Paris,
April 21st 1816.
My Dear Mamma,
We arrived here yesterday morning, about one o’clock. We lodge in the Rue Pigale, No 9. not, chez M. le medecin. <1> Our hostess is Madame la baronne, but she is not called so; – We live in the top story of the house, which is very high, & has an extensive view of Paris. The first building which you see on approaching Paris, is the Pantheon: <2> – Besides which we see from our window the gilt dome des Invalides, <3> the two towers of Notre Dame, the Thuilleries, <4> the Telegraph, the church of St Sulpice, <5> & of the Assumption, with many other places which I do not yet know. Some Houses prevent us from seeing the column in the Place Vendome. We dined yesterday with Lady Cahir[?], and dine today with Mrs Crosbie.
April 22d
Last night we went to the opera, the Ballet was the Carnival of Venice; <6> – we went in the Ambassador’s <7> box. The House is lighted by one large chandelier in the middle, instead of a great many, as in our play-houses –
As we passed thro’ Beauvais, we stopped to see the Cathedral, <8> which is magnificent, but unfinished. It bears the date of 1550. Fortunately it does not seem to have been much injured in the Revolution. At St Denis we stopped to see the church, which is not nearly so fine as that at Beauvais, & suffered exceedingly in the revolution. It was full of benches, &c, which had been used for the expiatory ceremony for Louis XVI <9> in January last. Buonaparte <10> had taken great pains with it latterly, & adorned it with a magnificent flight of marble steps. There are some painted windows in it, but there are much finer ones at Beauvais.<11> My Uncle William <12> would have been quite charmed with this last, although not more of it than this [illustration] has been finished. We got a most excellent dinner at the same place, which gave me a high idea of French cookery. The rooms in France abound with marble, & looking glasses; – and or-molu <13> clocks under glasses. Our rooms are not floored with boards, & have no carpet. They are paved with hexagonal tiles, which are very safe in case of fire. [illustration]
There are in the room in which I am writing no less than thirty-six looking glasses of different sizes, which reflect and refract the light in so many different ways that Mr Feilding <14> can hardly sleep. At Mrs Crosbie’s last night we saw a window of one pane of glass, which I suppose contained four –&– twenty square feet. It looked as if there was no window at all. The shrubs here seem a great deal forwarder than in England. The Persian Lilacs are almost in blossom. We are à la campagne <15> here, & a long way from the most fashionable part of the Town. – Our valet’s name is Moyart.
Pray inform Jane that I found a rare moss in my journey. Don’t forget.
I remain, Yr Affte Son
W. H. F. Talbot
Lady E Feilding
Notes:
1. In the house of M. the physician.
2. It was begun about 1757 by the architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot.
3. Also known as the Dome Church, it was begun in 1671.
4. Tuilleries Gardens.
5. Church of St Sulpice, built by Servandoni (1732) and Chalgrin (1780).
6. A set of variations for violin and orchestra by Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840).
7. Sir Charles Stuart, Baron Stuart de Rothesay (1779–1845), British Ambassador in Paris (1815–1830).
8. Beauvais Cathedral ( ca. 1225–1272); its nave was never completed.
9. Louis XVI (1754–1793), King of France (1774–1792).
10. Napoleon I, Emperor of France (1804–1814/15).
11. In 1828, WHFT would receive a gift of some of this glass from his uncle - see Doc. No: 01761 and passim.
12. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
13. A phonetic spelling of ormolu, the art of gilding a bronze object with a mercury amalgam of gold.
14. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
15. In the countryside.