io6 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



public, and people were admitted to walk past the party 

 when at dinner. The French Queen died at Hartwell : 

 after the entrance of the allies into Paris, in 1814, her 

 body was taken to France, and I believe was buried at 

 St. Denis. Portraits of Louis XVIIL, " Louis le Desire," 

 as he was called, are still to be seen in Hartwell House, 

 with the Prince de Conde and other celebrities attached 

 to the retinue of the King. The old churchyard has 

 several memorials of those who died in exile, but I 

 cannot find that any Frenchman or Frenchwoman 

 remained behind when the King for the last time left 

 the village. I have many times in wandering among 

 the shady groves of Hartwell found, carved on the 

 trees, lines giving expression to the sense of comfort 

 and happiness which the exiles experienced during 

 their prolonged stay here ; one tree has carved 

 deeply in the bark, "Quel Plaisir" ; another beech-tree, 

 '* Toujours Heureux." 



Louis, on his return to France, had a garden formed 

 and planted at Versailles, on the plan, exactly repro- 

 duced, of the Queen's private garden at Hartwell, that 

 he might commemorate, so he said, " the happy, happy 

 cays he had spent in that charming county." This 

 garden still exists, but very few of the visitors to the 

 glorious palace of Versailles, who ask for " Le Jardin 

 Anglais," are aware of its origin. During the past 

 twenty years I have twice visited it, but am bound to 

 say, that either the one has been so grown over, or the 

 other at Hartwell has been so altered, that I failed to 

 connect them, except in the general outline and usual 

 character of a truly " English " garden. 



