lified 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 fashioned 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 principal 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 assuredly 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 assumes one of the most elegant, airy, and
perfectly proportionate aspects, of any which I am just now able to
recollect. Perhaps the basement 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