re a summer-house that knows no shade;
Here Amphitrite sails thro' myrtle bow'rs,
There gladiators fight or die in flow'rs;
Unwater'd see the drooping sea-horse mourn,
And swallows roost in Nilus' dusty urn."

What pleased me most at Versailles was the great number of large orange
and lemon trees.

The forest of Versailles is of great extent, and abounds in wood, but
there is little of what would be considered in England as _good timber_.

Windsor and Versailles have been often compared, although no two places
can possibly differ more completely than they do. To have again recourse
to the words of the poet, Windsor is a place,

"Where order in variety we see;
And where, tho' all things differ, all agree."

And, in my judgment, it is as far superior to Versailles as its forests
of oak are to the elms which surround that boasted palace.

I was permitted to see the royal stables. They are, it is said,
sufficiently large to contain 4000 horses, but are at present much out
of repair. The city of Versailles is large and well built, but has a
melancholy and deserted appearance, having lost nearly half its
population since it has ceased to be a royal residence, and the present
number of inhabitants does not exceed 30,000. The Grand and Petit
Trianons deserve attention from having been the favourite retreats of
the late unfortunate Queen of France; but few traces of the taste once
displayed in their decoration now remain. They are situated within the
limits of the forest of Versailles, which is said to be twenty leagues
in circuit. At Sevres, which is celebrated for the beauty of its
porcelain manufactory, I observed workmen employed in finishing a new
and handsome bridge of nine arches over the Seine, in place of the old
one which is hardly passable. Near the barrier of Passy is a
carpet-manufactory, which was established there by Henry the Fourth.
This barrier is thought to be the most striking entrance to Paris. In my
excursions in the vicinity of Paris, I observed that the harvest was
extremely abundant, but the majority of those employed in collecting it
were women. I was informed that last year the greatest difficulty was
experienced in saving the harvest for want of a sufficient number of
hands. I saw, at a distance, the castle of Vincennes, where Buonaparte
(who had caused the removal of every vestige of the Bastile) had
dungeons constructed many feet under ground, and with walls ten feet