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IN JULY and AUGUST,1792.
IN JULY and AUGUST,1792.
LONDON : PRINTED AT THE Minerva Press, AND SOLD BY WILLIAM LANE, LEADENHALL-STREET, AND BY MRS. HARLOW, PALL-MALL. M.DCC.XCIII. PRICE THREE SHILLINGS Entered at Stationers Hall. EXECUTIONS FRONTISPIECE EXECUTIONS at PARIS with a Beheading Machine. Vide page 32....
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ROAD FROM CALAIS. UNNECESSARY PASSPORTS. CHANTILLY.
ROAD FROM CALAIS. UNNECESSARY PASSPORTS. CHANTILLY.
THE following excursion was undertaken for several reasons: the first of which was, that though I had been many times in Paris before, yet I had not once been there since the Revolution, and I was desirous of seeing how far a residence of a few years in France might be practicable and agreeable; secondly, a Counter-Revolution, or, at least, some violent measures were expected, and I was willing to be there at the time, if possible; and lastly, I wanted to examine the gardens near Paris. I must h
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EXPENCES.
EXPENCES.
THE whole expences of our journey from Calais to Paris was as follows. The distance is thirty-four posts and a half, the last of which must be paid double. [1] The two chaises were each drawn by two horses, at 30 sous per horse, and 20 sous to each postillion per post, is 35 and half posts, at eight livres , is Livres 284. This, at 40 livres per guinea, amounts to thirteen guineas and a half; to which must be added, for the hire of the two chaises to Paris, three Louis in money, adequate to thre
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MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. CHESSMEN. TREE OF LIBERTY. CRUCIFIXES,VIRGINS. SAINTS. BISHOPS. OLD WOMEN, &C.
MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. CHESSMEN. TREE OF LIBERTY. CRUCIFIXES,VIRGINS. SAINTS. BISHOPS. OLD WOMEN, &C.
THE whole way from Calais to Paris the land was in the highest state of cultivation. The sandy soil near the gates of Calais abounded with the Chelidonium Glaucium , or common yellow horned poppy. The first vines on this road are about a mile on this side of Breteuil. Between St. Just and Clermont is a magnificent château and garden belonging to the ci-devant Duc de Fitzjames : this seat has never been described; it is not shewn to strangers at present, as the proprietor is emigrated. The countr
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WALL ROUND PARIS. NEW BRIDGE. FIELD OF THE FEDERATION. BASTILLE.
WALL ROUND PARIS. NEW BRIDGE. FIELD OF THE FEDERATION. BASTILLE.
THERE is a Wall which encompasses Paris, of about twelve feet high and two feet thick, about nine miles long on the North side, and five on the South side; this was built just before the Revolution, and was intended to prevent goods from being smuggled into Paris. On the North side are thirty-six barriers, and on the other side eighteen; of these fifty-four I saw only ten. They were intended for the officers of the customs; at present they are used as guardrooms. Most of them are magnificent bui
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COINS AND TOKENS.
COINS AND TOKENS.
IN the Hôtel de la Monnoye (the Mint) I procured some new coins. The silver crown piece of six livres has on one side the king's head in profile, round which is Louis XVI. Roi des François , 1792; over this date is a small lion passant, being a Mint mark. The reverse, is a human figure with an enormous pair of wings, [6] holding a book in its left hand, which book rests on an altar, and with its other is represented as if writing in it; the word Constitution is already seen there. The figure is
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THEATRES.
THEATRES.
AT this time there were ten regular theatres open every evening. The first and most ancient of which is the Opera, or Royal Academy of Music. The old house which was in the Palais Royal, was burnt in 1781, and the present house, near St. Martin's Gate, was built in seventy-five days. The number of performers, vocal and instrumental, dancers, &c. employed in this theatre is about four hundred and thirty. The price of admission to the first boxes is seven livres ten sous, about six shillin
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PANTHEON. JACOBINS. QUAI VOLTAIRE. RUE ROUSSEAU. COCKADES.
PANTHEON. JACOBINS. QUAI VOLTAIRE. RUE ROUSSEAU. COCKADES.
THE new church of Sainte Genevieve was begun in 1757; but the building was discontinued during the last war; in 1784 it was resumed, and is at present almost finished. The whole length of the front is thus inscribed in very large gilt capitals: Aux grands hommes: la Patrie reconnoissante . To great men: their grateful country. And over the entrance: Pantheon Français. L'An III de la Liberté . As to the size of Paris, I saw two very large plans of that city and of London, on the same scale, on wh
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EXECUTION OF TWO CRIMINALS, WITH A BEHEADING MACHINE.
EXECUTION OF TWO CRIMINALS, WITH A BEHEADING MACHINE.
ON the 4th of August a criminal was beheaded, in the Place de Grêve . I did not see the execution, because, as the hour is never specified, I might have waited many hours in a crowd, from which there is no extricating one's self. I was there immediately after, and saw the machine, which was just going to be taken away. I went into a coffee-house and made a drawing, which is here engraven. It is called la Guillotine , from the name of the person who first brought it into use in Paris: that at Lis
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VERSAILLES. BOTANY. SOUNDING MERIDIANS.
VERSAILLES. BOTANY. SOUNDING MERIDIANS.
I went once to Versailles; there is hardly any thing in the palace but the bare walls, a very few of the looking-glasses, tapestry, and large pictures remaining, as it has now been near two years uninhabited. I crossed the great canal on foot; there was not a drop of water in it. In the Menagerie I saw the Rhinoceros, which has been 23 years there; there is likewise a lion, with a little dog in the same den, as his companion, and a zebra. The collection of orange trees cannot be matched in any c
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DOGS AND CATS. TWO-HEADED BOY.
DOGS AND CATS. TWO-HEADED BOY.
LION Dogs and Cats are common in Paris. The lion-dog greatly resembles a lion in miniature; the hair of the fore part of its body is long, and curled, and the hinder part short; the nose is short, and the tail is long and tufted at the extremity; the smallest are little larger than guinea-pigs; these are natives of Malta, and are the most valuable; those which are produced in France are considerably larger, and the breed degenerates very soon. Their general colour is white; they are frequently c
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DRESS. INNS.
DRESS. INNS.
THE common people are in general much better clothed than they were before the Revolution, which may be ascribed to their not being so grievously taxed as they were. An English Gentleman who has gone for many years annually from Calais to Paris, remarks, that they are almost as well dressed on working days at present, as they were on Sundays and holidays formerly. All those ornaments which three years ago were worn of silver, are now of gold. All the women of the lower class, even those who sit
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ASSIGNATS.
ASSIGNATS.
EXCEPTING the coins which I purchased at the mint in Paris, I did not see a piece of gold or silver of any kind; a few brass sols and two sols were sometimes to be found in the coffee-houses, and likewise Mouneron's tokens. The most common assignats or bills, are those of five livres , which are printed on sheets; each sheet containing twenty of such assignats , or a hundred livres ; they are cut out occasionally, when wanted for change. I do not know that there are any of above a thousand livre
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BATTLE AND MASSACRE AT THE TUILERIES.
BATTLE AND MASSACRE AT THE TUILERIES.
ON Thursday, the 9th of August, the legislative body completed the general discontent of the people, (which had been raised the preceding day, by the discharge of every accusation against la Fayette ) by appearing to protract the question relative to the king's déchéance (forfeiture) at a time when there was not a moment to lose, and by not holding any assembly in the evening. The fermentation increased every minute, in a very alarming manner. The mayor himself had declared to the representative
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STATUES PULLED DOWN. NEW NAMES.
STATUES PULLED DOWN. NEW NAMES.
THE next day, Saturday the 11th, about an hundred Swiss who had not been in the palace placed themselves under the protection of the National Assembly. They were sent to the Palais Bourbon escorted by the Marseillois, with Mr. Petion at their head, in order to be tried by a court-martial. The people were now employed, some in hanging thieves, others with Mademoiselle Teroigne on horseback at their head, in pulling down the statues of the French Kings. The first was the equestrian one in bronze o
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BEHEADING. DEAD NAKED BODIES.
BEHEADING. DEAD NAKED BODIES.
BUT to return to those "active citizens, whom aristocratic insolence has stiled sans-culottes, brigands ." [28] On Sunday, they dragged a man to the Hôtel de Ville , before a magistrate, to be tried, for having stolen something in the Tuileries as they said. He was accordingly tried, searched, and nothing being found on him, was acquitted; n'importe , said these citizens, we must have his head for all that, for we caught him in the act of stealing. They laid him on his back on the ground, and in
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COURAGE AND CURIOSITY OF THE FAIR SEX. MASSACRE IN 1572.
COURAGE AND CURIOSITY OF THE FAIR SEX. MASSACRE IN 1572.
ON the 24th of August, St. Bartholemew's day, 1572, the massacre of the Hugonots or or Calvinists, began by the murder of Admiral Coligni the signal was to have been given at midnight; but Catherine of Medicis , mother to the then King Charles IX. (who was only two and twenty years of age) hastened the signal more than an hour , and endeavoured to encourage her son, by quoting a passage from a sermon: "What pity do we not shew in being cruel? what cruelty would it not be to have pity?" In Mr. Wr
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MISCELLANIES. NUMBER OF SLAIN.
MISCELLANIES. NUMBER OF SLAIN.
ON that same Saturday morning the dead Swiss, the broken furniture of the palace, and the burning woodwork of the barracks, were all gathered together in a vast heap, and set fire to. I saw this pile at twenty or thirty yards distance, and I was told that some of the women who were spectators took out an arm or a leg that was broiling, to taste: this I did not see , but I see no reason for not believing it . On the afternoon of this day, the coffee-houses were, as usual, filled with idle people,
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BREECHES. PIKES. NECESSARY PASSPORTS.
BREECHES. PIKES. NECESSARY PASSPORTS.
ANOTHER particular relative to the sans-culottes is their standard, being an old pair of breeches, which they carry on the top of a pike, thrust through the waistband: the poissardes likewise use the same standard, though it so happened that I never saw it. On the memorable 20th of June last, a pike-man got on the top of the Tuileries, where he waved the ensign, or rather shook the breeches to the populace. The pike-staves for the army are of different lengths; of six, nine, and twelve feet: by
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MISCELLANIES. DANCING. POULTRY. TAVERNS. WIG.
MISCELLANIES. DANCING. POULTRY. TAVERNS. WIG.
SOME days before the demolition of the statue of Henri IV. on the Pont-neuf , there was a flag placed near that statue, on which was painted citoyens la Patrie est en danger ; (citizens, the mother-country is in danger) and it still remained there when I came away. On the Monday after the Friday, I saw a paper on the walls, among those published by authority, wherein a person acquainted the public, that on the preceding Saturday, in consequence of some suspicions which had been entertained of hi
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EXTENT, POPULATION, &C. OF FRANCE.
EXTENT, POPULATION, &C. OF FRANCE.
THE authorities for a great part of what follows are Mr. Rabaut's History of the Revolution, 1792; Mr. du Laure's Paris, 1791, Geographie de France , 1792, second edition, and Voyage dans les Departemens de la France , 1792. France is a country which extends nine degrees from North to South, and between ten and eleven from East to West, making six and twenty thousand square leagues, and containing twenty-seven millions of people. In 1790, "There were four millions of armed men in France; three o
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EMENDATIONS AND ADDITIONS. RETURN TO CALAIS.
EMENDATIONS AND ADDITIONS. RETURN TO CALAIS.
THE paragraph at the bottom of page 11, is intended to be merely descriptive, but not ludicrous, so that the reader is requested to expunge the word night . In the enumeration of the Bishopricks (page 14) I unaccountably omitted the ten metropolitan sees, which are those of Paris, Lyon, Bourdeaux, Rouen, Reims, Besançon, Bourges, Rennes, Aix and Toulouse : Thus there are eighty-three bishopricks, or one for each department. After what is said (in page 89) relative to the division of the country,
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EPILOGUE.
EPILOGUE.
SOON after my return to London the two following paragraphs appeared in the newspapers. "T. has been over to France, botanizing, and has gotten what he went to seek." "I'll tell you, my Lord Fool, From this Nettle danger we pluck the Flower safety." This I insert merely on account of the Bêtise of the quotation. The Dutch inscription on sticks of sealing-wax would have been as applicable. "T. the Tourist was the first to fly from Paris on the prospect of the tumults of the 10th of August. He is
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