F A It I S. 
repofe; he kept hacking away inceffantly at the chair 
with his pen-knife, fo that he broke one almoft every day. 
By his command the mod exquifite productions of art 
were brought alternately from the grand magazine of 
plunder, the Louvre, to St. Cloud, that he might enjoy 
them exclufively. All the apartments were by him 
adorned with a magnificence becoming a royal refidence. 
The emprefs Maria Louifa’s chamber is a fairy-palace, 
and her boudoir the cabinet of the Graces. 
The gardens are univerfally admired. Nature and Art 
combine to render them highly pifturefque and beautiful. 
Antique and modern ftatues, temples, altars, fiieets of 
water, groves, and parterres of flowers, are taftefully ar¬ 
ranged in every direction; while an extenfive and plea¬ 
ting landfcape opens to the view, and the whole city of 
Paris difplays itfelf, interfered by the Seine, whofe innu¬ 
merable windings give peculiar interell to the profpeCt. 
The moft firiking objeCt is the cafcade. It is divided into 
two parts. Thi upper cafcade is 108 feet wide, and the 
fame in height. Its head is decorated by fculptures of a 
river-god, and a naiad, reprefenting the Seine and the 
Marne. The fheets of water which proceed from them unite 
as they fall into a great fliell in the centre, whence flow 
nine other fheets, which, in their defeent into a large 
bafin, aflume many fantaltic forms. An alley divides the 
upper from the lower cafcade. Three diftinCt fheets of 
water here fall into a circular bafin, thence into a fecond 
and a third, and laftly into a canal ornamented with a va¬ 
riety of jets. In the intervals between the cafcade are 
enormous leaden figures, reprefenting dolphins, frogs, &c. 
which fpout large quantities of water to an immenfe dis¬ 
tance. In one place a number of jets interfeCI each other 
in a pleafing manner, and on the right a Angle jet rifes to 
the height of 97 feet. 
St. Cloud is much frequented, efpecially on Sundays.. 
An auberge at the foot of the bridge affords reft and re- 
frefhment. The annual fete is on the three firft Sundays 
after the 7th of September. The gardens are then filled 
with booths of every defeription, and the whole popula¬ 
tion of Paris crowds to a feene at all times delightful, and 
now enlivened by joy and feftivity. 
Leaving St. Cloud, and walking through the park, the 
vifitor will arrive at a gate exaCtly oppofite the celebrated 
porcelain-manufaClory of Sevre, which has been already 
noticed. We are then on the road which leads direftly to 
Versailles. —This enchanting place, which in the 
time of Louis XVI. contained near 100,000 perfons, was 
formerly but an inconfiderable village. It is about twelve 
miles from Paris; and the road leading to it is perhaps 
the fineft and moft elegant in the world. 
The palace is the firft object which naturally attracts 
the curiofity of a traveller. It is built on an elevated fite, 
and difplays on all fides a gorgeous and mafly pile. The 
following is the account given of its origin. Louis XIII. 
purchafed the land of John de Soifly in 1627, and ereCfed 
upon it an uncouth hunting-feat, part of which ftill exilts; 
but Louis XIV. was the founder of that magnificent piece 
of architecture, which has always excited the admiration 
of foreigners. Delighted with the pofition of the chateau, 
he collected together a number of Ikilful artifts, and con¬ 
verted the village into a city, and the hunting-feat into 
a vaft palace, which united every thing that was moft ex¬ 
quifite in art and tafte to fplendour and magnificence. 
The work commenced in 1673 ; and the buildings of the 
park and gardens were completed in 1680, during the 
miniftry of the great Colbert. The artifts employed were 
Manfard for the architecture and management of the erec¬ 
tions ; Andre ie Notre for the arrangement and decoration 
of the gardens ; and Charles le Brun, for the departments 
of painting, defign, and the arts dependent on them. 
The Jlables, which were planned by Manfard, were 
commenced in 1679, and completed in 1685; they are 
remarkable for the regularity of their ftruCture, and are 
relieved by fome good pieces of fculpture. The buildings 
will contain from 4 to 5000 horfes. 
495 
After having travelled the Place d’Armes, you enter 
the firft court, called the Court of the Minifters. From 
this court you next enter that of the Palace, the right 
wing of which was rebuilt on a new plan. This court is 
terminated by the Marble Court, fo called becaufe it was 
paved with Iquares of coloured marble. On its lateral 
angles are two arcades, one of which leads to the fouth, 
and the other to the north, terrace. From the latter fide 
is a veftibule decorated in the Ionic order, with a ceiling 
in compartments which leads to the chapel, the opera- 
houfe, and the theatre. On the right of the veftibule, in 
the fpace between the pillars, is a bas-relief of the celebra¬ 
ted Puget, reprefenting Alexander in the prefence of 
Diogenes. This piece of fculpture is confidered as a chef- 
d’oeuvre. We next proceed along the north terrace, in 
order to view the extent of the palace and its decorations. 
It is above 800 feet in length, and is com poled of a ground- 
floor, a firft ftory, and an attic, ornamented with Ionic 
pilafters, and crowned at the fummit with vafes and tro¬ 
phies. 
The firft apartment, the Saloon of Hercules, the admira¬ 
tion of foreigners, and the glory of the French fchool, is 
fixty-four feet in length and fifty-four broad, l'uperbly de¬ 
corated, and enriched with a painted ceiling, reprefenting 
Olympus and all the heathen deities, and the apotheofis 
and labours of Hercules. The fecond apartment is the 
Hall of Plenty, in which are feveral paintings. From 
this apartment you enter the Hall of Diana, the ceiling 
of which is painted, and reprefents the Moon, under the 
figure of Diana, on a car drawn by two flags, and accom¬ 
panied by the Hours, and the attributes of the Chafe and 
of Navigation. In the fourth apartment, which is called 
the Hall of Mars, Audran has painted on the ceiling this 
deity in his car, furrounded by all his martial attributes'; and 
Jouvenet and Houafle have likewife executed four paint¬ 
ings analagous to this fubjeCt. The next apartment is the 
Hall of Mercury, with a ceiling painted by Champagne, 
after the defigns of Le Brun, reprefenting this heathen 
divinity on his car, furrounded by his charaCteriftic at¬ 
tributes. This room pofleffes many pictures. The hall 
of Apollo comes next, with a ceiling which reprefents 
the God of Day feated in his car, with all his attributes. 
Adjoining to the grand gallery is the Saloon of War, the 
ceiling of which is by Le Brun, and its fubject Bellona 
and her attributes. 
In no part of Europe is there any apartment to be com¬ 
pared with the Grand Gallery of Verfailles, either for tafte, 
arrangement, or magnificence. The architecture and 
paintings were defigned by Le Brun. It is 222 feet in 
length, 30 in breadth, and 37 in height, and contains 
feventeen large window's ; oppofite which are as many ar¬ 
cades with glafles within that refleCt the gardens and their 
water-pieces, and all the objeCts in the gallery. Between 
the arcades and the windows are forty-eight pilafters of 
rance-marble, the bales and compolite capitals of which 
are of bronze gilt. The centre of the dome reprefents, 
by fymbolical figures and allegories, in nine large and 
eighteen fmaller paintings, the moft remarkable epochs 
of the reign of Louis XIV. from the year 1661 to 1678 ; 
fucli as the conquefts of Holland and Franche-Comte, the 
pafiage of the Rhine, See. There are inferiptions which 
mark the fubjeCt and the year. Thefe different pieces are 
diftributed into compartments of a beautiful architecture. 
The genii of the Arts and Sciences are occupied in deco¬ 
rating the place with carpets arid garlands. The cornice 
is ornamented with trophies, to which infants are hang¬ 
ing flowers. Two grand arcades, ornamented with four 
columns and eight pilafters, embellilh the entrance into 
thisfuperb gallery; the pilafters are feparated by pedeftals 
en faillie, fupporting vales. 
The gallery is terminated by the Saloon of Peace, which 
formed a part of the apartments of Marie Antoinette, and 
is of the fame fliape and dimenfions as the Saloon of War. 
It contains a painting of Le Brun, in which France is re- 
prefented feated on an azure globe, in a car borne on a 
cloud. 
