36$ HORTICULTURAL TOUR* 



Palace of St Germain. 



Along with Mr Blaikie we proceeded to view the Palace 

 of St Germain, reared by Henri Quatre, and rendered pe- 

 culiarly interesting to Scotsmen, by having been the place 

 of refuge of the exiled Royal Stuarts. The situation is 

 commanding, and the prospect from the windows and from 

 the terrace near the palace, rich, varied, and extensive, 

 embracing the meanderings of the Seine, much of the Fo- 

 rest, and closed in the distance to the eastward by the towers 

 of St Denis. We were shewn the apartment in which Louis 

 XIV. was born, and that in which James VII. breathed 

 his last. During the reign of Buonaparte, it was employ- 

 ed as a military school ; at present it is wholly unoccupied. 

 Workmen were now engaged in obliterating the N's which 

 had every where been sculptured in honour of the name 

 Napoleon ; and it is understood to be the intention of the 

 present government to keep the palace in repair *. 



In descending to the banks of the Seine, we passed over 

 the site of the ancient chateau of St Germain, and could 

 trace some of the foundations of grottoes, crypts, or 

 temples, which had once ornamented its terrassed gardens. 

 On this bank we met with some plants, which are rather 

 rare in England, and not met with in Scotland ; such as, 

 Lactuca Scariola, Stachys germanica, Antirrhinum Elati- 



gardeners capable of giving designs for gardens, and also of undertaking the 

 execution of the designs. The practical gardeners arc in general little better 

 than mere labourers. There are indeed some distinguished exceptions, par- 

 ticularly in the family of the Thouins. 



* This has not been very effectually done. On occasion of a subsequent 

 visit to St Germain in August 1821, I found the parapet-wall of the princi- 

 pal entrance overgrown with Prenanthes muralis ; and I am certain that no 

 rach lar;* plant existed there in 1817.— N, 



