THE BUET 185 



Buffon concluded by asking for an appointment to visit 

 Bourrit's studio. 



At Court, thanks largely to his patron's kind offices, Bourrit 

 was presented to Louis Seize, who bought one of his pictures, a 

 view of the Oeschinen See near Kandersteg, and on condition 

 he sent him two pictures every year, granted him a pension 

 of 600 livres, which after the restoration was renewed by 

 Louis Dix-huit. It is little wonder if these successes completely 

 turned Bourrit's head. Henceforth he always signed himself 

 ' Pensionnaire du Hoi.' His neighbours might still smile at their 

 Precentor. But his fame increased with distance. He wrote to 

 de Saussure, asking him for copies of his Voyages, that he might 

 present them to Necker, Buffon, Le Roi (Director of the Cabinet de 

 Physique ) , and Marat . Bourrit looked on the future demagogue as 

 a second Newton who had invented a new Theory of the Universe. 

 Frederic the Great wrote to the proud Precentor and dubbed him 

 ' The Historiographer of the Alps.' Prince Henry of Prussia paid 

 a visit to his studio, of which an amusing account is preserved 

 in a volume written by the father of Alfred de Musset : l 



' From the retreat where M. Senebier is incessantly at work, I 

 went to visit M. Bourrit, the author of the Voyage des Alpes. I shall 

 not permit myself any comment, but content myself with giving an 

 exact account of what I saw and what he said to me. On entering 

 the court I saw a sort of framework on which was a wretched mattress ; 

 this was the bed of M. Bourrit. He moves about this portable bed- 

 stead according to the weather or his whim, placing it sometimes 

 near the wall, sometimes in the middle of his court. He described 

 to us a visit he had received from Prince Henry of Prussia. " At his 

 request," he told us, " I described a sunrise : I pictured to him the 

 orb flinging his rays into the recesses of the Alps till, fired by my 

 description, the Prince cried out, ' Our Lekain 2 was ice compared 

 to this man.' ' 



' M. Bourrit pointed out to us his little staircase, which, in fact, is 

 very narrow. He said that while going down it Prince Henry had said 

 to his suite, " How many great staircases there are for little men ! I am 

 delighted to have found at last a great man with a little staircase." 

 I hope for M. Bourrit's sake that there is a real disproportion between 

 his staircase and himself, and that the prince's antithesis is sound. 



1 Voyage en Suisse et en Italiefait avec VArmee de Reserve, par V. A. D. (Paris, 

 An ix). 



2 A famous actor of the time. 



