Walpole. The formal figures of their sisters, Mesdames Adelaide and Victoire, are also at Meudon. But the two pictures that interested me most, were those of the Prince de Condé (by Greuse,) and of the Grand Dauphin, the founder of the chateau, who, by-thebye, looks like a Highlander.

While we were prowling about the silent, cheerless, and uninhabited apartments, the governor of the chateau, the Duc de Castries, arrived; and we left this deserted seat of royalty, and proceeded to Sèvres. The contrast was striking! The bourg of Sèvres is at this moment the most thriving and prosperous village in the environs of Paris-a little centre of commerce, bustle, and activity. Its port is the entre-pot of the capital, and is covered with the produce of Burgundy and Champagne. It is said that the cellars, in which the wine is deposited, have the property of bestowing on it, after a short stowage, all the mellowness of age. The cave du Roi, exca

vated, like the others, from the rock, is sufficiently capacious to receive fifteen thousand casks.

While agriculture thus contributes her treasures, to enliven and enrich this little mart of industry, which lies in the midst of royal monuments of idleness and useless expenditure, the arts and manufactures have given it its principal attraction, and historical interest. Its porcelain is experiencing daily improvement. The last time we visited the manufactory, was with our dear Denon; he wished to show us some designs of his own, after the antique; and I well remember the rapid sketch he gave us, as we drove from Paris, of the rise and progress of this branch of art, from the first arrival of porcelain in Europe, with a biographical account of his own famous. China cat-his distinctions of the porcelain tendre and the porcelain dure-the first establishment of a China manufactory at Vincennes, by a private individual, and the erection

by the Farmers General of the present edifice at Sèvres, which makes a part of the domain of the crown. It was the peculiar merit of the brief and graphic narrations of Denon, that they imprinted themselves on the memory of the hearer, without an effort, and almost without a conscious desire of retaining what was so delightful to listen to, en passant.

*

We met the same courteous reception from the director of the manufactory on the occasion of our present visit, as we had experienced, when introduced by our mutual friend, Denon, in 1816; and we talked much of him, and of the improvements made in the art, of which he was so devoted an amateur. Among many beautiful specimens from the works of several eminent painters attached to the manufactory, (and among others of Isabey,) we observed the famous "Entry of Henry the Fourth" into Paris, painted by Gerard,

* Monsieur Brongniard, membre de l'Institut, &c.

and copied by Mademoiselle Jacotot. Still, the same disagreeable impression was made

on us, as at our first visit, from the

idea of fragility which intrudes itself, in contemplating works of such eminent art and painful labour, thus bestowed.

While looking over these beautiful and costly productions, the conversation turned on the siege which some of the houses and manufactories of the town underwent during the invasion of

nos amis, les ennemis ;" and we indulged our imagination in supposing the effect of an incursion of Prussians into the establishment we were then occupying. Talk of Talk of "a bull in a china-shop!" The pillage of the bourg lasted eight days; but the royal manufactory was spared (the only building in the town so respected,) and our supposition was purely gratuitous. The building became even an asylum for many of the inhabitants, who hid themselves in its subterraneous store-rooms and cellarage.

Besides the government manufactory, there are others at Sèvres, of more interest, as belonging to the enterprize and industry of private individuals. There is a manufactory of black, white, and yellow faiènce, belonging to Monsieur Claverceau; another of enamel, the property of Monsieur Lambert; and a manufactory of glass, called la verrerie de Sèvres, which give additional life to this little hive of commercial industry.

It is pleasant to contrast the actual state of this village and its environs, in these deplorable and barbarous times, with the Sèvres of the days which certain writers, in defiance of all evidence, eulogize and regret— the days when Henri Seigneur de Sèvres reigned in his feudal fortress, which is now a tannery. The district was then tenanted by "serfs," and "villains," a part of whose useful labours it was to keep the frogs from croaking in the fossé, and to maintain the gallows in good repair. This Henri de Sèvres lent his