132 



Notes and Reflections during a Tour : — 



of hay ; in the centre is an octagonal room, 60 ft. in diameter, 

 and 90 ft. in height. Here the prince used to dine once in 

 the course of the hunting season, with a large party of his 

 friends of the chase. The old garden has not been restored, 

 but here is a modern garden, laid out like an English gentle- 

 man's pleasure-ground." This modern garden we found to 

 be a low moist meadow, the grass nearly destroyed by the 

 mole cricket ; the buildings about the palace were in a most 

 dilapidated state, and the immense platforms of sand, unshaded 

 by a single tree, were any thing but country-like. Every 

 thing indicated an immense outlay on an ungrateful situation. 

 The only source of relief is the natural woods; though these, 

 growing on a flat surface, and the soil being uniformly sand, 

 contain little variety of either trees or plants. Taking the 

 demesne of Chantilly altogether, it is fit only for growing 

 copse, or for the Flanders husbandry, viz. turnips, wheat, 

 and clover. 



Erme7ionville i?i October^ 1828. — The property was then to 

 be sold, and was let in the mean time to the Prince de Conde, 

 who made no other use of it than as a preserve for game. 

 The tower of the fair Gabrielle was roofless, and going fast 

 to decay; some of the other garden structures were wanting; 

 all were more or less dilapidated, with the exception of 

 Rousseau's tomb in the Island of Poplars, and what is called 

 " La maison du Philosophe'^ {j^g^'- 22. and 23.), which is still 



pointed out to strangers as a place where Rousseau used to 

 spend whole days, reposing on its heath benches (7%. 23. a a), 

 having a fire of logs in the rude fireplace (b), and supplying 

 himself with water from an adjoining spring. Bread and 



