Volume II Part 1 (1/2)

A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany.

Volume Two.

by Thomas Frognall Dibdin.

_LETTER I._

PARIS. THE BOULEVARDS. PUBLIC BUILDINGS. STREET SCENERY. FOUNTAINS.[1]

_Paris, June 18, 1818_.

You are probably beginning to wonder at the tardiness of my promised Despatch, in which the architectural minutiae of this City were to be somewhat systematically described. But, as I have told you towards the conclusion of my previous letter, it would be to very little purpose to conduct you over every inch of ground which had been trodden and described by a host of Tourists, and from which little of interest or of novelty could be imparted. Yet it seems to be absolutely inc.u.mbent upon me to say _something_ by way of local description.

Perhaps the BOULEVARDS form the most interesting feature about Paris. I speak here of the _princ.i.p.al_ Boulevards:--of those, extending from _Ste.

Madelaine_ to _St. Antoine_; which encircle nearly one half the capital.

Either on foot, or in a carriage, they afford you singular gratification. A very broad road way, flanked by two rows of trees on each side, within which the population of Paris seems to be in incessant agitation--lofty houses, splendid shops, occasionally a retired mansion, with a parterre of blooming flowers in front--all manner of merchandize exposed in the open air--prints, muslins, _kaleidoscopes_, (they have just introduced them[2]) trinkets, and especially watch chains and strings of beads, spread in gay colours upon the ground--the undulations of the chaussee--and a bright blue sky above the green trees--all these things irresistibly rivet the attention and extort the admiration of a stranger. You may have your boots cleaned, and your breakfast prepared, upon these same boulevards.

Felicitous junction of conveniences!

This however is only a hasty sketch of what may be called a morning scene.

AFTERNOON approaches: then, the innumerable chairs, which have been a long time unoccupied, are put into immediate requisition: then commences the ”high exchange” of the loungers. One man hires two chairs, for which he pays two sous: he places his legs upon one of them; while his body, in a slanting position, occupies the other. The places, where these chairs are found, are usually flanked by coffee houses. Incessant reports from drawing the corks of beer bottles resound on all sides. The ordinary people are fond of this beverage; and for four or six sous they get a bottle of pleasant, refres.h.i.+ng, small beer. The draught is usually succeeded by a doze--in the open air. What is common, excites no surprise; and the stream of population rushes on without stopping one instant to notice these somniferous indulgences. Or, if they are not disposed to sleep, they sit and look about them: abstractedly gazing upon the mult.i.tude around, or at the heavens above. Pure, idle, unproductive listlessness is the necessary cause of such enjoyment.

Evening approaches: when the Boulevards put on their gayest and most fascinating livery. Then commences the bustle of the _Ice Mart_: in other words, then commences the general demand for ices: while the rival and neighbouring _caffes_ of TORTONI and RICHE have their porches of entrance choked by the incessant ingress and egress of customers. The full moon s.h.i.+nes beautifully above the foliage of the trees; and an equal number of customers, occupying chairs, sit without, and call for ices to be brought to them. Meanwhile, between these loungers, and the entrances to the caffes, move on, closely wedged, and yet scarcely in perceptible motion, the ma.s.s of human beings who come only to exercise their eyes, by turning them to the right or to the left: while, on the outside, upon the chaussee, are drawn up the carriages of visitors (chiefly English ladies) who prefer taking their ice within their closed morocco quarters. The varieties of ice are endless, but that of the _Vanille_ is justly a general favourite: not but that you may have coffee, chocolate, punch, peach, almond, and in short every species of gratification of this kind; while the gla.s.ses are filled to a great height, in a pyramidal shape, and some of them with layers of strawberry, gooseberry, and other coloured ice--looking like pieces of a Harlequin's jacket--are seen moving to and fro, to be silently and certainly devoured by those who bespeak them. Add to this, every one has his tumbler and small water-bottle by the side of him: in the centre of the bottle is a large piece of ice, and with a tumbler of water, poured out from it, the visitor usually concludes his repast. The most luxurious of these ices scarcely exceeds a s.h.i.+lling of our money; and the quant.i.ty is at least half as much again as you get at a certain well-known confectioner's in Piccadilly.

It is getting towards MIDNIGHT; but the bustle and activity of the Boulevards have not yet much abated. Groups of musicians, ballad-singers, tumblers, actors, conjurors, slight-of-hand professors, and raree-shew men, have each their distinct audiences. You advance. A little girl with a raised turban (as usual, tastefully put on) seems to have no mercy either upon her own voice or upon the hurdy-gurdy on which she plays: her father shews his skill upon a violin, and the mother is equally active with the organ; after ”a flourish”--not of ”trumpets”--but of these instruments--the tumblers commence their operations. But a great crowd is collected to the right. What may this mean? All are silent; a ring is made, of which the boundaries are marked by small lighted candles stuck in pieces of clay.

Within this circle stands a man--apparently strangled: both arms are extended, and his eyes are stretched to their utmost limits. You look more closely--and the hilt of a dagger is seen in his mouth, of which the blade is introduced into his stomach! He is almost breathless, and ready to faint--but he approaches, with the crown of a hat in one hand, into which he expects you should drop a sous. Having made his collection, he draws forth the dagger from its carnal sheath, and, making his bow, seems to antic.i.p.ate the plaudits which invariably follow.[3] Or, he changes his plan of operations on the following evening. Instead of the dagger put down his throat, he introduces a piece of wire up one nostril, to descend by the other--and, thus self-tortured, demands the remuneration and the applause of his audience. In short, from one end of the Boulevards to the other, for nearly two English miles, there is nought but animation, good humour, and, it is right to add, good order;--while, having strolled as far as the Boulevards _de Bondy_, and watched the moon-beams sparkling in the waters which play there within the beautiful fountain so called,--I retread my steps, and seek the quiet quarters in which this epistle is penned.

The next out-of-door sources of gratification, of importance, are the _Gardens of the Thuileries_, the _Champs Elysees_, and the promenade within the _Palais Royal_; in which latter plays a small, but, in my humble opinion, the most beautifully constructed fountain which Paris can boast of. Of this, presently. The former of these spots is rather pretty than picturesque: rather limited than extensive: a raised terrace to the left, on looking from the front of the Thuileries, is the only commanding situation--from which you observe the Seine, running with its green tint, and rapid current, to the left--while on the right you leisurely examine the rows of orange trees and statuary which give an imposing air of grandeur to the scene. At this season of the year, the fragrance of the blossoms of the orange trees is most delicious. The statues are of a colossal, and rather superior kind ... for garden decoration. There are pleasing vistas and wide gravel walks, and a fine evening usually fills them with crowds of Parisians. The palace is long, but rather too low and narrow; yet there is an air of elegance about it, which, with the immediately surrounding scenery, cannot fail to strike you very agreeably.

The white flag of St. Louis floats upon the top of the central dome. The _Champs Elysees_ consist of extensive wooded walks; and a magnificent road divides them, which serves as the great attractive mall for carriages-- especially on Sundays--while, upon the gra.s.s, between the trees, on that day, appear knots of male and female citizens enjoying the waltz or quadrille. It is doubtless a most singular, and animated scene: the utmost order and good humour prevailing. The _Place Louis Quinze_, running at right angles with the Thuileries, and which is intersected in your route to the _Rue de la Paix_, is certainly a most magnificent front elevation; containing large and splendid houses, of elaborate exterior ornament. When completed, to the right, it will present an almost matchless front of domestic architecture, built upon the Grecian model. It was in this place, facing his own regal residence of the Thuileries, that the unfortunate Louis--surrounded by a ferocious and bloodthirsty mob--was butchered by the guillotine.

Come back with me now into the very heart of Paris, and let us stroll within the area of the _Palais Royal_. You may remember that I spoke of a fountain, which played within the centre of this popular resort. The different branches, or _jets d'eau_, spring from a low, central point; and crossing each other in a variety of angles, and in the most pleasing manner of intersection, produce, altogether, the appearance of the blossom of a large flower: so silvery and transparent is the water, and so gracefully are its gla.s.sy petals disposed. Meanwhile, the rays of the sun, streaming down from above, produce a sort of stationary rainbow: and, in the heat of the day, as you sit upon the chairs, or saunter beneath the trees, the effect is both grateful and refres.h.i.+ng. The little flower garden, in the centre of which this fountain seems to be for ever playing, is a perfect model of neatness and tasteful disposition: not a weed dare intrude: and the earth seems always fresh and moist from the spray of the fountain-- while roses, jonquils, and hyacinths scatter their delicious fragrance around. For one minute only let us visit the _Caffe des Mille Colonnes_: so called (as you well know) from the number of upright mirrors and gla.s.ses which reflect the small columns by which the ceiling is supported.

Brilliant and singular as is this effect, it is almost eclipsed by the appearance of the Mistress of the House; who, decorated with rich and rare gems, and seated upon a sort of elevated throne--uniting great comeliness and (as some think) beauty of person--receives both the homage and (what is doubtless preferable to her) the _francs_ of numerous customers and admirers. The ”wealth of either Ind” sparkles upon her hand, or glitters upon her attire: and if the sun of her beauty be somewhat verging towards its declension, it sets with a glow which reminds her old acquaintance of the splendour of its noon-day power. It is yet a sharply contested point whether the ice of this house be preferable to that of Tortoni: a point, too intricate and momentous for my solution. ”Non nostrum est ... tantas componere lites.”

Of the _Jardin des Plantes_, which I have once visited, but am not likely to revisit--owing to the extreme heat of the weather, and the distance of the spot from this place--scarcely too much can be said in commendation: whether we consider it as a _depot_ for live or dead animals, or as a school of study and instruction for the cultivators of natural history. The wild animals are kept, in their respective cages, out of doors, which is equally salutary for themselves and agreeable to their visitors. I was much struck by the perpetual motion of a huge, restless, black bear, who has left the marks of his footsteps by a concavity in the floor:--as well as by the panting, and apparently painful, inaction of an equally huge white or gray bear--who, nurtured upon beds of Greenland ice, seemed to be dying beneath the oppressive heat of a Parisian atmosphere. The same misery appeared to beset the bears who are confined, in an open s.p.a.ce, below. They searched every where for shade; while a scorching sun was darting its vertical rays upon their heads. In the Museum of dead, or stuffed animals, you have every thing that is minute or magnificent in nature, from the creeping lizard to the towering giraffe, arranged systematically, and in a manner the most obvious and intelligible: while Cuvier's collection of fossil bones equally surprises and instructs you. It is worth all the _catacombs_ of all the capitals in the world. If we turn to the softer and more beauteous parts of creation, we are dazzled and bewildered by the radiance and variety of the tribes of vegetables--whether as fruits or flowers; and, upon the whole, this is an establishment which, in no age or country, hath been surpa.s.sed.

It is not necessary to trouble you with much more of this strain. The out-of-door enjoyments in Paris are so well known, and have been so frequently described--and my objects of research being altogether of a very different complexion--you will not, I conclude, scold me if I cease to expatiate upon this topic, but direct your attention to others. Not however but that I think you may wish to know my sentiments about the princ.i.p.al ARCHITECTURAL BUILDINGS of Paris--as you are yourself not only a lover, but a judge, of these matters--and therefore the better qualified to criticise and correct the following remarks--which flow ”au bout de la plume”--as Madame de Sevigne says. In the first place, then, let us stop a few minutes before the THUILERIES. It hath a beautiful front: beautiful from its lightness and airiness of effect. The small central dome is the only raised part in the long horizontal line of this extended building: not but what the extremities are raised in the old fas.h.i.+oned sloping manner: but if there had been a similar dome at each end, and that in the centre had been just double its present height, the effect, in my humble opinion, would have harmonised better with the extreme length of the building. It is very narrow; so much so, that the same room contains windows from which you may look on either side of the palace: upon the gardens to the west, or within the square to the east.

Adjoining to the Thuileries is the LOUVRE: that is to say, a long range of building to the south, parallel with the Seine, connects these magnificent residences: and it is precisely along this extensive range that the celebrated _Gallery of the Louvre_ runs. The princ.i.p.al exterior front, or southern extremity of the Louvre, faces the Seine; and to my eye it is nearly faultless as a piece of architecture constructed upon Grecian and Roman models. But the interior is yet more splendid. I speak more particularly of the south and western fronts: that facing the north being more ancient, and containing female figure ornaments which are palpably of a disproportionate length. The Louvre quadrangle (if I may borrow our old college phrase) is a.s.suredly the most splendid piece of ornamental architecture which Paris contains. The interior of the edifice itself is as yet in an unfinished condition;[4] but you must not conclude the examination of this glorious pile of building, without going round to visit the _eastern_ exterior front--looking towards Notre-Dame. Of all sides of the square, within or without, this colonnade front is doubtless the most perfect of its kind. It is less rich and crowded with ornament than any side of the interior--but it a.s.sumes one of the most elegant, airy, and perfectly proportionate aspects, of any which I am just now able to recollect. Perhaps the bas.e.m.e.nt story, upon which this double columned colonnade of the Corinthian Order runs, is somewhat too plain--a sort of affectation of the rustic. The alto-relievo figures in the centre of the tympanum have a decisive and appropriate effect. The advantage both of the Thuileries and Louvre is, that they are well seen from the princ.i.p.al thoroughfares of Paris: that is to say, along the quays, and from the chief streets running from the more ancient parts on the south side of the Seine.

The evil attending our own princ.i.p.al public edifices is, that they are generally constructed where they _cannot_ be seen to advantage. Supposing one of the princ.i.p.al entrances or malls of London, both for carriages and foot, to be on the _south_ side of the Thames, what could be more magnificent than the front of _Somerset House_, rising upon its hundred columns perpendicularly from the sides of a river... three times as broad as the Seine, with the majestic arches of _Waterloo Bridge!_--before which, however, the stupendous elevation of _St. Paul's_ and its correspondent bridge of _Black Friars_, could not fail to excite the wonder, and extort the praise, of the most anti-anglican stranger. And to crown the whole, how would the venerable nave and the towers of _Westminster Abbey_--with its peculiar bridge of Westminster ... give a finish to such a succession of architectural objects of metropolitan grandeur! Although in the very heart, of Parisian wonder, I cannot help, you see, carrying my imagination towards our own capital; and suggesting that, if, instead of furnaces, forges, and flickering flames--and correspondent clouds of dense smoke--which give to the southern side of the Thames the appearance of its being the abode of legions of blacksmiths, and gla.s.s and shot makers--we introduced a little of the good taste and good sense of our neighbours--and if ... But all this is mighty easily said--though not quite so easily put in practice. The truth however is, my dear friend, that we should _approximate_ a little towards each other. Let the Parisians attend somewhat more to our domestic comforts and commercial advantages--and let the Londoners sacrifice somewhat of their love of warehouses and manufactories--and then you will have hit the happy medium, which, in the metropolis of a great empire, would unite all the conveniences, with all the magnificence, of situation.

Of other buildings, devoted to civil purposes, the CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES, the HoTEL DES INVALIDES, with its gilded dome (a little too profusely adorned,) the INSt.i.tUTE, and more particularly the MINT, are the chief ornaments on the south side of the Seine. In these I am not disposed to pick the least hole, by fastidious or hypercritical observations. Only I wish that they would contrive to let the lions, in front of the facade of the Inst.i.tute, (sometimes called the _College Mazarin_ or _des Quatre Nations_--upon the whole, a magnificent pile) discharge a good large mouthful of water-- instead of the drivelling stream which is for ever trickling from their closed jaws. Nothing can be more ridiculous than the appearance of these meagre and unappropriate objects: the more to be condemned, because the French in general a.s.sume great credit for the management of their fountains. Of the four great buildings just noticed, that of the Mint, or rather its facade, pleases me most. It is a beautiful elevation, in pure good taste; but the stone is unfortunately of a coa.r.s.e grain and of a dingy colour. Of the BRIDGES thrown across the Seine, connecting all the fine objects on either side, it must be allowed that they are generally in good taste: light, yet firm; but those, in iron, of Louis XVI. and _des Arts_, are perhaps to be preferred. The _Pont Neuf_, where the ancient part of Paris begins, is a large, long, clumsy piece of stone work: communicating with the island upon which _Notre Dame_ is built. But if you look eastward, towards old Paris, from the top of this bridge--or if you look in the same direction, a little towards the western side, or upon the quays,--you contemplate, in my humble opinion, one of the grandest views of street scenery that can be imagined! The houses are very lofty--occasionally of six or even eight stories--the material with which they are built is a fine cream-coloured stone: the two branches of the river, and the back ground afforded by _Notre Dame_, and a few other subordinate public buildings, altogether produce an effect--especially as you turn your back upon the sun, sinking low behind the _Barriere de Neuilly_--which would equally warm the hearts and exercise the pencils of the TURNERS and CALCOTS of our own sh.o.r.es. Indeed, I learn that the former distinguished artist has actually made a drawing of this picture. But let me add, that my own unqualified admiration had preceded the knowledge of this latter fact. Among other buildings, I must put in a word of praise in behalf of the HALLE-AUX-BLe'S--built after the model of the Pantheon at Rome. It is one hundred and twenty French feet in diameter; has twenty-five covered archways, or arcades, of ten feet in width; of which six are open, as pa.s.sages of ingress and egress--corresponding with the like number of opposite streets. The present cupola (preceded by one almost as large as that of the Pantheon at Rome) is built of iron and bra.s.s--of a curious, light, and yet sufficiently substantial construction--and is una.s.sailable by fire. I never pa.s.sed through this building without seeing it well stocked with provender; while its area was filled with farmers, who, like our own, a.s.semble to make the best bargain. Yet let me observe that, owing to the height of the neighbouring houses, this building loses almost the whole of its appropriate effect.

Nor should the EXCHANGE, in the _Rue des Filles St. Thomas_, be dismissed without slight notice and commendation. It is equally simple, magnificent, and striking: composed of a single row, or peristyle, of Corinthian pillars, flanking a square of no mean dimensions, and presenting fourteen pillars in its princ.i.p.al front. At this present moment, it is not quite finished; but when completed, it promises to be among the most splendid and the most perfect specimens of public architecture in Paris.[5] Beautiful as many may think _our_ Exchange, in my humble opinion it has no pretensions to compete with that at Paris. The HoTEL DE VILLE, near the _Place de Greve_, is rather in the character of the more ancient buildings in France: it is exceedingly picturesque, and presents a n.o.ble facade. Being situated amidst the older streets of Paris, nothing can harmonise better with the surrounding objects. Compared with the metropolis, on its present extended scale, it is hardly of sufficient importance for the consequence usually attached to this kind of building; but you must remember that the greater part of it was built in the sixteenth century, when the capital had scarcely attained half its present size. The _Place de Greve_ during the Revolution, was the spot in which the guillotine performed almost all its butcheries. I walked over it with a hurrying step: fancying the earth to be yet moist with the blood of so many immolated victims. Of other HoTELS, I shall mention only those of DE SENS and DE SOUBISE. The entrance into the former yet exhibits a most picturesque specimen of the architecture of the early part of the XVIth century. Its interior is devoted to every thing ...

which it ought _not_ to be. The Hotel de Soubise is still a consequential building. It was sufficiently notorious during the reigns of Charles V. and VI.: and it owes its present form to the enterprising spirit of Cardinal Rohan, who purchased it of the Guise family towards the end of the XVIIth century. There is now, neither pomp nor splendour, nor revelry, within this vast building. All its aristocratic magnificence is fled; but the antiquary and the man of curious research console themselves on its possessing treasures of a more substantial and covetable kind. You are to know that it contains the _Archives of State_ and the _Royal Printing Office_.

Paris has doubtless good reason to be proud of her public buildings; for they are numerous, splendid, and commodious; and have the extraordinary advantage over our own of not being tinted with soot and smoke. Indeed, when one thinks of the sure invasion of every new stone or brick building in London, by these enemies of external beauty, one is almost sick at heart during the work of erection. The lower tier of windows and columns round St. Paul's have been covered with the dirt and smoke of upwards of a century: and the fillagree-like embellishments which distinguish the recent restorations of Henry the VIIth's chapel, in Westminster Abbey, are already beginning to lose their delicacy of appearance from a similar cause. But I check myself. I am at Paris--and not in the metropolis of our own country.

A word now for STREET SCENERY. Paris is perhaps here unrivalled: still I speak under correction--having never seen Edinburgh. But, although _portions_ of that northern capital, from its undulating or hilly site, must necessarily present more picturesque appearances, yet, upon the whole, from the superior size of Paris, there must be more numerous examples of the kind of scenery of which I am speaking. The specimens are endless. I select only a few--the more familiar to me. In turning to the left, from the _Boulevard Montmartre_ or _Poissoniere_, and going towards the _Rue St.

Marc_, or _Rue des Filles St. Thomas_ (as I have been in the habit of doing, almost every morning, for the last ten days--in my way to the Royal Library) you leave the _Rue Montmartre_ obliquely to the left. The houses here seem to run up to the sky; and appear to have been constructed with the same ease and facility as children build houses of cards. In every direction about this spot, the houses, built of stone, as they generally are, a.s.sume the most imposing and picturesque forms; and if a Ca.n.a.letti resided here, who would condescend to paint without water and wherries, some really magnificent specimens of this species of composition might be executed--equally to the credit of the artist and the place.

If you want old fas.h.i.+oned houses, you must lounge in the long and parallel streets of _St. Denis_ and _St. Martin_; but be sure that you choose dry weather for the excursion. Two hours of heavy rain (as I once witnessed) would cause a little rus.h.i.+ng rivulet in the centre of these streets--and you could only pa.s.s from one side to the other by means of a plank. The absence of _trottoirs_--- or foot-pavement--is indeed here found to be a most grievous defect. With the exception of the _Place Vendome_ and the _Rue de la Paix_, where something like this sort of pavement prevails, Paris presents you with hardly any thing of the kind; so that, methinks, I hear you say, ”what though your Paris be gayer and more grand, our London is larger and more commodious.” Doubtless this is a fair criticism. But from the _Marche des Innocens_--a considerable s.p.a.ce, where they sell chiefly fruit and vegetables,[6]--(and which reminded me something of the market-places of Rouen) towards the _Hotel de Ville_ and the _Hotel de Soubise_, you will meet with many extremely curious and interesting specimens of house and street scenery: while, as I before observed to you, the view of the houses and streets in the _Isle St. Louis_, from the _Pont des Ars_, the _Quai de Conti_, the _Pont Neuf_, or the _Quai des Augustins_--or, still better, the _Pont Royal_--is absolutely one of the grandest and completest specimens of metropolitan scenery which can be contemplated. Once more: go as far as the _Pont Louis XVI._, cast your eye down to the left; and observe how magnificently the Seine is flanked by the Thuileries and the Louvre. Surely, it is but a sense of justice and a love of truth which compel an impartial observer to say, that this is a view of regal and public splendor--without a parallel in our own country!

The _Rue de Richelieu_ is called the Bond-street of Paris. Parallel with it, is the _Rue Vivienne_. They are both pleasant streets; especially the former, which is much longer, and is rendered more striking by containing some of the finest hotels in Paris. Hosiers, artificial flower makers, clock-makers, and jewellers, are the princ.i.p.al tradesmen in the Rue de Richelieu; but it has no similarity with Bond-street. The houses are of stone, and generally very lofty--while the _Academie de Musique_[7] and the _Bibliotheque du Roi_ are public buildings of such consequence and capacity (especially the former) that it is absurd to name the street in which they are situated with our own. The Rue Vivienne is comparatively short; but it is pleasing, from the number of flowers, shrubs, and fruits, brought thither from the public markets for sale. No doubt the _Place Vendome_ and the _Rue de la Paix_ claim precedence, on the score of magnificence and comfort, to either of these, or to any other streets; but to my taste there is nothing (next to the Boulevards) which is so thoroughly gratifying as the Rue de Richelieu. Is it because some few hundred thousand _printed volumes_ are deposited therein? But of all these, the _Rue St. Honore_, with its faubourg so called, is doubtless the most distinguished and consequential. It seems to run from west to east entirely through Paris; and is considered, on the score of length, as more than a match for our Oxford street.