Grand Vestibule, the Grand Escalier and the Gallerie des Cerfs and a
dozen other apartments are of a rare and imposing beauty, though losing
somewhat their distinctive aspect by reason of the _objets de musee_
distributed about their walls and floors.

One of the landscape gems of Chantilly is the _Pelouse_, a vast
esplanade of greensward now forming, in part, the celebrated race track
of Chantilly. Sport ever formed a part of the outdoor program at
Chantilly, but that of to-day is just a bit more horsey than that of
old, a good deal less picturesque and assuredly more vulgarly banal as
to its _cachet_ than the hunts, the tourneys and courses of the romantic
age.

[Illustration: _Chateau de Chantilly_]

Thousands come to Chantilly to wager their coin on scrubs and dark
horses ridden by third-rate "warned-off" jockeys from other lands, but
probably not ten in ten thousand of the lookers on at the Grand Prix du
Jockey Club in May ever make the occasion of the spring meeting an
opportunity for visiting the fine old historic monument of the Condes.

The "Races" of Chantilly may be given a further word in that they are an
outgrowth of a foundation by the Duc d'Orleans in 1832. The track forms
a circuit of two thousand metres, and occupies quite the best half of
the Pelouse, closed in on one side by the thick-grown Foret de Chantilly
and flanked, in part, on the other by the historic Ecuries, with the
Tribune, or grand stand, just to the south.

Many tourists arrive at Chantilly by auto, stop brusquely before the
Grande Grille, rush through the galleries of the chateau, do "_cent
pas_" in the park, give a cursory glance at the stables and are off; but
more, many more, with slower steps and saner minds, drink in the charms
which are offered on all sides and consider the time well spent even if
they have paid "Boulevard Prices" at the Restaurant du Grand Conde for
their _dejeuner_.

It has been said that a museum is a reunion of _objets d'art_ brought
about by a methodical grouping, either chronologically or categorically.
The Duc d'Aumale's Musee de Chantilly is more an expression of personal
taste. He collected what he wished and he arranged his collections as
suited his fancy.

The famous Musee de Chantilly, which is the lodestone which draws most
folk thither, so admirably housed, was a gift of the Duc d'Aumale who,
for the glory of his ancestors, and the admiration of the world, to say
nothing of his own personal