426 Life of Count Rumford. 



XIX. Science et Arts, January, 1802, v. s.). It is dated 

 London, August 15, 1801. 



"I have been living for the last eight days at the Elyssium, 

 which belongs to Count Rumford, and I lead there the most 

 pleasant life which it is possible to imagine. It is the fitting 

 time for attempting to describe to you this agreeable and in- 

 genious structure. The house forms a part of a long range of 

 edifices, Brompton Row, about a mile from London, which 

 lines the great road that conducts to the bridges of Fulham and 

 Battersea. Between the dwellings and the carriage-road is a 

 space planted with trees and sown with grass, an arrangement 

 generally adopted in the environs of the capital, and which 

 agreeably combines for the view many advantages. The win- 

 dows have a double glazing, and the exterior makes a three- 

 sided projection, in which are placed vases of flowers and 

 odorous shrubs, which you may have at your pleasure within or 

 outside of the apartment, according as you open or close the in- 

 ner sash. The table on which these vases stand is perforated, in 

 order to furnish the plants of a hot-house character on it with 

 the air necessary for vegetation, and the side sashes of the ex- 

 terior windows open as they are needed. 



" The house has five stories, including the offices, which in 

 this country are always set under the level of the earth. The 

 arrangement is the same in all the stories, two apartments and a 

 staircase. On the ground-floor is the parlor, where morning 

 visitors are received, and the dining-room. On the first flight 

 is a bedchamber, and a saloon for company ; on the second, the 

 same arrangement ; on the third, a bedchamber and a work- 

 room for the occupant of the dwelling. In this room, which 

 has a view of the country, the light comes in through a set of 

 adjoining windows arranged in an arc of a circle, through which 

 even in the middle of the apartment you may see a quarter of 

 the horizon. Their sills are arrayed with flowers and shrubs, 

 and the eye, looking over the trees and the neighboring fields, 

 seeing nothing intervening, the illusion is complete ; you sup- 

 pose yourself to be in the country close to a garden bordered by 



