396 HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



Sept. 23. — To-day we accompanied some friends in an 

 excursion to Malmaison and Versailles. We left Paris by 

 the same route as on occasion of our visit to St Germain. 

 Some pretty extensive plantations of rose-trees to-day 

 caught our eye ; and we are told that these are cultivated, 

 like those of Nordwyk in Holland, solely for the sake of 

 the flowers, which are employed in the manufacture of 

 rose-water, and in making conserves. Some cherry-tree 

 plantations likewise appeared ; but the great cerisaies 

 which supply Paris with cherries, are situate chiefly near 

 Montmorency. In driving along, we found from repeat- 

 ed experience to-day, that the " rule of the road*" is 

 very different in France from what it is in Scotland : 

 on meeting with a carriage, it is the duty of the tra- 

 veller here to hold to the right, and not to the left as with 

 us. The driver of a gig, we also remarked, sits on the 

 left, which, we should think, must sometimes prove rather 

 incommodious for a friend seated on his right. In a field 

 near Ruel we were not a little diverted at seeing a woman 

 managing a plough, and laying her shallow furrows with 

 tolerable regularity. 



La Malmaison. 

 On arriving at this charming place, we first viewed the 

 house which had been the chosen residence of Buonaparte 

 and Josephine. The Emperor's recollections seemed to 

 linger on those halcyon days ; for to this favourite retreat 

 he resorted, after a lapse of years, when, upon his return 

 to Paris in June 1815, his affairs became utterly desperate. 

 On that occasion, he left this house only a few hours before 

 some of the Prussian cavalry entered it. The damage done 

 by these exasperated soldiers was pointed out to us, — mir- 

 rors smashed, paintings slashed, and the escrutoire at which 



