EXCURSION TO ST. CLOUD. PORCELAIN MANUFACTORY
AT SÈVE. A DUEL
Queen Marie Antoinette paid dearly for the vast sums expended upon this
palace. A fourth part of the money expended upon St. Cloud would have
sufficed to purchase by bribery all the demagogues of France.
This place derives its name from a very remote antiquity. When the
grandsons of Clovis and Ste. Clotilde were murdered by their ambitious
and unnatural uncles, one (Cleodold) escaped, and was conveyed by his
nurse to a secret place, where he was educated for the priesthood. He
eventually founded a monastery in the vicinity of Paris, called after
him St. Cleodold or St. Cloud. In later years a Royal château was built
upon the same site. Before the Revolution his tomb was still preserved,
inscribed with a very ancient epitaph.
St. Cloud is about six miles from Paris. The château stands upon an
eminence commanding a full view of the capital and adjacent country;
and the Seine, which widens at this point, meanders slowly beside the
grove of trees planted along the banks. During the life of the Queen,
the paintings in the gallery, the magnificence of the furniture in all
the apartments, and the beauty of the walks, waters and cascades, made
St. Cloud a most attractive spot. But the paintings and furniture were
destroyed, and the place is now fitted up in a most costly style for
the residence of the First Consul.
It is his intention to hold his Court here occasionally, and to enrich
it with some choice pictures from the gallery in the Louvre. I have
been informed that he intends to make it the depôt for all the gold
and silver utensils which he stole out of private houses during the
campaign in Italy.
[Sidenote: ST. CLOUD]
A considerable quantity of Church plate which he purloined he has sent
to a silversmith’s to be melted, and afterwards wrought into salvers
and other domestic vessels, marked with his initials, so that the
Consular family will always be served upon gold and silver plates and
dishes.
The cascades of St. Cloud are perfectly preserved, and they play once
a month for the amusement of the Parisian populace. The expense of
these exhibitions amounts to £12,750 per annum. The waterworks of
Marli, which originally cost £200,000 sterling, are to be destroyed in
order to increase the celebrity of those which ornament the Consular
residence.
I have more than once had occasion to animadvert on the facilities open
to licentiousness and debauchery in almost every place of public resort
in Paris. There is a circumference of wickedness traced within twelve
miles of this metropolis, seemingly on purpose to prevent unwary youth
from escaping the bonds of infection. No repose or time for reflection
is allowed to the voluptuous inhabitant of Paris. Of this melancholy
truth the detail of what I saw in the village of St. Cloud is a proof.
This place being in the vicinity of Paris, and only a pleasant
promenade from that capital, it is frequented by the Sunday devotees
of pleasure. It is chiefly the resort of young persons of both sexes,
who, after wandering about the charming walks, retire to an auberge at
the foot of the bridge where there are a number of little hermitages in
which they procure refreshments. These hermitages, though in the style
of English tea-gardens, are refinements on the dull insipid morality of
British rural architecture, because in France it is a prevailing maxim
that elegant vice is preferable to dull virtue.
Into one of these little boxes we were ushered for the purpose of
taking refreshment. After we had rested awhile I perceived a small door
which excited my curiosity; I opened it, when, behold!... Confounded
at what I saw, I resolved to find out whether we might not have been
introduced into this hut by mistake; but, after examining at least
twenty others, I found they were precisely upon the same plan and with
the same views, only a few of them surpassed the others in decoration
and scenery.
I inquired of the mistress of the place why so many little bedrooms
were annexed to these boxes; she replied coolly that they were for the
accommodation of such ladies and gentlemen who came to St. Cloud, and
who desired a private _tête-à-tête_.
We then visited the celebrated porcelain manufactory of Sève, which
is at all times open to public inspection. The range of apartments in
which the porcelain is exhibited is extensive. A few groups of figures
are in glass cases, but all the other articles exposed to the touch of
the visitor. The price is affixed to each article, and no abatement
whatever is made to purchasers.
The trade in porcelain, we are told, has for long been dull and heavy,
but it is expected the general peace will open a vent for the sale of
these articles.
The highest price of any article we saw was £20 sterling for a single
plate, a price we thought exorbitant.
I maintain that the porcelain manufactured at Derby will stand a
comparison with that at Sève. If the latter be more pellucid and
delicate in its white colour, the finishing of the figures is equal, if
not superior, at the former. I saw some years ago at Derby a dessert
service manufactured for the Prince of Wales, and I did not find
anything so beautifully executed at Sève.
[Sidenote: NEGLECT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION]
We thoroughly examined this elegant exhibition, and were received with
great politeness and attention. We then returned by the walks of St.
Cloud, and drove off to Paris through the Bois de Boulogne.
On our way we saw several persons carrying the dead body of General
d’Estaing,[1] who had just been shot by General Regnier[1] in a duel.
The cause of the quarrel arose in Egypt, where both officers served
with distinction. D’Estaing was an able man, and is much regretted;
but Regnier is possessed of very splendid abilities and an acute and
penetrating genius, as is shown in the admirable account he has sent
the Agricultural Society concerning the state of agriculture in Egypt.
This unfortunate affair does not excite the sensation here that the
death of a fighting booby does in London. Duelling is by no means
so frequent as under the Monarchy, the point of honour being little
understood by the Republican nobles.