"LA GERBETIERE" 143 



At one time an orangery occupied some part of the 

 house or court. There are now no large trees on the 

 property; the fruits are all of recent and inferior 

 growth, while the garden I saw was planted to cabbage 

 and running riot with weeds. 



When Jean and Madame Audubon passed through 

 the door leading from the main street, they entered upon 

 a paved alley which ran parallel with the high wall, 

 whence they could reach the house by any one of several 

 walks or enter the fruit garden by another. If so in- 

 clined, they could turn to the right, ascend a flight of 

 granite steps to a platform on a level with the top of 

 the wall, and under a shady bower of vines and leafy 

 shrubbery, look off on the racing waters of the Loire, 

 scrutinize their visitors before admitting them, or ob- 

 serve such manifestations of life as lonely country roads 

 of that period had to offer. As they passed up the cen- 

 tral garden walk they could admire the beds of old- 

 fashioned flowers, kept, we may be sure, in perfect 

 order, for Jean was a very methodical man, and his 

 wife, we believe, an excellent home maker. This walk 

 led to a low terrace, flanked with a heavy wall, which 

 ran the whole length of the house. 



What little I saw of the interior of "La Gerbetiere" 

 was wholly devoid of interest, which agrees with the 

 experience of another traveler who visited Coueron at a 

 slightly earlier date; 3 at the time of his visit the place 

 was unoccupied and forlorn, and the vegetation on the 

 garden side so dense that it was utterly impossible to 

 see any distance from the lower windows. 



When "La Gerbetiere" came into Jean Audubon's 



3 Mr. William Beer, who paid a visit to "La Gerbetiere" with Dr. 

 Louis Bureau in 1910, writes me that the woodwork was poor in quality, 

 and that all the rooms had been altered in size and appearance. 



