Rambouillet.

On the ground floor is another Salle de Bain, quite as theatrically
disposed as that of Napoleon. Its construction was due to the Comte de
Toulouse whose taste ran to Delft tiles and polychrome panels, framing
two imposing marines, also worked out in tiles.

The _parterre_, extending before the main building, is of an ampleness
scarcely conceivable until once viewed. It is purely French in design
and is of the epoch of the tenancy of the Comte de Toulouse. Before the
admirably grouped lindens was a boathouse, and off in every direction
ran alleys of acacias, while here and there tulip beds, rose gardens and
hedges of rhododendrons flanked the very considerable ornamental waters.
This body of water, in the form of a trapezoid, is divided by four
grass-grown islets and separates the Jardin Anglais from the Jardin
Francais. One of the islets is known as the Ile des Roches and contains
the Grotte de Rabelais, so named in honour of the Cure of Meudon, when
he was presented at Rambouillet by the Cardinal du Bellay. It was on
this isle that were given those famous fetes in honour of the "_beaux
esprits_" who formed the assiduous cortege of Catherine de Vivonne,
mythological, pagan and _outre_.

The Jardin Anglais at Rambouillet is the final expression of the species
in France. Designed under the Duc de Penthievre, it was restored and
considerably enlarged by Napoleon and, following the contours of an
artificial rivulet, it fulfils the description that its name implies.

More remote, and half hidden from the precincts of the chateau, are the
Chaumiere and the Ermitage and they recall the background of a Fragonard
or a Watteau. It is all very "stagy"--but, since it exists, can hardly
be called unreal.

The park proper, containing more than twelve hundred hectares, is one of
the largest and most thickly wooded in France. Between the _parterre_
and the French and English garden and the park lie the Farm and the
Laiterie de la Reine, the caprice of Louis XVI when he would content
Marie Antoinette and give her something to think about besides her
troubles. Napoleon stripped it of its furnishings to install them, for
a great part, at Malmaison, for that other unhappy woman--Josephine.
Later, to give pleasure to Marie Louise, he ordered them brought back
again to Rambouillet, but it was to Napoleon III that the restoration of
this charming conceit was due.

In the neighbourhood of Rambouillet was the famous Chatea