NISMES, March 20, 1787.
Here I am, Madam, gazing whole hours at the Maison Quarrée, like a
lover at his mistress. The stocking weavers and silk spinners around it
consider me a hypochondriac Englishman, about to write with a pistol
the last chapter of his history. This is the second time I have been in
love since I left Paris. The first was with a Diana at the Chateau de
Laye-Epinaye in Beaujolois, a delicious morsel of sculpture, by M. A.
Slodtz. This, you will say, was in rule, to fall in love with a female
beauty; but with a house! it is out of all precedent. No, Madam, it is
not without a precedent in my own history. While in Paris, I was
violently smitten with the Hotel de Salm, and used to go to the
Tuileries almost daily, to look at it. The _loueuse des chaises_,
inattentive to my passion, never had the complaisance to place a chair
there, so that, sitting on the parapet, and twisting my neck round to
see the object of my admiration, I generally left it with a
_torti-colli_.
From Lyons to Nismes I have been nourished with the remains of Roman
grandeur. They have always brought you to my mind, because I know your
affection for whatever is Roman and noble. At Vienna I thought of you.
But I am glad you were not there; for you would have seen me more angry
than, I hope, you will ever see me. The Prætorian Palace, as it is
called, comparable, for its fine proportions, to the Maison Quarrée,
defaced by the barbarians who have converted it to its present purpose,
its beautiful fluted Corinthian columns cut out, in part, to make space
for Gothic windows, and hewed down, in the residue, to the plane of the
building, was enough, you must admit, to disturb my composure. At
Orange, too, I thought of you. I was sure you had seen with pleasure
the sublime triumphal arch of Marius at the entrance of the city. I
went then to the Arenæ. Would you believe, Madam, that in this
eighteenth century, in France, under the reign of Louis XVI., they are
at this moment pulling down the circular wall of this superb remain, to
pave a road? And that, too, from a hill which is itself an entire mass
of stone, just as fit, and more accessible? A former intendant, a M. de
Basville, has rendered his memory dear to the traveller and amateur, by
the pains he took to preserve and restore these monuments of antiquity.
The present one (I do not know who he is) is demolishing the object, to
make a good road to it. I thought of you again, and I was then in great
good humor, at the Pont du Gard, a sublime antiquity, and well
preserved. But most of all here, where Roman taste, genius, and
magnificence, excite ideas analogous to yours at every step. I could no
longer oppose the inclination to avail myself of your permission to
write to you, a permission given with too much complaisance by you, and
used by me with too much indiscretion. Madame de Tott did me the same
honor. But she, being only the descendant of some of those puny heroes
who boiled their own kettles before the walls of Troy, I shall write to
her from a Grecian, rather than a Roman canton; when I shall find
myself, for example, among her Phocæan relations at Marseilles.
Loving, as you do Madam, the precious remains of antiquity, loving
architecture, gardening, a warm sun and a clear sky, I wonder you have
never thought of moving Chaville to Nismes. This, as you know, has not
always been deemed impracticable; and, therefore, the next time a
_Sur-intendant des batiments du roi_, after the example of M. Colbert,
sends persons to Nismes to move the Maison Quarrée to Paris, that they
may not come empty handed, desire them to bring Chaville with them, to
replace it. _À propos_ of Paris. I have now been three weeks from
there, without knowing anything of what has passed. I suppose I shall
meet it all at Aix, where I have directed my letters to be lodged,
_poste restante_. My journey has given me leisure to reflect on this
Assemblée des Notables. Under a good and a young King, as the present,
I think good may be made of it. I would have the deputies then, by all
means, so conduct themselves as to encourage him to repeat the calls of
this Assembly. Their first step should be, to get themselves divided
into two chambers instead of seven; the Noblesse and the Commons
separately. The second, to persuade the King, instead of choosing the
deputies of the Commons himself, to summon those chosen by the people
for the Provincial administrations. The third, as the Noblesse is too
numerous to be all of the Assemblée, to obtain permission for that body
to choose its own deputies. Two Houses, so elected, would contain a
mass of wisdom which would make the people happy, and the King great;
would place him in history where no other act can possibly place him.
They would thus put themselves in the track of the best guide they can
follow; they would soon overtake it, become its guide in turn, and lead
to the wholesome modifications wanting in that model, and necessary to
constitute a rational government. Should they attempt more than the
established habits of the people are ripe for, they may lose all, and
retard indefinitely the ultimate object of their aim. These, Madam, are
my opinions; but I wish to know yours, which, I am sure, will be
better.
From a correspondent at Nismes, you will not expect news. Were I to
attempt to give you news, I should tell you stories one thousand years
old. I should detail to you the intrigues of the courts of the Cæsars,
how they affect us here, the oppressions of their prætors, prefects,
&c. I am immersed in antiquities from morning to night. For me, the
city of Rome is actually existing in all the splendor of its empire. I
am filled with alarms for the event of the irruptions daily making on
us, by the Goths, the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Vandals, lest they
should re-conquer us to our original barbarism. If I am sometimes
induced to look forward to the eighteenth century, it is only when
recalled to it by the recollection of your goodness and friendship, and
by those sentiments of sincere esteem and respect with which I have the
honor to be Madam, your most obedient, and most humble servant.