64 



Travels in France 



thought it possible for the vicinity of a great river to be. — View 

 Chanteloup, the magnificent seat of the late Duke de Choiseul. 

 It is situated on a rising ground at some distance from the 

 LoirCj which in winter or after great floods is a fine object, but at 

 present is scarcely seen. The ground-floor in front consists of 

 seven rooms: the dining-room of about thirty by twenty, and 

 the drawing-room thirty by thirty-three : the library is seventy- 

 two by twenty^ but now fitted up by the present possessor, the 

 Duke de Penthie\Te, with very beautiful tapestry from the 

 Gobelins. — In the pleasure-ground, on a hill commanding a very 

 extensive prospect, is a Chinese pagoda, 120 feet high, built by 

 the duke in commemoration of the persons who visited him in 

 his exile. On the walls of the first room in it their names are 

 engraved on marble tablets. The number and rank of the 

 persons do honour to the duke and to themselves. The idea 

 was a happy one. The forest you look down on from this 

 building is very extensive, they say eleven leagues across: 

 ridings are cut pointing to the pagoda, and when the duke was 

 alive these glades had the mischievous animation of a vast 

 hunt, supported so liberally as to ruin the master of it, and 

 transferred the property of this noble estate and residence from 

 his family to the last hands I should wish to see it in — a prince 

 of the blood. Great lords love too much an environ of forest, 

 boars, and huntsmen, instead of marking their residence by the 

 accompaniment of neat and well cultivated farms, clean cottages, 

 and happy peasants. In such a method of showing their 

 magnificence, rearing forests, gilding domes, or bidding aspiring 

 columns rise, might be wanting; but they would have, instead 

 of them, erections of comfort, establishments of ease, and planta- 

 tions of felicity; and their harvest, instead of the flesh of boars, 

 would be in the voice of cheerful gratitude — they would see 

 public prosperity flourish on its best basis of private happiness. 

 — As a farmer, there is one feature which shows the duke had some 

 merit, he built a noble cow-house; a platform leads along the 

 middle between two rows of mangers with stalls for 72, and 

 another apartment, not so large, for others and for calves. He 

 imported 120 very fine Swiss cows, and visited them with his 

 company every day, as they were kept constantly tied up. To 

 this I may add the best built sheep-house I have seen in France, 

 and I thought I saw from the pagoda part of the farm better laid 

 out and ploughed than common in the country, so that he pro- 

 bably imported some ploughmen. — This has merit in it, but it 

 was all the merit of banishment. Chanteloup would neither 



