has been done to the
interior of the house. This is about the plan of ground floor.

[Illustration:]

Offices
Tower
staircase Offices.

Drawing-room. Billiard-room. Dining-room.
Hall.
Tower

The first floor corresponds to the ground floor, except that on the
western sides a passage runs, into which the library, which is over the
drawing-room, and the bedrooms open. The second consists of garrets. My
room is on the first floor of the eastern tower, with deep windows
looking south and east. The room dedicated by Tocqueville to Ampere is
above me. Creepers in great luxuriance cover the walls up to the first
floor windows. The little park consists of from thirty to forty acres,
well wooded and traversed by an avenue in this form, leading from the
road to the front of the house.

* * * * * * * * *

* * * * * * * * *

* *

* *

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To the west the ground rises to a wild common commanding the sea, the
lighthouses of Gatteville, Barfleur, La Hogue, and a green plain covered
with woods and hedgerow trees, and studded with church towers and spires
of the picturesque forms of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth
centuries. It has no grand features, except the sea and the rocky coast
of the Cherbourg peninsula, but it is full of variety and beauty. I can
understand Tocqueville's delight in the house and in the country. The
weather is perfect; the thermometer in my bedroom, the walls of which are
about six feet thick, is 71 deg., in the sun it is 80 deg.; but there is a strong
breeze.

_August 12th._--Madame de Beaumont, my daughter, and Ampere drove, and
Beaumont and I walked, to the coast about three miles and a half off. Our
road ran through the gay wooded plain which I have described.

We talked of Italian affairs.

'Up to the annexation of Tuscany,' said Beaumont, 'I fully approve of all
that has been done. Parma, Modena, and Tuscany were eager to join
Piedmont. During the anxious interval of six months, while the decision
of Louis Napoleon was doubtful, the conduct of the Tuscans was above all
praise. Perha