to which the Duc de Gramont reverted, the Marquis

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CHAPTER XIII.

Went to see the Hôtel d'Orsay, to-day. Even in its ruin it still retains many of the vestiges of its former splendour. The salle à manger , for the decoration of which its owner bought, and had conveyed from Rome, the columns of the Temple of Nero, is now—hear it, ye who have taste!—converted into a stable; the salons , once filled with the most precious works of art, are now crumbled to decay, and the vast garden where bloomed the rarest exotics, and in which were several of the statues that ar

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CHAPTER XIV.

Count Charles de Mornay dined here yesterday, en famille . How clever and amusing he is! Even in his liveliest sallies there is the evidence of a mind that can reflect deeply, as well as clothe its thoughts in the happiest language. To be witty, yet thoroughly good-natured as he is, never exercising his wit at the expense of others, indicates no less kindness of heart than talent. I know few things more agreeable than to hear him and his cousin open the armoury of their wit, which, like summer l

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CHAPTER XV.

Much as I deplore some of the consequences of the Revolution in France, and the atrocities by which it was stained, it is impossible not to admit the great and salutary change effected in the habits and feelings of the people since that event. Who can live on terms of intimacy with the French, without being struck by the difference between those of our time, and those of whom we read previously to that epoch? The system of education is totally different. The habits of domestic life are wholly ch

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CHAPTER XVI.

The approach of spring is already visible here, and right glad am I to welcome its genial influence; for a Paris winter possesses in my opinion no superiority over a London one,—nay, though it would be deemed by the French little less than a heresy to say so, is even more damp and disagreeable. The Seine has her fogs, as dense, raw, and chilling, as those of old Father Thames himself; and the river approximating closer to "the gay resorts" of the beau monde , they are more felt. The want of drai

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CHAPTER XVII.

The more I observe Lady C—— the more surprised I am at the romantic feelings she still indulges, and the illusions under which she labours;—yes labours is the suitable word, for it can be nothing short of laborious, at her age, to work oneself into the belief that love is an indispensable requisite for life. Not the affection into which the love of one's youth subsides, but the wild, the ungovernable passion peculiar to the heroes and heroines of novels, and young ladies and gentlemen recently e

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CHAPTER XVIII.

Read Victor Hugo's Dernier Jour d'un Condamné! It is powerfully written, and the author identifies his feelings so strongly with the condemned, that he must, while writing the book, have experienced similar emotions to those which a person in the same terrible position would have felt. Wonderful power of genius, that can thus excite sympathy for the erring and the wretched, and awaken attention to a subject but too little thought of in our selfish times, namely, the expediency of the abolition o

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CHAPTER XIX.

House-hunting all the day with Lord B——. Went again over the Hôtel Monaco, and abandoned the project of hiring it. Saw one house newly built and freshly and beautifully decorated, which I like, but Lord B—— does not think good enough. It is in the Rue de Matignon. It is so desirable to get into a mansion where every thing is new and in good taste, which is the case with the one in question, that I hope Lord B—— will be satisfied with this. Sat an hour with General d'O—— who has been unwell. Neve

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CHAPTER XX.

September, 1829.—A chasm of many months in my journal. When last I closed it, little could I have foreseen the terrible blow that awaited me. Well may I exclaim with the French writer whose works I have been just reading, " Nous, qui sommes bornés en tout, comment le sommes-nous si peu quand il s'agit de souffrir ." How slowly has time passed since! Every hour counted, and each coloured by care, the past turned to with the vain hope of forgetting the present, and the future no longer offering th

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CHAPTER XXI.

Mr. Rogers and Mr. Luttrell spent last evening here. The minds of both teem with reflection, and their conversation is a high intellectual treat to me. There is a repose in the society of clever and refined Englishmen to be met with in no other: the absence of all attempts to shine, or at least of the evidence of such attempts; the mildness of the manners; the low voices, the freedom from any flattery, except the most delicate and acceptable of all to a fastidious person, namely, that implied by

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CHAPTER XXII.

May.—Some months have elapsed since I noted down a line in this book. Indisposition and its usual attendants, languor and lassitude, have caused me to throw it by. Time that once rolled as pleasantly as rapidly along, seems now to pace as slowly as sadly; and even the approach of spring, that joyous season never before unwelcomed, now awakens only painful recollections. Who can see the trees putting forth their leaves without a dread that, ere they have yet expanded into their full growth, some

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CHAPTER XXIII.

All now seems quiet, so I will go to bed. Heaven only knows if to-morrow night we may be allowed to seek our pillows in safety. 28th .—My femme-de-chambre undrew my curtains this morning, "with such a face—so faint, so spiritless, so dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone"—proclaiming that barricades had been erected during the night, and that the bodies of those killed in the encounter yesterday have been paraded through the streets in order to excite still more the angry feelings of the people.

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CHAPTER XXIV.

I have observed a striking change in the manners of the servants during the last three days. They are more familiar, without, however, evincing the least insolence; their spirits seem unusually exhilarated, and they betray an interest in the struggle in which the people are engaged that leaves no doubt as to the side that excites their sympathy. Every rumour of the success of the insurgents is repeated by them with ill-suppressed animation and pleasure, and the power of the people is exaggerated

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CHAPTER XXV.

I have but just returned from the Rue d'Anjou, and now that I find myself once more within the sanctuary of my home, I am surprised at my own courage in having ventured to pass through the streets, and alone , too, at such a moment. I do not think I should have risked it, had I not known how much my excellent friend Madame C—— stood in need of consolation, after having seen her grandchildren and great grandchildren driven from their late peaceful and happy dwelling, uncertain when she may behold

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NOTES

[1: Now Baron d'Haussey.] [2: The hermitage was lent him by Madame d'Epinay, to whom his subsequent ingratitude forms a dark page in her Mémoires .] [3: The present Lord Abinger.] [4: Now Lord Glenelg.] [5: Now Lord Francis Egerton.] [6: Now Madame Émile de Girardin.] [7: "Where thou beholdest Genius, There thou beholdest, too, the martyr's crown."] [8: The present Earl of Cadogan.] [9: The Duc de Guiche, being premier menin to the Dauphin, used, according to custom, the arms and liveries of tha

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NISMES.

Antiquities of this City—The Hôtel du Midi—Articles of Merchandise—History of the Maison Carrée—Work of Poldo d'Albenas—The Building described—Origin of it—Now used as a Museum—Monument to Marcus Attius—Cardinal Alberoni—Barbarous Project—Removal of Antiquities—The Amphitheatre described—Charles Martel—Excellent Precaution in Roman Theatres—Inscription—Officious Cicerone—Gate of Augustus—La Tour-Magne—Excavations—Fine Fountain—Temple of Diana—Brevity of Human Life, 1....

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CHAPTER II.

Beaucaire—Wooden Houses—Castle of King René—Church of St. Martha—Fabulous Monster—The Hôtel described—The Hostess—Antique Furniture—Plentiful Dinner—Scrutiny—Visit to the Amphitheatre—The Prefect of Arles—Subterranean Excavations—Ancient Church of St. Anne—Altar to the Goddess of Good—Venus of Arles—Granite Obelisk—Primitive Manners—A Liberal Landlady, 14....

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CHAPTER III.

Situation of the Town—Antiquities—The Triumphal Arch described—Male and Female Figures—The Mausoleum—Bassi-relievi of Battles, Infantry, etc.—Figure of a Winged Female—Latin Inscription—Variously explained—Interpretation of Monsieur P. Malosse—Respect for the Departed—On The Triumphal Arch and Mausoleum at St.-Remy, 21. The Fête Dieu —Procession through the Streets—Ecclesiastical and Military Pomp—Decorations in the Streets—Effect produced on the Mind by Sacred Music—Excitements to Religious Fer

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