A JOURNEY TO PARIS In the Year 1698.  
By Dr. Martin Lister.  
LONDON,  
Printed for Jacob Tonson at the Judges-Head near the Inner-Temple-Gate in Fleet street, and at Gray's-Inn-Gate in Gray's-Inn-Lane. 1699.   

To His Excellency, JOHN Lord Summer, Baron of Evesham, Lord High Chancellor of England, and one of the Lords-Justices of England.  
My LORD,  
WIsdom is the Foundation of Justice and Equity, and it seems not to be perfect, without it comprehends also Philosophy and Natural Learning, and whatever is of good Relish in Arts. It is certain, my Lord, for the Honour of your high Station, that the greatest Philosophers of this Age, were of your Predecessors; nor is your Lordship in any thing behind them; as though nothing inspired People with more Equity, than a true value for Useful Learning and Arts. This hath given me the boldness to offer your Lordship this short Account, of the Magnificent and Noble City of Paris, and the Court of that great King, who hath given Europe so long and vehement Disquiet, and cost England in particular so much Blood and Treasure. 'Tis possible, my Lord, you may find a leisure Hour to read over these few Papers for your Diversion, wherein I promise myself, you will meet with nothing Offensive, but clean Matter of Fact, and some short Notes of an unprejudiced Observer. But that I may no longer importune you, perpetually busied in so laborious and useful an Employment, I beg leave to subscribe myself,  
My LORD, Your Lordship's Most Humble and most Obedient Servant, Martin Lister.   

THE Reader is desired to Correct with a Pen these Faults, before he gins, because they obscure the Sense. As for the Literal Faults they are easy to be mended by the Eye.  

Page 39 l. 1. read Metopae.  
Page 81. line 5. read laminons.  
P. 93. l. 19 r. limned.  
P. 108. l. 29. r. interpolations.  
P. 139. l. 30. r. had sold.  
P. 150. l. 8. r. Shoots.  
P. 58. l. 7. deal in.    

 depiction of a species of snail 
Tab. 3. Cochlea terrestris Americana F. Plumier   
 depiction of stamps of the heads of emperor Vaballathus and empress Zenobia 
Tab ● 

Vabalatus  
Zenobia     

Tab. 1.  
 depiction of a wasp's nest 
Fig. 1. Vesparum quarundam Canadensium Favus   Etruscan letters from a Roman coin 
Fig. 2.   inscription on a marble from Greece 
Fig. 3.     
A JOURNEY TO PARIS In the Year 1698.  

Introduction to the Reader.  
THis Tract was Written chief to satisfy my own Curiosity, and to delight myself with the Memory of what I had seen. I busied myself in a place where I had little to do, but to walk up and down; well knowing, that the Character of a Stranger gave me free admittance to Men and Things. The French Nation value themselves upon Civility, and build and dress mostly for Figure; This Humour makes the Curiosity of Strangers very easy and welcome to them.  
But why do you trouble us with a Journey to Paris, a place so well known to every body here? For very good Reason, to spare the often telling my Tale at my return. But we know already all you can say, or can read it in the Present State of France, and Description of Paris; two Books to be had in every Shop in London; 'Tis right, so you may; and I advise you not to neglect them, if you have a mind to judge well of the Grandeur of the Court of France, and the immense Greatness of the City of Paris. These were Spectacles I did indeed put on, but I found they did not fit my sight, I had a mind to see without them; and in Matters of this Nature, as vast Cities and vast Palaces, I did not care much to use Microscopes or Magnifying Glasses.  
But to content you, Reader, I promise you not to trouble you with Ceremonies either of State or Church, or Politics; for I entered willingly into neither of them, but only, where they would make a part of the Conversation, or my Walk was ordered me. You'd easily find by my Observations, that I incline rather to Nature than Dominion; and that I took more pleasure to see Monsieur Breman in his white Waistcoat digging in the Royal Physic Garden, and sowing his Couches, than Monsieur Saintot making room for an Ambassador; and I found myself better disposed, and more apt to learn the Names and Physiognomy of a Hundred Plants, than of 5 or 6 Princes. After all, I had much rather have walked a 100 paces under the meanest Hedge in Languedoc, than any the finest Alley at Versailles or St. Clou, so much I prefer fair Nature and a warm Sun, before the most exquisite performances of Art in a cold and barren Climate.  
Another Reason, that I give you little or no trouble in telling you Court Matters, is, that I was no more concerned in the Embassy, than in the sailing of the Ship which carried me over: 'Tis enough for me, with the rest of the People of England, to feel the good Effects of it, and to pass away this Life in Peace and Quietness. 'Tis a happy turn for us, when Kings are made Friends again. This was the end of this Embassy, and I hope it will last our days. My Lord Ambassador was infinitely caressed by the King, his Ministers, and all the Princes. 'Tis certain the French are the most Polite Nation in the World, and can Praise and Court with a better Air than the rest of Mankind. However the generality of the Kingdom were through great necessity well disposed to receive the Peace: The Bigots and some Disbanded Officers might be heard at our first going to grumble, but those also gave over, and we heard no more of them when we came away; but to the Business.  
I happily arrived at Paris after a tedious Journey in very bad Wether; for we set out of London the 10th of December, and I did not reach Paris till the first of January; for I fell sick upon the Road, and stayed 5 days at Bologne, behind the Company, till my Fever abated; yet notwithstanding so rude a Journey, I recovered, and was perfectly cured of my Cough in 10 days; which was the chiefest reason of my leaving London at that time of the year, and never had the least return of it all the Winter, though it was as fierce there as I ever felt it in England. This great benefit of the French Air I had experienced 3 several times before, and had therefore longed for a passage many years; but the continuance of the War was an insuperable Obstacle to my Desires. Therefore the first opportunity which offered itself I readily embraced, which was my Lord Portland's Acceptance of my Attendance of him in his Extraordinary Embassy; who ordered me to go before with one of my good Friends, who was sent to prepare Matters against his arrival.  
Now that I might not wholly trust my Memory, in what I saw at Paris, I set down my Thoughts under certain Heads.   

I. Of Paris in General.  
THough I had much spare time the 6 Months I stayed in that City, yet the rudeness of the Winter Season kept me in for some time. Again, I believe I did not see the Tithe of what deserves to be seen, and well considered; because for many things I wanted a relish, particularly for Painting and Building; However I viewed the City in all its parts, and made the round of it; took several prospects of it at a distance, which when well thought on, I must needs confess it to be one of the most Beautiful and Magnificent in Europe, and in which a Traveller might find Novelties enough f●r 6 Months for daily Entertainment, 〈◊〉 least in and about this Noble City. To give therefore a strict and general Idea of it, and not to enter far into the vain Disputes of the number of Inhabitants, or its bigness, compared to London; sure I am, the standing Crowd was so great, when my Lord Ambassador made his Entry, that our People were strartled at it, and were ready the next day to give up the Question, had they not well considered the great Curiosity of the Parisians, who are much more delighted in fine Shows than the People of London, and so were well near all got into the way of the Cavalcade. One thing was an evident Argument of this Humour, that there were some Hundreds of Coaches of Persons of the best Quality, even some Bishops and Peers which I saw, which had placed themselves in a file to line the Streets, and had had the patience to have so remained for some hours.  
'Tis also most certain, that for the quantity of Ground possessed by the Common People, this City is much more populous than any part of London; here are from 4 to 5 and to 10 Menages, or distinct Families in many Houses; but this is only to be understood of certain places of Trade. This difference betwixt the two Cities also is true, that here the Palaces and Convents have eat up the People's Dwellings, and crowded them excessively together, and possessed themselves of far the greatest part of the Ground; whereas in London the contrary may be observed, that the People have destroyed the Palaces, and placed themselves upon the Foundations of them, and forced the Nobility to live in Squares or Streets in a sort of Community; but this they have done very honestly, having fairly purchased them.  
The Views also which it gives upon the River are admirable; that of the Pontneuf downwards to the Tuilleries, or upwards from the Pont-Royal; and in some other places, as from Pont St. Bernard, the Greve, etc. The River Seine which passes through the midst of the City, is all nobly Banked or Keyed with large Freestone; and encloses in the heart of the City two Islands, which causes many fine Bridges to be built to pass over them. One of these Islands called l'Isle de Palais was all Paris for some Ages.  
The Houses are built of hewn Stone entirely, or whited over with Plaster: some indeed in the beginning of this Age are of Brick with Freestone, as the Place-Royal, Place-Dauphin, etc. but that is wholly left off now; and the white Plaster is in some few places only coloured after the fashion of Brick, as part of the Abbay of St. . The Houses every where are high and stately; The Churches numerous, but not very big; The Towers and Steeples but few in proportion to the Churches, yet that noble way of Steeple, the Domes or Cupolas, have a marvellous effect in prospect; though they are not many, as that of Val de Grace, des Invalides, College Mazarin, De l'Assumption, the Grand-Jesuits, Lafoy Sorbonne, and some few others.  
All the Houses of Persons of Distinction are built with Port-cochers, that is, wide Gates to drive in a Coach, and consequently have Courts within; and mostly Remises to set them up. There are reckoned above 700 of these great Gates; and very many of these are after the most noble Patterns of ancient Architecture.  
The lower Windows of all Houses are Grated with strong Bars of Iron; which must be a vast Expense.  
As the Houses are magnificent without, so the Finishing within side and Furniture answer in Riches and Neatness; as Hang of rich Tapestry, raised with Gold and Silver Threads, Crimson Damask and Velvet Beds or of Gold and Silver Tissue. Cabinets and Bureaus, of Ivory inlaid with Tortoishell, and Gold and Silver Plates in a 100 different manners: Branches and Candlesticks of Crystal: but above all most rare Pictures. The Gildings, Carving and Paintings of the Roof are admirable.  
These things are in this City and the Country about to such a variety and excess, that you can come into no private House of any Man of Substance, but you see something of them; and they are observed frequently to ruin themselves in these Expenses. Every one, that has any thing to spare, covets to have some good Picture or Sculpture of the best Artist; The like in the Ornaments of their Gardens, so that it is incredible what pleasure that vast quantity of fine things give the Curious Stranger. Here as soon as ever a Man gets any thing by Fortune or Inheritance, he lays it out in some such way as now named.  
Yet after all many Utensils and Conveniencies of Life are wanting here, which we in England have: This makes me remember what Monsieur Justell, a Parisian formerly, told me here, that he had made a Catalogue of near Threescore Things of this Nature which they wanted in Paris.  
The Pavement of the Streets is all of square Stone, of about 8 or 10 Inches thick; that is, as deep in the ground as they are broad at top; The Gutters shallow, and laid round without edges, which makes the Coaches glide easily over them.  
However, it must needs be said, the Streets are very narrow, and the Passengers afoot no ways secured from the hurry and danger of Coaches, which always pass the Streets with an air of haste; and a full trot upon broad flat Stones, betwixt high and large resounding Houses, makes a sort of Music which should seem very agreeable to the Parisians.  
The Royal Palaces are surprisingly stately; as the Lovure and Tuilliries, Palais Luxembourg, Palais Royal.  
The Convents are great, and numerous, and well built; as Val de Grace, St. Germains, St. Victor, St. Genevieve, the Grand Jesuits, etc.  
The Squares are few in Paris, but very beautiful; as the Place Royal, Place Victoir, Place Dauphine, none of the largest, except the Place Vendosme, not yet finished.  
The Gardens within the Walls, open to the public, are vastly great, and very beautiful; as the Tuilleries, Palais Royal, Luxembourg, the Royal Physic Garden, of the Arsenal, and many belonging to Convents, the Carthusians, Celestins, St. Victor, St. Genevieve, etc.  
But that which makes the dwelling in this City very diverting for People of Quality, is the facility of going out with their Coaches into the Fields, on every side; it lying round, and the Avenues to it so well paved; and the Places of Airing so clean, open, or shady, as you please, or the Season of the year, and time of the day requires: As the Cour de la Rein, Bois de Bologne, Bois de Vincennes, les Sables de Vaugerarde, etc.  
But to descend to a more particular Review of this great City, I think it not amiss to speak first of the Streets and public Places, and what may be seen in them: Next of the Houses of Note; and what Curiosities of Nature or Art, also of Men and Libraries, I met with: Next, of their Diet and Recreations: Next of the Gardens, and their Furniture and Ornaments: Of the Air and Health. We shall conclude the whole with the present State of Physic and Pharmacy here.   


Coaches.  To begin with the Coaches, which are very numerous here and very fine in Gild: But there are but few, and those only of the great Nobility, which are large, and have two Seats or Funds. But what they want in the largeness, beauty, and neatness of ours in London, they have infinitely in the easiness of Carriage, and the ready turning in the narrowest Streets. For this purpose, they are all Crane-Neckt, and the Wheels before very low, not above two foot and a half Diameter; which makes them easy to get into, and brings down the Coach-Box low, that you have a much better prospect out of the foremost Glass; our high seated Coachmen being ever in the point of view. Again, They are most, even Fiacres or Hackneys, hung with Double Springs, at the four Corners, which insensibly breaks all Jolts. This I never was so sensible off, as after having practised the Paris Coaches for four months, I once rid in the easiest Chariot of my Lords, which came from England; but not a Jolt but what affected a Man; so as to be tired more in one hour in that, than in six in these.  
Besides the great number of Coaches of the Gentry, here are Coaches the Remise, by the month; which are very well Gild, neat Harness, and good Horses: And these all Strangers Hire by the Day or Month, at about Three Crowns English a Day. 'Tis this sort that spoils the Hackneys and Chairs, which here are the most nasty and miserable Voiture that can be; and yet near as dear again as in London, and but very few of them neither.  
Yet there is one more in this City, which I was willing to omit, as thinking it at first fight Scandalous, and a very Jest; it being a wretched Business in so Magnificent a City; and that is, the Vinegrette, a Coach on Two Wheels, dragged by a Man, and pushed behind by a Woman or Boy, or both.  
Besides those, for quick Travelling there are great number of Post-Chaises for a single Person; and Roullions for two Persons: These are on two Wheels only, and have each their Double Springs to make them very easy; they run very swiftly: both the Horses pull; but one only is in the Thilles. The Coachman mounts the Roullion; but for the Chaise, he only mounts the side Horse only. I think neither of these are in use in England; but might be introduced to good purpose.  

Recreations and Walks.  As for their Recreations and Walks, there are no People more fond of coming together, to see and to be seen. This Conversation without doubt takes up a great part of their time: And for this purpose, the Cour de la Rein is frequented by all People of Quality. It is a Triple Walk of Trees of a great length, near the River side, the middle Walk having above double the breadth to the two side ones; and will hold eight files of Coaches, and in the middle a great open Circle to turn, with fine Gates at both ends. Those that would have better and freer Air, go further, and drive into the Bois de Bologne, others out of other Parts of the Town to Bois de Vincennes, scarce any side amiss. In like manner these Persons light and Walk in the Tuilleries, Luxembourg, and other Gardens, belonging to the Crown and Princes, (all which are very spacious) and are made convenient, with many Seats for the Entertainment of all People; the Lackeys and Mob excepted; but of this more hereafter.  

Bishops.  No sort of People make a better figure in the Town than the Bishops, who have very splendid Equipages, and variety of fine Liveries, being most of them Men of great Families, and preferred as such, Learning not being so necessary a Qualification for those Dignities, as with us; tho' there are some of them very Deserving and Learned Men. I say, They are most Noblemen, or the younger Sons of the best Families. This indeed, is for the Honour of the Church; but whether it be for the good of Learning and Piety is doubtful. They may be Patrons, but there are but few Examples of Erudition among them. 'Tis to be wished, that they exceeded others in Merit, as they do in Birth.  

Abbots.  The Abbots here are numerous, from all Parts of the Kingdom. They make a considerable figure, as being a gentile sort of Clergy, and the most Learned; at least were so from the time of Cardinal Richlieu, who preferred Men of the greatest Learning and Parts to these Posts; and that very frankly, and without their knowing it beforehand, much less soliciting him for it. He took a sure way, peculiar to himself, to inquire out privately Men of Desert, and took his own time to prefer them. This filled the Kingdom of France with learned Men, and gave great Encouragement to Study; whereof France yet has some feeling.  

Signs in the Streets.  'Tis pretty to observe, how the King Disciplines this great City, by small instances of Obedience. He caused them to take down all their Signs at once, and not to advance them above a foot or two from the Wall, nor to exceed such a small measure of square; which was readily done: So that the Signs obscure not the Streets at all, and make little or no figure, as tho' there were none; being placed very high and little.  

Hostels.  There are great number of Hostels in Paris, by which word is meant Public Inns, where Lodgings are Let; and also the Noblemen and gentlemen's Houses are so called, mostly with Titles over the Gate in Letters of Gold on a Black Marble. This seems, as it were to denote, that they came at first to Paris as Strangers only, and Inned publicly; but at length built them Inns or Houses of their own. 'Tis certain, a great and wealthy City cannot be without People of Quality; nor such a Court as that of France without the daily Inspection of what such People do. But whether the Country can spare them or not, I question. The People of England seem to have less Manners and less Religion, where the Gentry have left them wholly to themselves; and the Taxes are raised with more difficulty, inequality, and injustice, than when the Landlords live upon the Desmaines.  

The City rebuilt.  It may very well he, that Paris is in a manner a new City within this 40 years. 'Tis certain since this King came to the Crown, 'tis so much altered for the better, that 'tis quite another thing; and if it be true what the Workmen told me, that a common House built of Rough Stone and Plastered over, would not last above 25 years, the greatest part of the City has been lately rebuilt. In this Age certainly most of the great Hostels are built or re-edified; in like manner the Convents, the Bridges and Churches, the Gates of the City; add the great alteration of the Streets, the Keys upon the River, the Pavements; all these have had great additions, or are quite new.  

Boats upon the River.  In the River amongst the Bridges, both above and below, are a vast number of Boats, of Wood, Hay, Charcoal, Corn and Wine, and other Commodities. But when a sudden Thaw comes, they are often in danger of being split and crushed to pieces upon the Bridges; which also are sometimes ruined by them. There have been great Losses to the Owners of such Boats and Goods.  
It has been proposed to dig near the City a large Basin for a Winter Harbour; but this has not had the face of Profit to the Government; so they are still left to execute their own Project. There are no Laws or Projects so effectual here, as what bring Profit to the Government. Farming is admirably well understood here.  

Lawyers.  Amongst the Living Objects to be seen in the Streets of Paris, the Counsellors and Chief Officers of the Courts of Justice make a great Figure; They and their Wives have their Trains carried up; so there are abundance to be seen walking about the Streets in this manner. 'Tis for this that places of that nature sell so well. A Man that has a right to qualify a Wife with this Honour, shall command a Fortune; and the carrying a great Velvet Cushion to Church is such another business. The Place of a Lawyer is valued a Third part dearer for this.  

Monks.  Here are also daily to be seen in the Streets great variety of Monks, in strange unusual Habits to us Englishmen: These make an odd Figure, and furnish well a Picture. I cannot but pity the mistaken Zeal of these poor Men; that put themselves into Religion, as they call it, and renounce the World, and give themselves most severe Rules of Living and Diet; some of the Orders are decently enough Clothed, as the Jesuits, the Fathers of the Oratory, etc. but most are very particular and obsolete in their Dress, as being the Rustic Habit of old times, without Linen, or Ornaments of the present Age.  
As to their Meager Diet, it is much against Nature, and the improved Diet of Mankind. The Mosaic Law provided much better for Jews, a chosen People; That was instituted for cleanliness and health. Now for the Christian Law, though it commands Humility and Patience under Sufferings, and Mortification and Abstinence from Sinful Lusts and Pleasures; yet by no means a distinct Food, but liberty to eat any thing whatsoever, much less nastiness; and the Papists themselves in other things are of this mind; for their Churches are clean, pompously adorned and perfumed. 'Tis enough, if we chance to suffer Persecution, to endure it with Patience, and all the miserable Circumstances that attend it; but wantonly to persecute ourselves, is to do violence to Christianity, and to put ourselves in a worse state than the Jews were; for to choose the worst of Food, which is sour Herbs and Fish, and such like Trash, and to lie worse always rough, in course and nasty Woollen Frocks upon Board's; To go Barefoot in a cold Country, to deny themselves the Comforts of this Life, and the Conversation of Men; This, I say, is to hazard our Healths, to renounce the greatest Blessings of this Life, and in a manner to destroy ourselves. These Men, I say, cannot but be in the main Chagrin, and therefore as they are out of humour with the World, so they must in time be weary of such slavish and fruitless Devotion, which is not attended with an active Life.  
The great multitude of poor Wretches in all parts of this City is such, that a Man in a Coach, afoot, in the Shop, is not able to do any business for the numbers and importunities of Beggars; and to hear their Miseries is very lamentable; and if you give to one, you immediately bring a whole swarm upon you. These, I say, are true Monks, if you will, of God Almighty's making, offering you their Prayers for a Farthing, that find the evil of the day sufficient for the day, and that the Miseries of this Life are not to be courted, or made a mock of; These Worship much against their will all rich Men, and make Saints of the rest of Mankind for a Morsel of Bread.  
But let these Men alone with their mistaken Zeal; it is certainly God's good Providence which order all things in this World. And the Flesh Eaters will ever defend themselves, if not beat the Lenten Men; good and wholesome Food, and plenty of it, giveth Men naturally great Courage. Again, a Nation will sooner be Peopled by the free Marriage of all sorts of People, than by the additional stealth of a few starved Monks, supposing them at any time to break their Vow. This limiting of Marriage to a certain People only is a deduction and an abatement of Mankind, not less in a Papist Country, than a constant War. Again, this lessens also the number of God's Worshippers, instead of multiplying them as the Stars in the Firmament, or the Sand upon the Sea Shoar; These Men wilfully cut off their Posterity, and reduce God's Congregation for the future.  

Public Cries.  There is very little noise in this City of Public Cries of things to be sold, or any Disturbance from Pamphlets and Hawkers. One thing I wondered at, that I heard of nothing lost, nor any public Advertisements, till I was showed Printed Papers upon the Corners of Streets, wherein were in great Letters, Vn, Deux, Cinq, Dix jusque a Cinquante Lovisse a gagner, that is, from One to Fifty Lovises to be got; and then underneath an account of what was lost. This sure is a good and quiet way; for by this means without noise you often find your Goods again; every body that has found them repairing in a day or two to such places. The Gazettes come out but once a week, and but few People buy them.  
'Tis difficult and dangerous to vend a Libel here. While we were in Town, a certain Person gave a Bundle of them to a blind Man, a Beggar of the Hospital of the Quincevint, telling him he might get five pence for every penny; he went to Notre dame, and cried them up in the Service time, La vie & Miracles de Evesque de Reims. This was a Trick that was played the Archbishop, as it was thought, by the Jesuits, with whom he has had a great Contest about Molinas the Spanish J. Doctrines. The Libel went off at any Rate, when the first Buyers had read the Title further, and found they were against the present Archbishop, Duke and first Peer of France.  

Streets Lighted.  The Streets are lighted alike all the Winter long, as well when the Moon shines, as at other times of the Month; which I remember the rather, because of the impertinent usage of our People at London, to take away the Lights for half of the Month, as though the Moon was certain to shine and light the Streets, and that there could be no Cloudy Wether in Winter. The Lanterns here hang down in the very middle of all the Streets, about 20 paces distance, and 20 foot high. They are made of a square of Glass about 2 foot deep, covered with a broad Plate of Iron; and the Rope that lets them down, is secured and locked up in an Iron Funnel and little Trunk fastened into the Wall of the House. These Lanterns have Candles of 4 in the pound in them, which last burning till after midnight.  
As to these Lights, if any Man break them, he is forthwith sent to the Galleys; and there were 3 young Gentlemen of good Families, who were in Prison for having done it in a Frolic, and could not be released thence in some Months; and that not without the diligent Application of good Friends at Court.  
The Lights at Paris for 5 Months in the year only, cost near 50000 l. Sterling. This way of Lighting the Streets is in use also in some other Cities in France. The King is said to have raised a large Tax by it. In the Preface to the Tax it is said, That considering the great danger his Subjects were in, in Walking the Streets in the Dark, from Thiefs, and the breaking their Necks by falls, he for such a Sum of Money did grant this Privilege, that they might hang out Lanterns in this manner.  

Streets clean.  I have said, that the Avenues to the City, and all the Streets, are paved with a very hard Sand Stone, about 8 Inches square; so they have a great care to keep them clean; in Winter, for Example, upon the melting of the Ice, by a heavy drag with a Horse, which makes a quick riddance and cleaning the Gutters; so that in a days time all parts of the Town are to admiration clean and neat again to walk on.  
I could hearty wish their Summer cleanliness was as great; it is certainly as necessary to keep so populous a City sweet; but I know no Machine sufficient, but what would empty it of the People too; all the Threats and Inscriptions upon Walls are to little purpose. The Dust in London in Summer is oftentimes, if a Wind blow, very troublesome, if not intolerable; in Paris there is much less of it, and the reason is, the flat Stones require little Sand to set them fast, whereas our small Pebbles, not coming together, require a vast quantity to lay them fast in Paving.  

Statues Equestres.  But from the People in the Streets, to the dead Ornaments there: There are an infinite number of Busto's of the Grand Monarque every where put up by the Common People; but the Noble Statues are but few, considering the Obsequious Humour and Capacity of the People to perform.  
That in the Place-Victoire is afoot in Brass all over gilt; with Victoire; that is, a vast Winged Woman close behind his Back, holding forth a Laurel Crown over the King's Head, with one Foot upon a Globe. There are great exceptions taken at the Gild by Artists; and, indeed the shining seems to spoil the Features, and give I know not what confusion; it had better have been all of Gold brassed over; which would have given its true Lights and Shadows, and suffered the Eye to judge of the proportions. But that which I like not in this, is the great Woman perpetually at the Kings Back; which is a sort of Embarras, and instead of giving Victory, seems to tyre him with her Company. The Roman Victory was a little Puppet in the Emperor's Hand, which he could dispose of at pleasure; This Woman is enough to give a Man a Surfeit.  
The other are Statuae Equestres, of 3 of the last Kings of France, in Brass a Horseback.  
That on the Pontneuf is of Henry the Fourth in his Armour bareheaded, and Habited as the Mode of that time was.  
The other of Lewis the Thirteenth in the Place-Royal, Armed also after the Mode of the Age, and his Plume of Feathers on his Headpiece.  
The 3d is of this present King Lovis the Fourteenth, and designed for the Place Vendosme. This Colossus of Brass is yet in the very place where it was cast; it is surprisingly great, being 22 foot high, the Foot of the King 26 inches in length, and all the proportions of him and the Horse suitable. There was 100000 pound weight of Metal melted, but it took not up above 80000 pounds; it was all cast at once, Horse and Man. Mons. Girardon told me, he wrought diligently, and with almost daily application at the Model 8 years, and there were two years more spent in the Moulding, and Furnaces, and Casting of it. The King is in the Habit of a Roman Emperor, without Stirrups or Saddle, and on his Head a French large Periwig A-la-mode. Whence this great Liberty of Sculpture arises, I am much to seek.  
'Tis true, that in building precisely to follow the ancient manner and simplicity is very commendable, because all those Orders were founded upon good Principles in Mathematics; but the Clothing of an Emperor, was no more, than the weak fancy of the People. For Lovis le Grand to be thus dressed up at the head of his Army now a-days would be very Comical. What need other Emblems, when Truth may be had; as though the present Age need be ashamed of their Modes, or that the Statue Equestris of Henry the Fourth, or Lovis the Thirteenth, were the less to be valued for being done in the true Dress of their times. It seems to me to be the effect of Mistaken Flattery, but if regarded only as a Piece of mere Art, it is methinks very unbecoming, and has no Graceful Air with it.  
I remember I was at the Levee of King Charles the Second, when 3 Models were brought him, to choose one of, in order to make his Statue for the Court at Windsor; he chose the Roman Emperor's Dress, and caused it also to be executed in that other erected for him in the Old Exchange in London. The like is of K. J. in Whitehall, at Chelsey-Colledge, our Invalides. Now I appeal to all Mankind, whether in representing a living Prince now a-days these naked Arms and Legs are decent, and whether there is not a barbarity very displeasing in it. The Father of these two Kings, Charles the First, was the Prince of this Age of the best Relish, and of a sound Judgement, particularly in Painting, Sculpture, Architecture by Sea and Land, witness the vast Sum of Money he bestowed upon Rubens and his Disciple Vandyke. Also the great Esteem he had for the incomparable Inigo Jones, who was the first Englishman in this Age that understood Building. I heard Auzout say, when he had viewed the Banqueting-house at Whitehall, that it was preferable to all the Buildings on this side the Alps; and I ought to believe him, he having studied Vitruvius more than 40 years together mostly upon the place and at Rome. Also the Ship the Sovereign, which was truly the Noblest floating Castle that ever swum the Sea. Yet after all this, that King had a Statue Equestris of himself erected, now at Charing-cross, cast in the full Habit of his own time, and which I think may compare with the best of that sort at Paris.   

I should beg Leave in the next place to visit the Palaces and Men of Letters and Conversation; but I must take notice first of the vast Expenses that are here in Iron Balastrades, as in the Place-Royal, which Square is compassed about with one of 10 foot high; Of this sort and better there are infinite every where in Paris; which gives indeed a full view of the beauty of their Gardens and Courts.  

P. Mazarin.  First, therefore, I saw the Palais Mazarin, in which are many good Pictures, but the Low Gallery is furnished with a great Collection of Ancient Greek and Roman Statues, and is what I most took notice of; They were most brought from Rome by the Cardinal. Those which are Togatae and Clothed, are as they were found; but such as were made Nudae, are miserably disguised by the fond Humour of the Duke de Mazarin, who in a hot Fit of Devotion caused them to be castrated and mangled, and then frocked them by a sad Hand with I know not what Plaster of Paris, which makes them very ridiculous. Cicero somewhere tells us, that some of the ancient Wise Men thought there was nothing naturally obscene, but that every thing might be called by its own Name; but our Celsus is of another mind, and begs Pardon, being a Roman, that he writ of those Matters in his own Tongue. 'Tis certain upon our Subject, the Duke should not have furnished his Cabinet and Gallery with Naked Pictures, but with the Togatae only; or if it had once pleased him to do otherwise, he should not have Clothed them; which was at best but a vain Ostentation of his Chastity, and betrayed his ignorance and dislike of good things; that is, spoils and hides the noble Art of the Sculpture, for which only they are valuable.  
But why should Nudity be so offensive, since a very great part of the World yet defies , and ever did so; and the parts they do most affect to cover, is from a certain necessity only.  
'Tis plain by these and many other Elegant Statues I saw at Versailles, most of which were taken out hence, that the Roman Clothing was the most simple thing imaginable, and that a Roman was as soon undressed as I can put off my Gloves and Shoes. The Men and Women went dressed much alike; As for the fashion of the Roman Habit, it is evident by these ancient Statues, (which Oct. Ferrarius has well and reasonably followed in explicating the several Garments of the Ancients) that the Tunica or Shirt was without a Collar or Sleeves, and gird high up under the Breasts; also, that the Toga or Gown was a wide and long Garment open at both ends, and let down over the Head, and supported by the Left Hand thrust under the Skirts of it, whilst the top of it rested upon the left Shoulder; The Right Hand and Arm was naked, and above the Gown, so that the Gown was ungirt and always lose. Now for the purpose, when a Roman made himself naked for the Bath, (as he daily did just before eating) he had nothing to do but to draw up his Left Hand, and the Gown fell down at his Feet; and at the same time to lose the Girdle of the Tunica, and to draw up both his Arms from under the Tunica, and that also fell at his Feet.  
In the first Ages of the Commonwealth they wore a Toga or Gown only, afterwards they put on next the Skin a Tunica or Shirt, and never added more in the very Splendour and Luxury of the Empire; all other Matters of Clothing, of what nature soever, have been invented since.  
I much admired, that in the great numbers of ancient Statues to be seen in and about Paris, I could never meet any one but what was Clothed with a Toga pura, and no representation of a Bullated one.  
This Toga and Tunica both were made of fine white Wool, or Flannel: They had not a Rag of Linen about them. This Flannel, I say, was very fine, for the folds are small, and it falls into them easily; and seems to be very light, by the handling of it, to raise it by the Finger and Thumb only, as is the Air of some of the Statues, and the whole Garment to be suspended by the left Shoulder: Upon the least straining of it, the Breasts and Nipples are visible through it; also the proportions of the Thighs.  
This wearing all Woollen in a hot Country, brought on the use and necessity of frequent Bathing, otherwise they could never have kept themselves sweet and clean; and the necessity of Bathing kept them to this sort of lose Garment; and much Bathing brought in Oils, and Oils Perfumes infused in them.  
But in my mind a fair Linen Shirt every day is as great a preservative to Neatness and Cleanness of the Skin and Health, as daily Bathing was to the Romans. 'Tis certain, had they not used either simple Oils of Olives, sometimes unripe and old, for the astringency, and sometimes ripe and perfumed, the warm Water must have much decayed Nature, and made the Skin intolerable tender and wrinkled. The Naked Indians and Blacks secure their Skins by Oils at this day from all the injuries of the Wether, both from Heat and Cold.  
But the best Rule of Health and long Life is to do little to ourselves: People are not ware what inconveniencies they bring upon themselves by custom, how they will plead for things long used, and make that pleasant which is very destructive to their Healths; as in the Case of Clothing, Tobacco, Strong Waters, Steel Remedies, the Drinking Mineral Waters, Bathing, Tea, Coffee, Chocolate, etc.  
One little Statue I took more particular notice of, for the elegance of the Sculpture, and the humour of the Dress; it stood upon a Table; it was the Figure of a Sibyl: The Face of the old Woman was cut very deep into the Stone, within the Quoifure, like a Hood pulled over the Forehead, a very Emblem of an Oracle, which is hid, dark, and ambiguous, as the Woman herself, who would have neither her Face seen, nor her Saying easily understood; that is, she is as it were ashamed of her Cheat.  
What was the fancy of the Men of the first Ages to make Old Women Prophetesses, to utter Oracles, and to interpret the Will of the Gods by the eating of Animals. To make them Sagae and Veneficae is reasonable enough; for old Age makes all People spiteful, but more the weaker Sex; To Poison and Bewitch are the secret Revenges of Impotent People.  
The Jews were impatient of the Company of Women in their Religious Rites, lest they should contaminate and spoil all their Devotion. The Romans on the contrary thought Religion became Women better than Men, for besides the general parts they had in common with the Men in Adoration of their Gods, they had also peculiar ones, where the Men were not concerned. Tully bids his Wife supplicate the Gods for him; for he tells her, he thought they would be kinder to her than him. Upon some such Principle, probably, their Prophetesses were in esteem.  

M. Viviers.  I saw the Apartment of Monsieur Viviers in the Arsenal; it consists in 7 or 8 Ground Rooms looking into the great Garden; These Rooms are small, but most curiously furnished, and have in them the greatest variety, and best sorted China Ware I ever saw, besides Pagods and China Pictures. Also elegant and rich Bureaus, Book-Cases, and some Paintings of the best Masters.  
That which pleased me most, amongst the Paintings, were the Pieces of Rambramts, that incomparable Dutch Painter.  
A Girl with a Cage in one Hand, and looking up after the Bird that had got out, and was flying away over her Head: She had Fright, Amazement, and Sorrow in her Looks. The other is an unlucky Lad leaning upon a Table, and looking with Mischief in his Eyes, or that he watched to do some unhappy turn. The 3d is a young Gentleman in a Fur Cap en dishabille, after his wont manner. The two first are the most natural Thoughts and Dress that can be; but nothing certainly ever came near his colouring for Flesh and Garments: This part he studied passionately all his Life, and was ever trying Experiments about it; and with what success, these and many other Pieces show.  
These Three Pictures of Rambrant are all of young People, and are finished with all the art and perfection of Colouring, as smooth as any Limning; which makes the Judgement of Philbien of him appear not just, for he fitted his Paint according to the Age and Nature of the Subjects he wrought. I had the pleasure of seeing them again and again.  

M. le Nostre.  Monsieur le Nostre's Cabinet, or Rooms wherein he keeps his fine things, the Controller of the King's Gardens, at the side of the Tuilleries, was worth seeing. He is a very ingenious old Gentleman, and the Ordinance and Design of most of the Royal and great Gardens in and about Paris are of his Invention, and he has lived to see them in perfection. This Gentleman is 89 years old, and quick and lively. He Entertained me very Civilly. There were in the 3 Apartments, into which it is divided, (the uppermost of which is an Octogon Room with a Dome) a great Collection of choice Pictures, Porcellans, some of which were Jars of a most exraordinary size; some old Roman Heads and Busto's, and entire Statues; a great Collection of Stamps very richly bound up in Books; but he had lately made a Draught of his best Pictures, to the value of 50000 Crowns, and had presented them to the King at Versailles. There was not any thing of Natural History in all his Cabinet.  
I was several times with him, and once he carried me into an upper Closet, where he had a great Collection of Medals in 4 Cabinets, most modern; amongst them there were 4 large Drawers, 3 of which were the Medals of King William, near 300; The 4th Drawer was of King William's Ancestors and Family; he had been 40 years in making this Collection, and had purchased many of them at vast Rates. He has certainly the best Furniture for an Historia metallica, that I ever saw. The French K. has a particular Kindness for him, and has greatly enriched him, and no Man Talks with more freedom to him; he is much delighted with his Humour, and will sit and see his Medals, and when he comes at any Medal that makes against him, he will say, Sire, voyla une, qu' est bien contre nous! as though the Matter pleased him, and he was glad to find it to show it the King. Monsieur le Nostre spoke much of the good Humour of his Master; he affirmed to me he was never seen in Passion, and gave me many Instances of Occasions, that would have caused most Men to have raged; which yet he put by with all the Temper imaginable.  
In this Cabinet I saw many very rare old China Vessels, and amongst them a small Roman Glass Urn, very thick made, and ponderous, of a blue Sea colour, the two Ears were Feet divided into 4 Claws, but the very bottom of this Vessel was smooth, and very little umbilicate; and for this reason I cannot tell whether it might not be cast, and not blown.  

Luxemburgh P.  The Palace of Luxemburgh is the most finished of all the Royal Buildings; it is very magnificent, well designed, were it not for the triflng Intersections or round and deep Jointings of the Columns, which looks like a Cheesemongers Shop, and which is below the grandeur of the Orders, so hard a matter it is to have a true Relish of the ancient Simplicity, and not to add impertinent Ornaments. And to say the truth, there are not many things in Paris where this Chastity is strictly preserved; amongst those, where little is to be blamed, are the South East Front of the Lovure, the Facade of St. Gervais, and the whole Building of Val de Grace. And this Wantonness in additional Ornaments may perhaps be one reason, why the Doric is more practised here at this day, the Modillions naturally admitting greater variety, and according to the intended use of the Building.  
In this Palace is that famous Gallery, where the History of Maria of Medicis is Painted by Rubens. Though this was done 70 years ago, it is as fresh as at the first; so great a Master he was in Colouring. His Flesh is admirable, and his Scarlet, for which, if he had not a secret, not now understood, he had less Avarice, and more Honour, than most of our Modern Painters. 'Tis certain the goodness of Colours was one of the great Cares and Studies of the late famous Painters; and that which seems most to have obliged them to it, was the necessity they put themselves upon, to Paint all their own Designs, and more particularly the present Dresses. And though Rubens in his History is too much a Libertine in this respect, yet there is in this very place, which we now describe, much truth in the habit of his principal Figures, as of King Henry the Fourth, the Queen, her Son, the 3 Daughters and the Cardinal; though indeed the Allegoric assistants in all the Tableaux are very airy and fancifully set out. His Scholar St. Aut. Vandyke did introduce this Novelty too much in England, where the Persons would bear it; as the Female Sex were very willing to do, who seem in his time to have been mighty fond of being Painted in dishabille. 'Twas this that cut out of business the best English Painter of his time, Cornelius Johnson, and shortened his Life by Grief. It is certain with a little patience all Dress becomes dishabille; but I appeal, whether it is not better and much more pleasing to see the old Fashion of a dead Friend, or Relation, or of a Man of Distinction, Painted as he was, than a foppish Nightgown, and odd Quoifure, which never belonged to the Person Painted.  
But that which led me into this Reflection was, that the Modern Painters have hereby an opportunity to be idle, and to have others to work under them; it is sufficient to finish the Face, and to send it out to be Dressed at the Block; whereas were they obliged in Honour to Paint the whole Dresses, this would make them accurate in Colouring, through the great variety which would daily occur, and and that noble Art be in a far greater esteem.  
A good Artist might easily reduce it, and command the Purses of those he Paints, to pay well for his labour and time, for it is the lot but of very few Men to excel in this Noble Art.  
In the Antichamber of the Queen's Apartment there are other Paintings of Rubens, as, in 3 distinct Tableaux, at the upper end of the Room the Ceremonies of the Marriages of her 3 Daughters, to Savoy, Spain, and England. Also in an other Historical Tableaux, on the side of the same Room, he has Painted his own Picture, in a very free and easy posture, next the Eye, up in the very corner, looking out, as unconcerned in his own Tableaux, upon the 3 Ladies. He has done his Wife in some of the Tableaux in the great Gallery; but in the last, where the Queen is mounting up to Heaven, she is drawn up after her; but whether it be her full and heavy Body, or her Mind, she is Painted in a very unwilling posture, bending back: It seems her Husband liked her Company too well to part with her easily, or she with him.  
Several of the Rooms of this Apartment were Wainscoted with Cedar, wrought in Flowers, as her Dressing Room and Oratory; which is rare in Paris. The Floors were made of small Wood put together in Figures, the inward Knots were inlaid with Threads of Silver, which have a marvellous effect; but the firmness, duration, and entireness of these Floors, after so long laying, I most admired: whereas with us in London, and elsewhere in Paris, they prove so noisy to tread on, and faulty, that they are in a few years intolerable.  

The Lovure.  'Tis pity the King has so great an aversion to the Lovure, which if finished, (which he might easily do in 2 or 3 years) would be the most Magnificent Palace, perhaps, that ever was upon the Face of the Earth; and, indeed, without that be done, Paris will never arrive at its full Beauty.  
There are two Stones in the Fronton of the South East Facade of the Lovure, which are showed to all Strangers, covering the very top of it, as Slates do, and meet in an angle. These are very big, viz. 54 foot long apiece, 8 foot broad, and but 14 inches thick: The raising so high these two vast and tender Stones was looked upon as a Masterpiece of Art, equalling any thing of the Ancients of that Nature. They were taken out of the Quarries of Meudon, where Monseigneur the Dauphin dwells.  
I saw in the Galleries of the Lovure some of the Battles of Alexander by Le Brun; which are by the French the most admired Pieces of Painting that have been (say they) done by any Man on this side the Alps; and of which they are not a little proud.  
Also a large Piece of Paulo Verenese, presented by the Senate of Venice to the King.  
I cannot pass by unmentioned the vast number of great Cases in one of the Galleries, wherein are the Play things or Puppets of the Dauphin, when a Child: They represent a Camp in all its parts, and cost 50000 Crowns.  
But, indeed, that which most surprised me in the Lovure was the Artellier or Workhouse of Monsieur Gerardon; he that made Cardinal Richelieu's Tomb, and the Statue Equestris designed for the Place de Vendosme; he told me he had been almost 10 years in making the Model with assiduity and daily application.  
He hath in the Lovure also two Rooms, in one are ancient Marble Statues, and in the other are Brass Statues and Vasa, and a 100 other things relating to Antiquity: There is nothing in Paris deserves more to be seen.  
In this last, I saw a sort of Egyptian Janus, with Silenus on one side, and a Bacchus on the other; With many other Egyptian Figures well designed; all of them with a hole in the Crown of the Head.  
Also a Lion of Egypt very large of Brass; but the design rude, and more like an Indian Pagod. This also had a large square hole in the Back, near the Neck. The Siamites that came in an Embassiy to Paris, were well pleased to see this Figure, and said, it was not unlike one of theirs; and that that hole served to put the Incense in, that the Smoke might come out of the Body and Nostrils of the Lion. I doubt not but that also was the use of the open Crowns of the rest of the Egyptian Figures, which I had seen elsewhere, as well as here; and their Heads served for Perfuming Pots for themselves: and hence also might arise, that other Ornament of Radiated Heads; as this here, of a bright Flame, casting Rays out of and round the Head.  
There was also a small Image of a Lean Man, Cast bend, in a sitting Posture, with a roll of Parchment spread open upon his Knees, and he looking down upon it, Reading it. This was of Solid Brass, the Head and all: This was found enclosed in a Mummy. He seemed to have a thin Linen Garment on, perhaps such as the Egyptian Priests used to wear.  
Also he shown us the Mummy of a Woman entire: The scent of the Hand was to me not unpleasant; but I could not liken it to any Perfume now in use with us; tho' I make no question, but Naptha was the great Ingredient; which indeed is so unusual a Smell, that the Mineral Waters of Hogsden near London, (wherein the true Naptha is Substantially, and of which I have some Ounces by me, gathered off of those Waters) have imposed upon the ignorant in Natural History; who would make them come from a chance Turpentine Effusion, or the Miscarriage of a Chemical Experiment.  
Here were also great variety of Urns and Funeral Vasa of all Materials and Fashions.  
Also an ancient Writing-Pen coiled up, with two ends erected both alike, representing the Head of a Snake.  
The Ancient Heads and Busto's in Brass are numerous and of great value. This Gentleman is exceeding Courteous to all Strangers; especially to such as have the least good relish of Things of this Nature, to whom he shows them gladly. It cannot be otherwise, that a Man Educated in that Noble Art of Sculpture, who shall daily study so great a variety of Originals of the best Masters, but must far excel the rest of Mankind, who practise without good Example, and by fancy mostly.  

Monsieur Boudelet.  I was to see Monfieur Boudelot, whose Friendship I highly value: I received great Civilities from him. He is well known by his Books about the Utility of Voyages: He has a very choice and large Collection of Books of Greek and Roman Learning. I made him several Visits, and had the pleasure of perusing his Cabinet of Coins, and small Images of Copper, which are many and of good value; as Egyptian, Phrygian, Grecian, and Roman.  
Amongst his Egyptian, the most curious was a Deus Crepitus of admirable Workmanship, with a Radiated Crown: It was an Aethyopian, and therefore bespoke its great Antiquity, for they very usually represented their Kings under the Figures of their Gods.  
There was also the Skeleton of a Woman of solid Copper, found in the Body of a Mummy, in a sitting Posture; not unlike that other mentioned above in Monsieur Girardon's Closet.  
An Apis or a Heifer in Copper.  
A Phrygian Priapus of Elegant Workmanship: The Phrygian Cap pointed and hanging down behind, as our Caps in Dishabillie are now worn.  
Of all which, and many more, this Learned Antiquary intends to write.  
In his Cabinet of Medals I could not find one of Palmyra, for which I carefully enquired; for I was willing to add what could be found in France upon this Subject.  
He has also many Marbles from Greece; most of which have been published by Spon; save one, and that is the most Ancient and most Curious of all; concerning which he is ready to publish a Dissertation. 'Tis a Catalogue in Three Columns, of the Names of the most principal Persons of Erectheis, one of the chiefest Tribes of Attica, that were killed in one and the same year in five several Places, where the Athenians fought under two Generals, as in Cyprus, in Egypt, in Phaenitia, in Aegina, in Halie's. Here are 177 Names in the 3 Columns. See Table I.  
The Mautis closes the Column, he died in Egypt, that is, the Physician; Magic and Physic went together in those days; nay, the very Comedians and Poets, those necessary Men of Wit, fought, for none were exempt from being Enrolled that were Born in the Kingdom or Republic of Attica.  
The Antiquity of this Marble, besides the known History and Names which justify the time of those Men: The Figure of the Letters are an undoubted Argument; for there are no double Letters here; no η, no ω, but all graved with e, o; also the Letters, L, P, Π, R, S, are very Roman. So that it is also an Evidence, that the Romans borrowed their Letters from the Ancient Greek Alphabet.  
The Invention and Borrowing of Letters was a great Happiness to Mankind. The Embarras in which Writing is in China, is owing to the Misfortune of wanting an Alphabet; so that the Chinese are forced to express every Sentence and Thought by a different Character, which has multiplied their Writing to 120000 Characters; of which yet they have less need than we in Europe, who perform all with 24 Letters, (whereof 5 add life to the other 19, saith Hypocrates, which is an Argument of the Age he writ in, the Knowledge of Grammar, i. e. Reading and Writing, depends upon seven Figures, de Dieta. 1.) the Chinese know much less than we; they have no other Morals, they have less Philosophy, less Mathematics, fewer Arts, and yet much narrower Knowledge of Natural History, because they can know but of that, which they have at home: In what therefore should they employ this multitude of Characters! 'Tis, I say, their Misfortune not to have Thought of an Alphabet: Their common Language is as easily learned, and consequently might as easily be writ, as any in Europe.  
But to return to Monsieur Budelot's Stores. In this Cabinet I also saw some Basse-Relieves: One of Praxiteles well designed; one of Musos' the Comedian: Amongst the rest of the Marbles there is a Basse-Relief, very extant, and finely finished, of a Cupid asleep, leaning his Head upon his Left Arm; In his Hand he holds two Poppy Heads. 'Tis probable the Poppies were Emblimatique from the Power they have in Love-Affairs. Indeed, most Poisons affect those Parts chief, being the great Sluice of the Habit of the Body, or Circle of the Blood; and no People use Poppy more, and stand more in need of it, than the Men who delight in Polygamy, the Mahometans, or understand it better; as Olearius testifies.  
He had an Antic Busto of Zenobia in Marble, with a thick Radiated Crown; of which he very obligingly gave me a Copy, well designed from the Original: This was brought out of Asia by Monsieur Thevenot.  
He shown me a Dissertation he had written out fair for the Press, about a certain Ancient Intaglia of Madams, of Ptolomaeus Auletes, or the Player upon the Flute: In this the thin Muffler is the most remarkable Thing, which covers the Mouth and Nose. This Head is Ingraved upon an Amithyst.  
I enjoyed this Gentleman's Company very often; and had much Discourse with him about his Books of the Utility of Voyages; and in one Conversation took the freedom to Dissent from him about the Interpretation of that Coin in Monsieur Seguin, which he calls Britannic.  
Monsieur Boudelot reads it thus, Jovi Victori Saturnalia Io! or Jovi Victoria Sat. Io!  
I had rather read it thus, Io! Sat. Victoriae Io! upon the occasion of his returning with the Soldiers, filling their Headpieces with the Shells they had gathered off of the Seashore; and the little use of his new invented Letter the Digamma, which he instituted or borrowed from the Eolique to express V Consonant.  
The Shells were a Triumph much like this small addition to the Alphabet; which lasted no longer than his time: that is, Victory enough, (for so stupid a Prince as Claudius) Let's return with the Spoils of the Ocean, and Adorn his new invented Letter with a Palm-Branch; the Reverse of this Coin being a Lawrel-Crown: Both the Signs of Victory.  
About the Boustrophedon way of Writing, mentioned by Suidas and Pausanias, or turning again as the Ox Plows, or the Racers about the Meta in the Cirque, in my Opinion it could be nothing else, but the Serpentine manner of Writing found in Swedeland in Runique Letters.  
He shown me also a Stone taken lately out of the Body of a Horse at Paris, which was his Death; and dying strangely, they Dissected him, that is, certain Ignorant People; in the lower part of the Body, (probable the Bladder) was found this Stone: It weighs, as I guess, two Pound; it is as round as a Cannon Ball; it is laminated like an Onion; for the first Couch was broken up in some Places, of a dark Hair colour, and transparent; or like some Cloudy agates which I have seen: It was very ponderous. Such like Transparent Stones I had a Patient voided often in Yorkshire. I saw another Transparent one, which was cut out of the Buttock of an Alderman at Doncaster; he was twice cut in the same place, at some years' distance. Another I had in some measure transparent, voided by a Patient, which was of the very colour of a Coffee-Berry when burnt; but of this Stone Monsieur Boudelot writ me a Letter before I left Paris, which I design to publish.  

Observatoire.  I was by Invitation from Monsieur Cassini at the Observatoire Royal, built on a rising Ground just without the City Walls; This Building is very fine, and great Art is used in the Vaulted Cut Roofs and Winding Staircases. The Stones are laid inside, outside, with the most regularity I ever saw in any Modern Building; In all this Building there is neither Iron nor Wood, but all firmly covered with Stone, Vault upon Vault. The Platform atop is very spacious, and gives a large and fair view of all Paris, and the Country about it; it is Paved with Black Flint in small squares, which I make no doubt are set in Cement or Terrace, that is, the Pulvis Puteolanus.  
We were showed a Room well furnished with Models of all sorts of Machine's; and a very large Burning Glass, about 3 foot diameter, which at that time of the year, viz. in the beginning of February, did fire Wood into a flame, in the very moment it came into and passed through the Focus.  
I was indisposed, and so could not accept of the Favour which was offered me of seeing the Moon in their Telescopes; and to go down into the Vault, which was contrived for seeing the Stars at Noon-tide, but without success. I was told by Monsieur Roman afterwards, that there was a Rock form in the Cave by the dropping of a Spring of Petrifying Water; of which Nature are all the Wells in Paris.  
In the Flore of one of the Octogone Towers they have designed with great accurateness and neatness with Ink an Universal Map in a vast Circle. The North-pole is in the Centre. This is a Correction of other Maps upon the latest and best Observations.  
His Nephew Monsieur Moraldi was with him; as for his only Son, he was in London at that time: I afterwards was with him at his Fathers, a very hopeful young Gentleman, and well instructed by his Father in the Mathematics, and all other useful Learning.  

Triumphal Arch.  The Triumphal Arch out of the Gate of St. Antoine is well worth seeing; for in this the French pretend not only to have imitated the Ancients, but to have outdone them. They have indeed, used the greatest Blocks of Stone that could be got, and have laid them without Mortar, and the least side outward, after the manner of the Ancients; but I am afraid their Materials are very short of the Roman, and their Stone is ill chose, though vastly great.  
Indeed the Design is most Magnificent; it is finished in Plaster, that is, the Model of it, in its full Beauty and Proportions.  
I suppose it was intended for a Gate or Entrance into the City; for it fronts the great Street of the Suburbs, and has a vast Walk planted with Trees leading from it towards Bois de Vincennes.  
There is nothing more built but the four Parts of the Foundation of the true Building, raised only to the foot of the Pedestals; The Foundation is laid 22 foot deep.  
Amongst the vast Blocks of Stone, which take up a great compass before the Building, I found several sorts, all brought from the Quarries not far from Paris; all of them are of a kind of course Grit, which will not burn into Lime. They distinguish these Stones into 4 sorts; 1. Pierre d'arcueil, for the first 2 or 3 couches or lays above the Foundation; This is St. Clou, which is good, and the next best. I did not find by the Blocks designed either for the Walls of the Building; or the Rounds of the Pillars; that the Beds of Stone of St. Clou are above two foot thick. 3. That of S. Lieu; this is but indifferent, but yet much better than that Stone which is taken up out of the Stone Pits, in and about Paris, which makes the 4th sort of Stone: If it be wrought up into Walls, as it is taken out of the Pits, it is very apt to be flawed by the Frost; but if it be laid in the Air, and kept under cover for two years, than it becomes dry and more durable.  
I saw but one Piece in Paris of the Ruins of an Old Roman Building; it was in La Rue de la Harp. The Vaults are very high and large. The manner of Building is near the same I formerly caused exactly to be figured and described at York, and which is published in the Philosophic Transactions; That is, the inside and outside of the Walls are composed of six Rows of small square Stones, and then 4 rows of flat, thin and broad Roman Bricks, and so alternatively from the top to the bottom; Which makes it probable it was built after Severus' time, for this was the African manner of Building, as Vitruvius tells us; and therefore might well be, what Tradition here says of it, viz. part of Julian the Emperor's Palace, or Thermae.  

St. Innocents'.  St. Innocents' Churchyard, the public Buryingplace of the City of Paris for a 1000 years, when entire (as I once saw it) and built round with double Galleries full of Skulls and Bones, was an awful and venerable sight; but now I found it in Ruins, and the greatest of the Galleries pulled down, and a Row of Houses built in their room, and the Bones removed I know not whether; The rest of the Churchyard in the most neglected and nastiest pickle I ever saw any Consecrated place. 'Tis all one, when Men, even the Roman Catholics have a mind, or 'tis their interest, to unhallow things or places, they can do it with a good stomach; and leave the Tombs of Chancellors and other great Men without Company or Care. What not body gets by, no body is concerned to repair; but 'tis strange amongst so many millions of dead Men, not one Wonder-working Saint should start up to preserve itself and neighbours from Contempt and Scandal. That so much Holy Earth, brought, as 'tis said, so far off, should never produce one Saint, but rather spew up all its Inhabitants, to be thus shuffled and dissipated.  

Buco.  Amongst the many Cabinets of Paris there is nothing finer than the Collection of Monsieur Buco, Gad-eroles du Parliament. You pass through a long Gallery, the one side of which is a well furnished Library, and also well disposed in Wired Cases. This Gallery leads into two Rooms very finely adorned with Pictures, Vasa's, Statues and Figures in Brass, China, and the famous Ennamel Vessels, formerly made in Poitu, which are not now to be had; and a thousand other curious things.  
I very particularly examined his large quantity of Shells, consisting in near 60 Drawers. There were indeed very many of a sort, and not many but what I had seen before, and figured; He very obligingly lent me those I had not seen, to have the designs of them done. He had many very perfect and large ones of Land and Fresh Water Buccina; but yet a great number were wanting of those very Tribes of what I have published.  
Here were also 2 or 3 very fair ones of that sort of compressed Snail, which have their Tail on the same side with their Mouth; and the Vulgar Name, by which those Men of Cabinets distinguish them, is not amiss, viz. Des Lamps.  
He shown me a Bivalve, which is not uncommon (in a large Blood red Spondile) for which the late Duke of Orleans gave 900 Livres, which is above 50 l. Sterling; and he also assured me, that the same Person offered a Parisian for 32 Shells 11000 Livres; which Sum was refused; but the Duke replied, That he knew not who was the greater Fool, he that bid the Price, or the Man that refused it.  
I also saw in this Collection an Hippocampus about 4 inches long, the Tail square, thick Bellied and Breast like a Miller Thumb, Winged not unlike a sort of Flying Fish, but the Fins were spoiled, the Membranes being torn from the Bones of the Wings, the Head long and square like the Tail, with a sort of tufted Mussel. This Fish I took to be of the Hippocampus Kind; and (as he told me) it was given him by my Lady Portsmouth, possibly out of King Charles' Collection, who had many curious Presents made him (as one of Shells from the States of Holland, many of which I have seen in other Hands) but he suffered them all to be dissipated and lost.  
Here also was a Vespetum Canadense of a most elegant Figure, and admirable Contrivance; of which I have a Drawing. This is entire in all its parts; it is as big as a middle-sized Melon, Pear-fashion, with an edge running round where it is thickest, from which edge it suddenly declines and lessens into a point; at the very end of the point, on one side, is a little hole, with pulvinated or smooth edges inclined inward; otherwise it is whole, and wrought upon the Twig of a Tree, of a very smooth Sattin-like Skin. Table 1. Figure 1.  
Also the Striated Skin of an African Ass, supple and well cured, which I had never seen before. It is certainly a most beautiful Animal; and, I admire, after so many Ages that it has been known to the People of Europe, it could never be Tamed, and made of common use, as the rest of the Horse Kind. This was only of two colours, viz. broad lists of White and Bay or Chesnut colour drawn from the Back down the Sides to the Belly, which was all White: The lists were parted at the Back by a very narrow ridge of short Hair; which Lists also went round the Legs like Garters. The Hair coloured Stripes of the African Ass were, near the Back, 3 or 4 Fingers broad, also the List down the Back was very broad.  
Another Skin of a Capass I afterwards saw at Dr. Turnfords; and the Stripes were the same, but much broader and darker coloured; it may be from the different Ages. This sort of Striping seems to be peculiar to the Ass, for the most common to be seen with us have all a Black List down the Back; and two more, that is, on each side one, running down the Shoulders.  

Dr. Turnfort.  I saw Monsieur Turnfort's Collection of Shells, which are well chosen, and not above one or two of a sort; but very perfect and beautiful, and in good order, consisting of about 20 Drawers.  
There was amongst them a very large Land Shell, the same which I have figured from the Musaeum at Oxford, having its turn from the right hand to the left. Also many very excellent and large Patterns of other Land Snails; also a Freshwater Mussel from Brasil, which I had never seen before; a Pair of them he gave me; and many Species of Freshwater Buccina from the Carribe Islands. Also an Auris Marina Spisse echinata; which was new to me.  
Amongst the Shells the Thinn Oyster, which shines within like Mother of Pearl, and has in the uppermost end of the flat Valve, near the Hinge, a Hole. These he brought with him, and took them up alive, from the Rocks in Spain; he said they were very offensively bitter to the taste. These being perfect, I had the opportunity of seeing that Hole shut with a peculiar and third Shell, of the fashion of a Pouch or Shepherd's Purse.  
I shall say nothing of his vast Collection of Seeds and Fruits, and dried Plants, which alone amount to 8000, and in this he equals, if not excels all the most curious Herborists in Europe. His Herborisations about Paris he gave me to carry for England, just then Printed off; also he shown me the Designs of about 100 European Non Descript Plants, in 8vo. which he intends next to publish.  
He also shown me 10 or 12 single Sheets of Vellum, on each of which were Painted in Water Colours very lively, one single Plant, mostly in flower, by the best Artist in Paris, at the King's Charge; Those are sent to Versailles, when the Doctor has put the Names to them, and there kept: In this manner the King has above 2000 rare Plants, and they work daily upon others: The Limner has two Louis' for every Plant he Paints.  
I saw there also the Vespetum Canadense Maximum, about 12 inches long, and 6 in diameter; of a Pear fashion; it hangs by a long and broad loop to the Twig of a Tree; The broad or lower end is a little pointed, and rising in the middle; The outward Skin is as smooth as Velom, and of a whitish grey, next to the Pearl colour. The Button at the bigger end in this being broken, and the outward Skin peeled off, I could see a hole of about half an inch diameter in the very middle, into which the Wasps go in and out; The Cells are sexangular, but of a very small size, not much bigger than a Duck Quill, or very small Goose Quill; and consequently appear very thick set and numerous. See the Figure above.  
He shown me also a very great Julus from Brasil, at least six inches long, and two about, round like a Cord, very smooth and shining, of a kind of Copper or Brazen colour; The Feet infinite, like a double Fringe on each side: This he had from F. Plumier, who afterwards gave me a Design of it drawn by the Life, and in its proper colours. Table 5.  
Dr. Turnfort shown me a Present which was made him by his Country Man of Provence, Monsieur Boyeur d'Aguilles, of a large Book in Folio of curious Stamps. This is only the first part of his Cabinet, all Graved at the Author's Charge; and he is said to be another Peiresk, which would be happy for Mankind, and a great Honour to that Country to have produced two Moecena's in one Age.  

Verney.  I was to see Monsieur Verney at his Apartment at the upper-end of the Royal Physic Garden; but missing my Visit, went up, with a young Gentleman of my Lord Ambassador's Retinue, to see Mr. Bennis, who was in the Dissecting Room, working by himself upon a Dead Body, with his Breast and Belly gutted: There were very odd things to be seen in the Room. My Companion, it being morning, and his Senses very quick and vigorous, was strangely surprised and offended; and retired down the Stairs much faster than he came up: And indeed, a private Anatomy Room is to one not accustomed to this kind of Manufacture, very irksome, if not frightful: Here a Basket of Dissecting Instruments, as Knives, Saws, etc. And there a Form with a Thigh and Leg flayed, and the Muscles parted asunder: On another Form an Arm served after the same manner: Here a Trey full of Bits of Flesh, for the more minute Discovery of the Veins and Nerves; and every where such discouraging Objects. So, as if Reason, and the good of Mankind did not put Men upon this Study, it could not be endured: for Instinct and Nature most certainly abhors the Employment.  

Monsieur Merry.  I saw Monsieur Merry, a most painful and accurate Anatomist, and free and communicative Person, at his House Rue de la Princess. His Cabinet consisted of two Chambers: In the outward were great variety of Skeletons; also entire Preparations of the Nerves; in two of which he shown me the mistake of Willis, and from thence gathered, that he was not much used to Dissect with his own Hand: The Pia Mater coating the Spinal Nerves but half way down the Back, where it ends: The Dura Mater coating the lowermost 20 pair; which, Willis, (as he said) has otherwise reported.  
But that which much delighted my Curiosity, was the Demonstration of a blown and dried Heart of a Foetus; also the Heart of a Tortoise.  
In the Heart of a Foetus, he shown it quite open, and he would have it that there was no Valve to the Foramen Ovale; which seemed equally open from the Left Ventricle to the Right, as the contrary; that its Diameter well near equalled that of the Aorta: That the two Arteries, which ascend up into the two Lobes of the Lungs, (and are the Ramifications of the Pulmonick Artery, after it has parted with the Canal of Communication, which goes betwixt the Pulmonick Artery and the lower or descending Branch of the Aorta) both put together, far exceed, if not double the Diameter of the Aorta itself.  
He therefore, not without good Reason affirms, That of all the Blood which the Vena Cava pours into the Right Ventricle of the Heart, and is thence in a Foetus forced up into the Pulmonick Artery, a great part is carried by the Canal of Communication into the descending Trunk of the Aorta, and is so circulated about the Body, the Lungs (as to that part) being wholly slighted: Also that of the two remaining thirds of the Blood, which is carried about the Lungs, when it comes down the Pulmonick Vein, that which cannot be received by the Aorta, (and all cannot, because the Aorta is much less than the two Branches of the Pulmonick Artery put together) is therefore discharged back through the Foramen Ovale, into the Right Ventricle of the Heart, and so thrown up again with the rest of the Blood, coming from the Vena Cava. So that one part of the two remaining parts of the Blood is daily carried about the Body, as in an Adult Foetus, and a third part only Circulates in the Lungs, passing by the Body or Grand Circulation.  
That all this is done to abbreviate and reduce the Circulation to a lesser compass, is certain; and so for the same Reason and End, that other lesser Circulation of the Liver is slighted by the Blood, which returns from the Placenta, by a Canal of Communication betwixt the Porta and the Vena Cava.  
The Reason he gives of this, I cannot at all allow of; as being very ill grounded; and therefore I shall not trouble myself to Confute, or so much as Name it.  
As for the Heart of the Land Tortoise, it was preserved in Spirit of Wine, and all the three Ventricles thereof slit and opened; so that I had not all the Satisfaction I could have wished: but the Left Ventricle in this Animal had no Artery belonging to it, but did receive only the Blood, which descended from the Lungs, and convey it by the Foramen Ovale into the Right Ventricle: That the third or middle Ventricle was only an Appendix to the Right, and had the Pulmonick Artery issuing from it. So that the Blood in a Tortoise was in a manner Circulated like that in a Foetus, through the Body, the Lungs as it were or in good part slighted.  
This Thought of Monsieur Merrie's has made a great Breach betwixt Monsieur Verney and himself; for which Reason I had not that freedom of Conversation as I could have wished with both of them; but 'tis to be hoped there may come good from an honest Emulation.  
Two English Gentlemen came to Visit me, Mr. Bennis and Mr. Probie: They were lodged near the Royal Garden, where Monsieur Verney dwells, and makes his Anatomies, who in Three months' time shown all the Parts of the Body to them. He had for this purpose at least Twenty Human Bodies, from the Gallows, the Chatelet, (where those are exposed who are found Murdered in the Streets, which is a very common business at Paris) and from the Hospitals.  
They told me, Monsieur Verney pretended to show them a Valve, which did hinder Blood from falling back into the Right Ventricle by the Foramen Ovale. This Valve they said he compared to the Papillae in the Kidneys, Musculous and Fleshy: That if Wind was blown into the Vena Pulmonalis, it did not pass through the Foramen Ovale, but stop there, by reason of the Valve. That he did believe, contrary to Mr. Merry, that no Blood did circulate through the Lungs in an Embryo.  
Again, in another Conversation with Monsieur Merry, he shown me the blown Hearts of an Embryo, and that of a Girl of 7 years old. I saw clearly, that the Skin of the supposed Valve of the Foramen Ovale, was as it were suspended with two Ligaments: And that in the Girl's, the two sides of the Foramen Ovale were drawn one over the other, and so closed the hole; but were easily to be separated again by a Bristle thrust betwixt them.  
Also it seemed to me, that this Membrane in an Embryo might cover the Foramen Ovale, like the Membrana Nictans in a Brids Eye, that is, be drawn over it, and so hinder the Ingress of the Blood from the Vena Cava, as oft as the Right Auricle beats: But the Dilating itself might give way to the descending Blood of the Vena Pulmonalis; and possibly, the Embryo living as it were the Life of an Insect, can by this Artifice Command the Heart.  
I remember in Discourse that day with him, he told me, That Monsieur Verney had an old Cat, and a young Kitling just Born, put into the Air-Pump before the Academy  des Sciences: That the Cat died after 16 Pumps, but the Kitling survived 500 Pumps; which favours in some measure the Command young Animals have of their Hearts.  
At another Visit, Monsieur Merry obligingly procured for me, the Heart of a Human Embryo, with the Lungs entire. He tried before me the Experiment upon Blowing, and also Syringing Water into the Aorta, both which filled the Auricles and Ventricles, and freely came out at the Vena Cava only. Then he opened the Right Auricle and Ventricle, where the Foramen Ovale was open only at one corner, not the tenth part of its breadth; and a Membrane drawn over the rest, which Membrane was fastened to the sides quite round. Then he opened in the same manner the Left Ventricle and Auricle, and there it was evident, that that Membrane which closed the hole, had two narrow Straps or Muscles by which it was fastened to the opposite sides, after the manner of some of the Valves of the Heart.  
I told him, that it must follow from this, that the Foramen Ovale was shut and opened more or less, at the pleasure of the Embryo, according to the Necessities of Nature, and the quantity of Blood that was to pass: That it was probable, that all Infects had a Command of their Hearts, (of which I had given large Instances elsewhere) by some such passage, which they could shut altogether, or in great part, as they had a Mind, in Winter, in Fear, or Fasting for want of Food: That the shutting up of the passage in Adult Animals was therefore done in an instant, by drawing the Curtain fully, which could never be again drawn back and opened, because of the great torrent of Blood, which now entered the Right Auricle, stopped it in that posture, which in time would altogether stiffen and lose its Motion of Relaxation. As a Hen, when she Sleeps, draws over the Membrana Nictans; and likewise when she Dies, the same Membrane covers all the Eye.  
Mr. Bennis procured me the Heart of a Humane Foetus, which had but just breathed; the which I examined with Monsieur Litre of Castres' in Languedoc, another very Understanding and Dextrous Anatomist, and who Teaches Scholars of all Nations the Practice of Anatomy. The Experiments here were repeated as formerly described; Both Wind and Water passed the Foramen Ovale, both from the Vena Pulmonum, and from the Aorta. That which I observed in this Heart more particularly, was, That the Membrane or Valve on the Left side of the Foramen Ovale was flat, and extended almost over the hole, without any Limbus round its edges, because it was nothing but the very substance of the Auricula Sinistra continued, or a Process thereof: But on the right side the Vena Cava being joined to the Auricle, it had a rising edge round that part of it, whence it proceeded; that is, that the two Faces had contrery openings, and being drawn as it were one over the other, they shut the hole; but not so firmly, but the hole might be more or less open all a Man's Life. For those two Oval Processes sticking close together in a blown and dried Heart, that is not to be much heeded, for I have seen them dry with the hole open; but it has been like as betwixt unglued Paper, or as the Urethers descend betwixt the Skins of the Bladder, or as the same happens to the Ductus Bilaris in its insertion into the Guts.  
The same Person brought me the Heart of a Man 40 years old, in which the Foramen Ovale was as much open, as in a Foetus new born; and the Ligaments very conspicuous, which tack the sides of the Valve to the Auricle, and go over to the other side of the Border.  

F. Plumier.  I was not better pleased with any Visit I made, than with that of F. Plumier, whom I found in his Cell in the Convent of the Minims. He came home in the Sieur Ponti's Squadron, and brought with him several Books in Folio of Designs and Paintings of Plants, Birds, Fishes, and Infects of the West-Indies; all done by himself very accurately. He is a very understanding Man in several parts of Natural History, but especially in Botanique. he had been formerly in America, at his return Printed, at the King's Charge, a Book of American Plants in Folio. This Book was so well approved of, that he was sent again thither at the King's Charge, and returned after several years wand'ring about the Islands with this Cargo. He was more than once Shipwrackt, and lost his Specimens' of all things, but preserved his Papers, as having fortunately lodged them in other Vessels; so that the things themselves I did not see. He had designed and Dissected a Crocodile; one of the Sea Tortoises; a Viper, and well described the Dissections.  
His Birds also were well understood, and very well painted in their proper colours. I took notice of 3 sorts of Owls, one with Horns, all distinct Species from our European. Several of the Hawk Kind and Falcons of very beautiful Plumage; and one of those, which was Coal black as a Raven. Also (which I longed to see) there was one Species of the Swallow Kind, very distinct from the 4 Species we have in Europe.  
Amongst the Fish there were two new Species of American Trout, well known by the Fleshy Fin near the Tail.  
Amongst the Infects there was a Scolopendra of a foot and an half long, and proportionably broad. Also the Julus very elegantly painted, which I had seen before in Dr. Turnfort's Collection. Table 5.  
Also a very large Wood-Frog, with the extremity of the Toes webbed.  
Also a Blood-red Polypus, with very long Legs, two of which I could discern by the Draught were thick acetabulated. This, he told me, was so venomous, that upon the least touch it would cause an insupportable burning pain, which would last several hours.  
There were also some few Species of the Serpent and Lizard Kind.  
There were but few Shells; but amongst them there was a Murex (See T. 4.) which dies purple, with the Fish as it exerts itself in the Sea. Also that Land Buccinum (see Tab. 3.) which I have figured, and which lays Eggs with hard Shells, and for bigness, and shape, and colour, scarce to be distinguished from the Sparrow Eggs. And because the Murex and this Buccinum was drawn with the Animals creeping out, I desired a Copy of them, which he freely and in a most obliging manner granted me; He designed the Buccinum Terrestre in the Island of St. Domingo, where he found it.  
Amongst the vast Collection of Plants, I observed the Torch Kind, and Fernes were of all others the most numerous; of each of which there were an incredible number of Species. There were 2 or 3 Species of Goosberries and Currants; and some Species of Wild Grapes; all which F. Plumier told me were good to eat.  
He told me these Drawings would make 10 Books, as big as that he had published; and Two Books of Animals: He had been often at Versailles to get them into the King's Imprimerie; but as yet unsuccessfully; but hoped e'er long to begin the Printing of them. Note, That the Booksellers at Paris are very unwilling, or not able to Print Natural History; but all is done at the King's Charge, and in his Presses.  

M. Dacier.  I Visited Monsieur Dacier and his Lady, two very obliging Persons, and both of great Worth, and very Learned.  
I think our Profession is much beholden to him, for his late elegant Translation of Hypocrates into French, with Learned Notes upon him. I wish he may live to finish what he hath so happily begun. I read over the Two Volumes he has Printed with great delight.  
He seems to favour the Opinion of those, who think, the Circulation of the Blood was known to him; in which he errs undoubtedly. 'Tis manifest his Anatomy was rude, dark, and of little extent; but 'tis also as manifest, that he knew very well the effect of the Circulation. As for Example, 2. de Diaeta. c. 12. All the Body (says he) is purged by Respiration and Transpiration, and what Humour thickens, is subtilised and thrown out by the Skin, and is called Sweat.  
Again, 3. de Diaeta. c. 5. speaking of a sort of foul and impure Bodies, he says, More is by Labour melted out of the Flesh, than the Circular Motion (of the Blood) hath purged off. There are a great number of Instances of this Nature. In Conversation I put this to him, which he avowed was all he thought.  
He told me he had two more Volumes ready for the Press, and did intent not to give it over, till he had gone through all the Works of Hypocrates. In which Volumes will be these Treatises: Of Dreams: Of the Regimen in Acute Diseases: The Prognostics: The Prorrhetiques: The Aphorisms: The Coaques.  
On that Aphorism he seemed to me to have a very happy thought, cocta non, sed cruda purganda sunt; which makes it of the same sense with that other, Si quid movendum est, move in principio.  
I must needs say this for Madam Dacier, his Wife, though I knew her by her Writings, before I saw her, the Learnedest Woman in Europe, and the true Daughter and Disciple of Tanaquil Faber; yet her great Learning did not alter her genteel Air in Conversation, or in the least appear in her Discourse; which was easy, modest, and nothing affected.  

M. Morin.  I visited Monsieur Morin, one of the Academy des Sciences, a Man very curious in Minerals; of which he shown me some from Siam, as jasper's, Onyxes, agates, Lodestones, etc. He shown me also excellent Tin Oar from Alsace. Also from France a great Block of a sort of Amythyst of 2 or 300 weight. Some parts of it (for he had several Plates sawed and polished) were very fine, and had large Spots and Veins of a deep coloured Violet. It was designed for a Pavement in Marchetterie, of which he shown me a Carton drawn in the Natural Colours.  
This puts me in mind of a vast Amethyst I had seen at London, brought from New-Spain, and exposed to Sale; it weighed, as I remember, Eleven Pound odd Ounces; and was most perfectly figured both point and sides, after the manner of a Bristol Diamond, or common Rock Crystal; but this Block here was rude, and without any shape.  

L'Academies des Sciences.  I cannot say much of the meeting of these Gentlemen of the Acad. Royal. de Sciences, there are but few of them, about 12 or 16 Members; all Pensioned by the King in some manner or other.  
They endeavoured in the War time to have Printed Monthly Transactions or Memoires after the manner of ours in London; but could not carry them on above two Volumes or Years, for without great Correspondence this can hardly be done. And ours is certainly one of the best Registers that ever was thought on, to preserve a vast number of scattered Observations in Natural History, which otherwise would run the hazard to be lost, besides the Account of Learning in Printed Books  
I heard Mr. Oldenburgh say, who began this Noble Register, that he held Correspondence with 70 odd Persons in all parts of the World, and those be sure with others: I asked him, what method he used to answer so great variety of Subjects, and such a quantity of Letters as he must receive weekly; for I knew he never failed, because I had the Honour of his Correspondence for 10 or 12 years. He told me he made one Letter answer another, and that to be always fresh, he never read a Letter before he had Pen, Ink and Paper ready to answer it forthwith, so that the multitude of his Letters cloyed him not, or ever lay upon his hands.  
The Abbot Bignon is Precedent, Nephew to Monsieur Pontchartrain. I was informed by some of them, that they have this great advantage to encourage them in the pursuit of Natural Philosophy, that if any of the Members shall give in a Bill of Charges of any Experiments which he shall have made; or shall desire the Impression of any Book, and bring in the Charges of Graving required for such Book, the Precedent allowing it and signing it, the Money is forthwith reimbursed by the King. As it was done in Dr. Turnfort's Elements de Botanique, the Cuts of that Book cost the King 12000 Livres. And the Cuts intended, and now Graving for another Book of new Plants found in his Voyages into Portugal and Spain, will cost 100 l. Sterling.  
Also, if Monsieur Merry, for Example, shall require live Tortoises for the making good the Experiments about the Heart, they shall be brought him, as many as he pleases, at the King's Charge.  
These, besides their Pensions, I say, were some of the Advantages they have enjoyed; but the War, for this Reason, has lain heavy upon the Philosophers too.  

Mr. Butterfield.  Mr. Butterfield is a right hearty honest Englishman, who has resided in France 35 years, is a very excellent Artist in making all sorts of Mathematical Instruments, and works for the King and all the Princes of the Blood, and his Work is sought after by all the Nations of Europe and Asia.  
He more than once shown me (which is his great Diversion) a mighty Collection of Lodestones, to the value of several Hundred Pounds Sterling.  
Some he had as hard almost as Steel, and others soft and friable; yet of these he had those which were of as great virtue, as any of the hard; That of the equally hard there were very great difference.  
He had one which weighed naked not above a Drachm, and would naked take up a Drachm and an half; but shod would take up 144 Drachms of Iron, if rightly applied, that is, if the Iron to be taken up did firmly and in a plain touch alike both the Feet.  
The best Shod were these that follow.  
1. A Slate Loadstone, which I noted not so much for its strength, but because of its peculiar make, being fairly and distinctly luminous throughout, weighing One ounce and an half, draws up One pound.  
2. A Smooth Loadstone, weighing One drachm, two scruples, fourteen grains, draws up Eighteen ounces, that is Eighty two times its weight.  
3. Another Smooth Loadstone, weighing Sixty five grains, draws up Fourteen ounces, that is, One hundred and forty four times its weight.  
There is, a Loadstone no bigger than a Hazel Nut, which took up a huge Bunch of Keys.  
We have a very large Slate Loadstone in the Repository at Gresham-Colledge, at least 6 inches over; This also is but weak; Whether the Laminae do spoil the virtue, as though they were but so many distinct Stones packed together. And yet a Loadstone which takes up ex. gr. 6 pound weight, cut by the Axis in two halves, and both halves shod again, will take up 8 pound.  
It is plain, that Experiments are better made with a Terrella, or spherical Loadstone, than a square one; and his way of capping the Terrella is very well contrived.  
A square Loadstone made into a Terrella, will near take up as much weight as it did before, though a great deal of the Stone is lost in the rounding, by virtue of the different shooing.  
He entertained us full two hours with Experiments neatly contrived about the effects of the Loadstone.  
The Experiment of approaching a Loadstone to the Spring of a Watch is very fine; it causes the Balance to move very swift, and brought yet nearer, to stop quite and cease moving.  
Another Experiment was an inch broad Plate of Iron, turned into a Ring of about 4 inches diameter, which had evidently two North and two South Poles, which he said he had seen in a Loadstone, and had contrived this in imitation of Nature. The working of them with filings of Steel, drigged upon a Plate, set upon the Ring, did clearly manifest the double Polarity.  
Also the suspending of a Needle in the Air, and a Ball of Steel upon the point of it, by a Thread, which a weight kept down, that it could not ascend higher, than such a distance within the sphere of the activity of the Loadstone.  
Again, the free working of the Needle in Water, through Brass, Gold, Stone, Wood, or any thing but Iron. He told us, he had a Stone, which would work through a Stone Wall of 18 inches.  
Lastly, he demonstrated by many Experiments, how the Effluvia of the Loadstone work in a Circle, that is, what flows from the North Pole, comes round, and enters the South Pole; on the contrary, what flows from the South Pole, enters the North, and in its way puts in order all such Filings of Steel it meets with; that is, according to the disposition of its own whirling, and the circular lines it keeps in its flying about the Loadstone. Indeed, it is pleasant to see, how the Steel Filings are disposed; and in their arangement one clearly sees a perfect image of the road, which the whirling invisible Matter takes in coming forth, and re-entering the Poles of the Loadstone.  
He shown us a Loadstone sawed off that piece of the Iron Bar, which held the Stones together at the very top of the Steeple of Chartres; This was a thick Crust of Rust, part of which was turned into a strong Loadstone, and had all the properties of a Stone dug out of the Mine. Man's. de la Hire has Printed a Memoire of it; also Mons. de Vallemont a Treatise. The very outward Rust had no Magnetic Virtue, but the inward had a strong one, as to take up a third part more than its weight unshod. This Iron had the very grain of a solid Magnet, and the brittleness of a Stone.  
These Gentlemen, who have writ of this, have, in my Opinion, missed their purpose, when they inquire, how it comes to pass to be thus turned; for it is certain, all Iron will in time go back into its Mineral Nature again, notwithstanding the Artifice of Melting and Hammering. I have seen of those Hammered Spanish Cannon, which had lain many years buried in the Ground, under the old Fort at Hull in Yorkshire, which were thoroughly turned into brittle Iron Stone, or Mine again; and would not own the Loadstone, no more than the rest of our English Iron Mine, till it was calcined, and then shown itself to be good Iron again. Also I have seen, and had by me, a piece of Wood taken out of Lough-Neagh in Ireland, which was not only good Iron Mine, but a Loadstone too; so that it is evident, Nature, in this sort of Mine, goes backwards and forwards, is generated and regenerated; and therefore Mons. de la Hire has well used the Term of Vegetation in this Affair, which I had done many years before in my Book De Fontibus Medicatis Angliae, that is, out of Iron, Mine will grow; and out of Mine, 〈◊〉 Loadstone; as in the petrified Wood  
I do not relate these things, as though they were new Di●…veries; the World has long since known ●…em, by the great In●…y of our most Learned Country●… Gilbert of Colchester, to whom little 〈◊〉 been added after near 100 years, th●…h very many Men have written of t●…●…bject, and form divers Hypot●…s to solve these Phoenomena. A D●…chman, Mr. Hartsoeker, one of the Academy des Sciences, has published a Treatise of the Principles of Natural Philosophy, and has accounted for these and many more Experiments of this Nature, which he had shown him by Mr. Butterfield, whom he mentions very Honourably.  
And yet after all, the nature of these Effluvia are little known, and what is said by Des Cartes of Screw fashioned Particles, and the invisible Channels and Pores and Pipes of the Loadstone, are all mere Fancies without any Foundation in Nature. It is well called by some a certain Magnetic Matter, but what properties it hath, is little understood.  
It is very strange to me, that a little Loadstone, of that prodigious force, should have so short a sphere of activity, and not sensibly to affect Iron above an inch or two; and the biggest and strongest not above a foot or two. We see the Vortices in Water, how wide they work round about them, vastly increasing the Circles; and what little resistance the Air can make to a body of that subtlety, as the Effluvia of the Loadstone, which can with ease penetrate all Bodies whatsoever, Marble, Flints, Glass, Copper, Gold, without any sensible diminution of its virtue. Again, we see the Flame of a Lamp in Oil, or Tallow, or Wax, how short it is; and how long and tapering it is in Spirit of Wine. If therefore the Magnetic Matter was darted out of infinite small Pipes, and was of the nature of a more subtle and invisible Flame, why does it not continue its course in a direct line to a great length, but return so suddenly? We see the perspiration of our Skins to rise into the Air, and continue to mount which yet has but a weak impulse from the Heart, being interrupted and broke off, when it comes out of the Road of the Blood into the Ductus Excretorii. But the Circle of the Magnetic Matter is without any impulse, that we know of, from the Stone; and moves in a double circle, and with a double and contrary stream in the same Pipes, contrary to the Laws of the Circulation of the Blood in Animals; which has naturally but one Currant, and one Road round; for the whole Mass of Vessels, in which the Circulation of the Blood is concerned, is but one continued Pipe.  
Until the Nature of the Effluvia is better known, no very satisfactory Account can be given of the most common Phoenomena of the Loadstone, ex. gr. why it does not draw to it all Bodies alike? why a great Loadstone, though weak, extends its virtue much farther, than a small one, though strong? Why a Loadstone communicates its virtue to Iron, as soon as it touches it, nay even at some distance, and gives it the properties of a Loadstone.  
The Truth is, the Earth's being a great Magnet seems to me a mere Vision and Fable; for this reason, because it is not Iron. 'Tis true, Iron Mine is the most common of all Minerals, and found almost in all places; but it holds not any proportion with the rest of the Fossils' of the Earth; and is not, at a guess, as a million to other Fossils'; This seems evident to any one, who has well considered the Chalky Mountains and Cliffs, the high Rag-stone Mountains and Lime Stone Cliffs, the several Quarries and Pits sunk into the Bowels of the Earth for Coal, and Led, etc. how little Iron there is to be found in comparison of other Matters. Add to this, that very little of that very Iron Mine, which is to be found any where, is Magnetic, or capable of obedience to the Magnet, till it is calcined: Whence therefore should all those Magnetic Effluvia arise, which are supposed every where plentifully to encompass the Earth? And why should they be supposed to be every where wand'ring in the Air, since 'tis evident, they make haste to return to the Stone that emitted them, and are as afraid to leave it, as the Child the Mother before it can go?  
Towards the discovery of the Nature of the Effluvia of the Loadstone, such Particulars as those, in my Opinion, ought chief to be considered, and prosecuted with all industry. The Loadstone is very good, if not the best Iron Mine. The sole Fusion of the Loadstone turns it into Iron; The Fire destroys its very virtue, and so does Vitrification Iron. Fire will make Iron Mine own the Loadstone, and turn to a Magnet; Rust, (into which all Iron will naturally turn) and the reduction of Iron again to its Mine, will take away all the Magnetic capacity of Iron. A Loadstone cannot be made to alter its Poles, but Iron may; nor be destroyed, but by the Fire. A great and long Bar of Iron is naturally a Loadstone, if held up perpendicularly, and it changes its Poles at the pleasure of him that holds it: A strong Loadstone loses much of its virtue by touching Iron, but after a few days recovers it again: A small and weak Loadstone cannot touch to give its virtue to a great lump of Iron: A Loadstone exposed to the Air is spoiled in time: The deeper the Vein of Iron Mine is, where Loadstone is found, the better the Stone, and how far, this holds true; for I do not doubt, but a very hard Stone may be found near the day, as well as deeper: A Ruler or long Plate of Steel is much better touched with the virtue of the Loadstone, than a Plate of mere Iron of the same figure; but on the contrary a Plate of Iron sticks much faster to the Loadstone, than a Plate of Steel; so as if a Loadstone draws up a Plate of Steel of 3 Ounces, it will draw up a Plate of Iron of four Ounces and more. Why Iron fastened to the Poles of a Magnet does so vastly improve its strength, as to be 150 times stronger than when Naked.  
Since therefore a Loadstone is nothing else but good Iron Mine, and may be turned into Iron; and Iron most easily, and of its self into Loadstone, the way to find out the Nature of those Magnetic Effluvia, seems to be to inquire strictly into the Nature of Iron Mine, and Iron itself; and not to run giddily into Hypotheses, before we are well stocked with the Natural History of the Loadstone, and a larger quantity of Experiments and Observations relating to Iron and its Mine, with all the Difference and Species of them; which I think has hitherto been little heeded. For Nature will be its own Interpreter, in this, as well as in all other Matters of Natural Philosophy.  
Mr. Butterfield, in another Conversation, told me, He had observed Loadstones, which were strong without arming; and being armed, had not that great advantage by it, as one could have expected: And that on the contrary, there were others, which had a more incredible Virtue when armed, than they did promise.  
That it seldom happens, that a Loadstone hath as much Virtue in one of its Poles, as in the other; and that a bit of Iron is touched equally well at either of the Poles of one and the same Loadstone.  
That there are Loadstones which take up much, and which notwithstanding are incapable of well touching Iron; so that a Stone armed, which takes up seven Pound, yet cannot Communicate to a Ruler of Iron, the Virtue of taking up a very small Needle.  
That a Loadstone of 10 Ounces, being reduced to the weight of 6 Ounces or thereabouts, did almost the same effect as before, etc.  
I caused Mr. Butterfield to make the Slate Loadstone into a Terella, and when shod, it was indeed but of little force; but I observed its Poles to lie level with the Laminae, of which it was composed.  
N. B. A strong Loadstone ought to have large Irons, and a weak one but thin Irons; so that a Stone may be over-shod.  

M. Guanieres.  I waited upon the Abbot Droine to Visit Monsieur Guanieres, at his Lodgings in the Hostel de Guise. This Gentleman is Courtesy itself, and one of the most Curious and Industrious Persons in Paris. His Memoires, Manuscripts, Paintings, and Stamps are infinite, but the method in which he disposes them, is very particular and useful. He shown his Porteseiulles in Folio, of Red Spanish Leather finely adorned: In one, for Example, He had the General Maps of England; then the particular Maps of the Counties; then the Maps of London, and Views about it: Then the Stamps of all the particular Places and Buildings of Note about it; and so of all the Cities in England, and Places and Houses of Note of the Counties.  
In other Book-Cases, he has the Stamps of the Statesmen of England, Nobility of both Sexes, Soldiers, Lawyers, Divines, Physicians, and Men of Distinction. And in this Method he hath all Europe by themselves.  
His Rooms are filled with the Heads of a vast number of Men of Note in Oil Paintings, and Miniatures or Water-Colours: Amongst the rest, an Original of King John, who was Prisoner in England, which he greatly values.  
He shown us the Habits in Limning from the Originals, done by the best Masters, of all the Kings and Queens and Princes of France, for many Ages backwards. Also the Tournaments and Justing at large; and a thousand such things of Monuments.  
He was so Curious, that he told me, he seldom went into the Country without an Amanuensis, and a couple of Men well Skilled in Designing and Painting.  
He shown us amongst other curious Manuscripts, a capitulary of Charles V also the Gospel of St. Matthew writ in Golden Letter upon Purple velum. This seemed to me to be later than that Manuscript I saw at the Abbey of St. Germains; that is, the Letters less and more crooked, tho' indeed, the Letters of the Title Page are exactly Square.  
One Toy I took notice of, which was a Collection of Playing Cards for 300 years: The oldest were three times bigger than what are now used, extremely well lined and illuminated with guilt Borders, and the Pasteboard thick and firm; but there was not a complete Sett of them.  

Madame de Scudery.  Amongst the Persons of Distinction and Fame, I was desirous to see Madameoiselle de Scuderie, now 91 years of Age. Her Mind is yet vigorous, tho' her Body is in Ruins. I confess, this Visit was a perfect Mortification, to see the sad Decays of Nature in a Woman once so famous. To hear her Talk, with her Lips hanging about a Toothless Mouth, and not to be able to Command her Words from flying abroad at Random, puts me in mind of the Sybil's uttering Oracles. Old Women were employed on this Errand, and the Infant-World thought nothing so Wise, as Decayed Nature, or Nature quite out of Order; and preferred Dreams before reasonable and waking Thoughts.  
She shown me the Skeletons of two Chameleons, which she had kept near four years alive: In Winter she lodged them in Cotton; and in the fiercest Wether, she put them under a Ball of Copper, full of hot Water.  
In her Closet she shown me an Original of Madam Maintenon, her old Friend and Acquaintance, which she affirmed was very like her: and, indeed, she was then very beautiful.  

Marquis d'Hopital.  The Marquis d'Hopital, one of the Academy des Sciences, whom I found not at home, returned my Visit very obligingly. I had a long Conversation with him about Philosophy and Learning; and I perceived the Wars had made them altogether Strangers to what had been doing in England. Nothing was more pleasing to him, than to hear of Mr. Isaac Newton 's Preferment, and that there were hopes, that they might expect something more from him, he expressed a great desire to have the whole Sett of the Philosophic Transactions brought over, and many other Books, which he named, but had not yet seen. He told me, it was not possible for them to continue the Monthly Memoirs, as they had done for two years only, because they were but very few in number of that Society, and had very little Correspondence. Indeed, I did inquire once of some of that Body, why they did not take in more since there were very many deserving Men in the City, as I instanced in F. Plumier: They owned he would be an Honour to the Body, but they avoided to make a Precedent for the Admission of any Regulars whatsoever.  
I repaid the Marquis his Visit: He lives in a fine House, well furnished; the Garden pretty, with neat Trelliage, wrought with Arches and other Ornaments:  
He expressed a great Desire to see England, and Converse with our Mathematicians, whose Works he coveted above all things, and had ordered all to be brought him over.  
His Lady also is very well Studied in the Mathematics, and makes one of the Learned Ladies in Paris; of which number are Mad. Dacier, the Duchess of Main, Mad. Scuderie, Mad. de Vicubourg, Mad. d'Espernon the Daughter, Mad. Pres. de Ferrand, and others, whose Names I have forgot.  

Pezron.  I bought the Works of Pere Pezron, a Benardin, now Abbot de Charmoyse near Rheims. This is a very Learned and very disinterested Author, and by his free way of Writing has got him Enemies amongst the Regular Clergy. The Books I bought were his Antiquities or Account of Time; The Defence of it against Two Monks; An Essay or Commentary upon the Prophets; The History of the Gospel.  
He is now upon giving us the Origin of Nations, where he will show, that Greek and Latin too, came from the Celtique or Bas-breton; of which Country he is. He told me he had 800 Greek Words perfect Celtique. I settled a Correspondence betwixt him and Mr. Ed. Floid; which he most readily granted, and which he said he had long coveted.  
Monsieur Spanheim, now Envoy Extraordinary from the Duke of Brandenbough at Paris, told me, that the King of France's Collection of Medals is far the best in Europe, or that ever was made. Having the opportunity of Discoursing him often, his sick Lady being my Patient, I inquired more particularly of him, what he had seen of Palmyra, of Zenobia, Odenatus, Vabalathus. He desired a Memoir of me, which I gave him, of what I would have him search for in the King's Cabinet, and promised me all the Satisfaction he could give me in that Affair.  
I told him I had met with nothing yet, but a fair Busto in White Marble of Zenobia, in the Cabinet of M. Boudelot; which was part of Mons. Thevenot's Collection of Marbles from the East.  

Monsieur Vaillant.  I was to wait on Mons. Vaillant at his Apartment in the Arsenal. I found only his Son at home, who very Civilly Entertained me; and shown me a Book in Quarto of his Father's of Greek Medals, near Printed off; but without Cutts. The Title was Nummi Graeci Imperatorum; he goes down no lower than to Claudius Gothicus. He hath added a large Appendix, with References to all the most Remarkable Heads about the Cities and the People.  
I left a Memoir with his Son; and in a second Visit, I found the old Gentleman at home, very busy in his Flower Garden; of which I shall speak hereafter.  
He told me, as to the Memoir I had left, he had never seen any Coins of Oedenatus; yet he had very lately parted with one of Zenobia to the Duke of Maine. As for Vabalathus, he had seen some of him in Brass; and one he had in Silver, which he very obliginly made me a Present of; and that this was the only Silver Coin he had ever met with of him.  
This is his Reading of it. VABALATHUS. V G. R. IMP. R. 
 Vices gerens Imperii Romani. 
 Les autres y lisent mal. YCRIMOR.  
He gave me also the Stamps of the Heads of Zenobia and Vabalathus, done from the King's Medals. See Tab. 2. These were designed for a short History of all the Emperors and Empresses, which he has by him written in French, but not published. Nothing could be more Civil and Franc than this Gentleman, whom I believe to be the best Medalist in Europe; he told me he had made 12 Voyages all over Europe and Asia Minor on purpose; That he had seen and described the Contents of more Cabinets, than any Man ever did before him; and it is evident by his Works, that he has made good use of them.  
I had a Visit from Mr. Conningham, Tutor to my Lord Lorne, a very Learned and Curious Man in Books. I asked him (knowing him to have been lately at Rome) very particularly about the Papers of Monsieur d'Azout. He told me, that he see him not above half a year before he died, and was very intimately acquainted with him, and saw him for a Twelvemonth very often. That he told him, that he had about 80 difficult Passages in Vitruvius, which he had Commented and Explained; and the Correction of a great number of Errata in the Text. Also that upon Julius Frontinus (though that was a much less Book) he had much more to say, than he had upon Vitruvius: What is become of his Papers I could not learn from him, nor any in Paris.  
Monsieur d'Azout was very Curious and Understanding in Architecture, for which purpose he was 17 years in Italy by times; I do remember when he was in England about 14 years ago, he shown me the Design of several of our Buildings drawn by himself; but of that of the Banqueting-house at Whitehall, he expressed himself in very extraordinary Terms, telling me, it was the most Regular, and most Finished Piece of Modern Workmanship he had seen on this side the Alps, that he could not enough praise it: That Inigo Jones, the Architect, had a true relish of what was Noble in that Art.  
It is time now to leave the Private Houses, and to Visit the Public Libraries; and with them such Persons as are more particularly concerned in the History of Learning.  

M. l'Abbe Drovine.  Monsieur l'Abbe Drovine came to visit me at my Lodgings. I returned the Visit the next day at his Apartment in the College de Boncourt. He had 4 or 5 little Rooms well furnished with Books; in the biggest he had a Collection of Catalogues of Books, and of all such who had writ the Accounts of Authors; above 3000 in all Languages. He told me he had studied the History of Books with the utmost application 18 years, and had brought his Memoirs into a good Method; That he had thoughts of Printing the first Tome this year, which would be of the most ancient Authors, Greek and Latin; That he intended to continue them throughout all the succeeding Ages down to our times; which he said he had performed in good part.  
He shown me the Catalogue of Authors in 4 very thick Folio's; alphabetically disposed by Family Names, under some such Title as this: Index alphabeticus omnium Scriptorum, cujuscunque facultatis temporis, & linguae: Those came to about 150000.  
He also shown me his Alphabetick Memoirs in Sheets of the Authors and Books they had writ, and in great forwardness. And lastly, the Chronological Catalogue, in which form he intends to Print the whole.  
He is a very Civil and well Tempered Person, very Learned and Curious, and of a middle Age, fit to continue and finish such a Laborious Work. I was infinitely obliged to him for his frequent Visits.  

Thevenot's Library.  I was to wait on Monsieur Gurnier, one of the Heirs of Monsieur Thevenot, to see the Remains of that Famous Man's Library. There are a great number of Oriental MSS. yet unsold.  
He shown me the MS. of Abulfeda, with its Latin Version, done by Monsieur Thevenot; and the Matrices and Forms of Arabic Letters, which he had, at his own Charge, caused to be cut for the Printing of certain proper Names in it.  
He went or designed to go into England and Holland to get it Printed, but was called back by Monsieur Louvois' Order, to Print it in France at the King's Charge; but the late Wars coming on, it was set aside, and is like to be so, for he was turned out of his place of Library Keeper to the King, and died in Disgrace.  
Those great number of Oriental Books he had most from his Nephew, whom he sent abroad for that purpose, and who died in his Travels.  
This Man was, as it were, the Founder of the Academy des Sciences, and was in his own Nature very Liberal, and gave Pensions to many Scholars.  
Amongst other things, I saw there a large Dictionary and Grammar of the Algonquin Tongue, one of the Nations of the West-Indies. The Fugitive Jesuit, who writ it, dwelled amongst them 20 years. Here it also saw a History, with large and accurate Descriptions of the Quadrupeds of that part of the West-Indies by the same Author.  
As for the Papers of Swammerdam, which indeed were the things I most coveted to see, they were much beneath my Expectation, not answering the Printed Catalogue of Thevenot, p. 239. There were, indeed, some Corrections of the Figures of his general History of Infects, and some Additions, as though he intended another Edition of that Book.  
Also towards a particular History, there were some small Treatises, or rather some Figures only of the Tadpole. Again, Figures relating to the Natural History of a certain Day Butterfly; Of the Asilus; Of the Scuttle Fish; Of the Scarabaeus Nasicornis; and some considerable number of Snails, as well naked, as fluviatil, and Sea dissected; at least figured with their Bodies exerted, and some of their Bowels extracted; and which seemed to me to be well understood and delineated. There were 2 or 3 Stitched Books in Dutch of 4 or 5 Sheets apiece belonging to those Plates or Figures. But the Gentleman would not part with any of them; because, he said, they had been secured by the Abbot Bignon for the King's use. However, all these I judge well worth Printing, when it shall please that Society to do it.  
Lastly, I saw in his Custody a fair MS. of Michael Servetus, with a Treatise at the end of it, which, as he said, was never published; being a Comparison of the Jewish and Christian Law, its Justice and Charity.  

King's ' Libary.  Mons. l'Abbe de Brillac, Almoner to the Prince of Conti, very obligingly offered to carry me to the King's Library; but I Civilly declined it, for I had been told, it was better to make Visits by one's self: for no Stranger but was very welcome, at all times; not only on the days it was publicly open, as it is upon Tuesdays and Fridays.  
Mons. Clemènt, the Deputy Library Keeper, made us welcome, and invited us to come again, and spend a whole day with him: He made me in particular a very great Compliment, as a considerable Benefactor to that place, showing me most of the Books and the Names of the rest, I had published in Latin; and shown a great satisfaction, that he had got the Synopsis Conchyliorum, which he had caused to be Bound very elegantly. I told him, that I was very sorry to see it there, and wondered how he came by it; for it was, I assured him, but a very imperfect trial of the Plates, which I had disposed of to some few Friends only, till I should be able to close and finish the Design; which I now had done to my power, and would redeem that Book with a better Copy at my return into England: The same Promise I renewed to the Abbe Louvois, the Library Keeper, at his own Instance, when I had the Honour to Dine with him. This young Gentleman is Brother to Monsieur Barbisieux, Intendant of the Affairs of War; he takes great care to apply himself to his Studies, and for that purpose has two of the Sorbone constantly with him to instruct him. He lives great, and has a House which joins upon the King's Library, of which he is Keeper. We were Entertained by him with all the Civility imaginable, and freedom of Conversation.  
This Library is now placed in a Private House, and taken out of the Lovure, but it is intended to be removed to the Place de Vendosme, where one side of that Magnisicent Square is designed for it. In the mean time it is here most commodiously disposed into 22 Rooms; 14 above Stairs, and 8 below and above. Those below are Philosophy and Physic, and the Shelves are Wired, to secure them: Above are the Books of Philosophy and Human Learning; and it is into those Rooms only the promiscous Crowd are admitted twice a week. In the middle Rooms, which makes the great Body of the Library, are, for Example, Catalogues of Books; Histories in one of England and Holland; in another the Histories of France and Germany; in another the Histories of Italy, Spain, etc. in other Bibles of all sorts, and the Interpretations; in another Greek MSS. in another Latin MSS. in another the Civil and Municipial Laws of all Nations; in another the Original Papers of State; in another Stamps, where, by the by, the King had the Collection of Mons. Marolles to divert him, in one of his Sicknesses, bought in at a vast Sum: The Catalogue alone of these Stamps, no bigger than two small Almanacs, cost me 14 Livres; so much Strangers are imposed upon by the Crafty Booksellers of Rue St. Jaques; but 'tis not in France alone, where People are made to pay for their Humour.  
They have Two Indices of this Library; one relating to the Matter and Contents of Books; and another Index of Authors, wherein are all the Works they have of them, and the Titles of all likewise that they know of, that are wanting, with an Asterism to such in the Margin; which is well done, that they may know what they have to buy in. It is indeed a vast Collection, and worthy so great a Prince. This Library consists at least of 50000 Volumes of Printed Books; and 15000 MSS. in all Languages.  
They work daily and hard at the Catalogue, which they intent to Print; I saw 10 thick Folio's of it, fairly transcribed for the Press. It is disposed according to the Subject Matter of the Books, as the Bibles and Expositors, Historians, Philosophers, etc. They purpose to put it into the Press this years, and to finish it within a Twelvemonth.  
In the King's Library I was shown an Ancient Greek MS. of Dioscorides, writ in a sort of thin or narrow Capitals, with the Plants painted in Water-colours; but the first Book was wholly wanting, and therefore the Animals not there, which yet was what I most desired to see; for there are some things relating to them, which we are at this day in great doubt of; and it would have been some satisfaction to have seen by the Pictures, what the middle Ages, at least, had thought of them.  
In the same Room also we were shown the Epistles; which was one part of the same MS. which we have at Cambridge, which is the Gospels only. Beza was possessed of ours, from whom we had it. It is written in square Capitals, and very short Lines, and much worn out in many places. This comes much short of the Alexandrian MS. at St. James' for Beauty and Antiquity.  
There was another MS. of the Gospel of St. Matthew, which was but of late discovered; a very fair Volume in a large Folio. This was cut to pieces in the back, and had been shuffled and bound up again; and another Book overwritten in a small Modern Greek Hand, about 150 years ago. The first Writing was turned so pale, that they took no pains to rub it out. One of the Library Keepers observing this, hath reduced it again by paging it anew; and with a little heeding 'tis yet very legible. The Letter is as fair a square Capital as any I have seen. There are some Interpretations very notorious, as about the Descent of the sick Man into the Pool of Bethesda; which I suppose will be accounted for by the Industrious and Learned Collator.  
I observed the China Manuscripts which Father Beauvais brought this year as a Present to the King. They are about 44 Packs of small Books, of a long Quarto fashion, put up in lose Covers of a Purple Satin glued on Pasteboard; of Natural History, of Dictionaries relating to the Exposition of their Characters, etc.  
The King had a Sett much of the same before in White-Sattin, with their Titles.  
Here also I see the 3d Decade of Livy, a large Quarto in velum, without Distinction of Words in fair large Capitals. It is supposed by Monsieur Baluze to be 1100 year old.  
Yet the Manuscript of Prudentius Hymns, which was also showed us, is a much fairer Letter, and therefore thought to be older by one Century at least.  
Here also I saw a famous Latin Roll or Volume written of Egyptian Paper, Entitled, Charta Plenariae Securitatis, taken the 38th years of Justinian; it is fanly Ingraved and Interpreted Letter by Letter upon Copper by Monsieur Thevenot. I saw the Print thereof: It is writ long-ways the Roll and not cross; in three Columns: The Column in the middle is three times as long as the two end Columns. The Roll is not above a foot broad.  
They shown us also in this House, the Apartment of Monsieur Hugeins, which was very Noble, and well for Air, upon the Garden: But here he fell Melancholy, and Died of it in Holland. He shown the first Tokens of it by playing with a Tame Sparrow, and neglecting his Mathematic Schemes. 'Tis certain, Life and Health of Body and Mind are not to be preserved but by the Relaxation, and unbending the Mind by Innocent Diversions. For Sleep is nothing else that I know off, but the giving up the Reins, and letting Nature to Act alone, and to put her in full possession of the Body. We have a convincing instance of this, in being a Bed awake: No Man can lie still 3 Minutes without turning; and if it come not presently upon us, we must turn again and again; and at length we become so intolerably weary, that our Bed is a very wrack to us. Whereas, if we chance to fall a sleep, though we lie in one and the same posture 7 hours, we shall Wake fresh and without pain, as tho' the Body did not weigh at all upon itself in Sleep. 'Tis certain, the Nerves and Muscles are in little or no Tension in Sleep; but when we are awake, are always stretched and compressed, whence weariness: which, if upon our Feet or Sitting, we are not sensible off, because we remove quick and with ease, and of course; but laid, we soon find ourselves very uneasy, till we change the posture.  
But this is not all in the King's Library: There are other things to be seen, viz. A considerable number of Ancient Roman and Egyptian Antiquities; as, Lamps, Pateras, and other Vessels belonging to the Sacrifices; A Sistrum or Egyptian Rattle with three lose and running Wires cross it.  
Amongst the great variety of Egyptian Idols, there was one betwixt 2 and 3 foot long of Black Touchstone, with Hieroglyphics engraven down before. I took particular notice of the Grain of this Stone; and at my return, having had the Honour of a Paper from Mr. Molyneux from Dublin, giving an account of the vast and stupendious Natural Pillars to be seen in Ireland, and that the Stones or Joints which constitute these Pillars, are of the Lapis Lydius, or Basaltes Kind, having seen one of the Joints at Gresham-Colledge, I easily agree with him; but much admire, that the Pebble Kind should produce such regular Figures; which is certainly the very hardest Stone to be found in Europe, and which no Tool of ours will cut.  
This also is another Instance (the carved Oblisks being one) of the different make and goodness of the Egyptian Chisels, of which, and of the retrieving the ancient Temper of Steel, I have published a Discourse in the Ph. Transactions some years ago.  
I should have had more satisfaction in this Kind, had I met with what I earnestly sought for, the Egyptian Tombs, which were a long time in the Garden of Monsieur Valentine at Paris; but were unluckily sent away to his House at Tours, not long before our coming to Paris: One of these Tombs is said to be of black Touchstone, to have been brought out of the higher Egypt, and to be full of Hierogliphics. Of this in particular Kircher has written.  
There is in this Collection a large Piece of Tin Oar from England, very curious; it has on one side of it a great number of fair and large Opaque Crystals of Tin, shining like polished Steel: The plains of those Crystals I could not easily reckon, but sure I am, having with care examined all the Stone Crystals, I could meet with, both precious and more common, and also the Crystals of all Fossil Salts, I never before observed that figure in any of them, but believe them of a peculiar nature, proper to Tin Oar. I call them Crystals, though Opaque, because angular and of one constant figure.  

P. Hardovin.  I was at the College of Clermont with Pere Hardovin; he shown me the Library with great Civility; it consists of two long Galleries; The Galleries are well furnished with Books, having Lights only on one side, and the Windows are not over large; with Tables under each Light, very commodiously placed for Writing and Reading. Also certain Closets for Manuscripts, and others for forbidden Books. In this he shown a great Collection of Jansenius' Original Letters. In the other a Greek manuscript of the Prophets, of Eusebius' own Hand Writing; it was in Capitals, but of a different Character from any I had seen; The Letters very erect, but something thinner, and not so square.  
Also a Vulgar Latin in Capitals, very Ancient.  
I told him I was well pleased with his Pliny in usum Delphini; and that it was to the Honour of the French Nation to have laboured more particularly upon that Author; Delachampius first, than Salmasius' Exercitationes Plinianae; and lastly, this his most Elegant Edition.  
The Books are well disposed under Gilt Titles, as Medici in Folio, and over-against them, where the Windows will permit, the Medici in Quarto; in the other Galley runs a Balustrade, within which are placed the Octavos and Twelves.  
At one end of the upper Gallery is a very large Tableau, an Original of Nicolo, of the Massacer of Agamenon; in it there is this commendable, That in such a horrid Fury, and such variety of Murders in half naked Figures, no one indecent posture is to be seen.  
Pere Hardovin seemed to doubt of the Inscription of Palmyra put out by M. Spoon; That the Greek was faulty, and the Syriac very questionable. I told him we had had it lately Copied, carefully and truly by one at Rome; Which took away his Objection of the multiplicity of Letters.  
Both he and valiant agreed, that they had never seen any Medal of Odenatus. He very obligingly answered my Memoir about Palmyra, Zenobia, and Vabalathus, with a Transcript of all the Coins he had seen, and had in his possession; which follows.  

Nummi Zenobiae.  
ϹΕΠΤΙΜΙΑ ΖΗΝΟΒΙΑ ϹΕΒ. ℞. Spes. est apud Seguinum, p. 62.  
Odenati nullum vidi, nisi apud Occonem, nullum Palmyrenum.  
Vabalathi apud Dom. Foucault rei aerariae ac judiciariae Praefectum in Neustria inferiore.  
Α. Κ. Λ. ΑΟΜ. ΑΥΡΗΛΙΑΝΟϹ. ϹΕΒ. capite laureato. Sub ipsum Aureliani mentum litera L. absque anni numero.  
℞. ΑΥΤ. ΕΡΜΙΑϹ ΟΥΑΒΑΛΑΘΟϹ ΑΘΗΝΟΥ. capite radiato.  
℞. ΑΥΓ. Κ. Λ. Δ. ΑΥΡΗΛΙΑΝΟϹ. ϹΕΒ. capite laureato. L. A.  
℞. ΑΥΤ. ΕΡΜΙΑϹ. ΟΥΑΒΑΛΑΘΟϹ. ΑΘΗ. capite diademate L. Δ.  
ΑΥΤ. Κ. Λ. Δ. ΑΥΡΗΛΙΑΝΟϹ ϹΕΒ. capite laureato. L. B.  
℞. ΑΥΓ. ΕΡΜΙΑϹ. ΟΥΑΒΑΛΑΘΟϹ. ΑΘΗΝΟΥ. capite diademate. L. E.  
IMP. C. AURELIANUS AUG. capite radiato.  
℞. VABALATHUS VCRIMPR. alii male VCRIMOR. sic olim interpretatus sum. Vice Caesaris, rector imperii Romani.  
IMP. C. VHABALATHUS AUG. capite radiato.  
℞. VICTORIA AUG. victoria gestat palmam & coronam.   

Grand Jesuits.  The Library of the Grand Jesuits, near the Gate St. Antoine, is a very fair Gallery of great length and breadth, and well furnished with Books, on the very top of the House: They find, that Books keep much drier and sweeter there, than in lower Rooms, besides the advantage of a clear Sky-light.  
P. Daniel is Library Keeper; and was very Civil to me; he shown me a Letter, which he had just then received from Mons. Huetius, the Learned Bishop of d'Auranches near Mont St. michael's in Normandy; wherein he told him, that having lately received the Catalogues of Books Printed in Holland and England, during the War; he found, that Learning was much alike at a kind of stand in Holland and France; but, that it had yet life and vigour in England, which he rejoiced at.  
And, indeed, I had had the same thought from more of the French before. Even the Jesuits themselves will be little considered, if Learning fall into neglect and disgrace. Oratory ceased with the Commonwealth of Rome; and so will all sorts of Learning without Emulation and Rewards.  
He shown me P. de la Chaise's Cabinet of Medals.  
Also a Vestal of Copper found at Dee in the Country of le Forest.  
Also a very entire Loaf or Roman 10 Pound weight of Red Copper, on which was inscribed Deae. Sec. P. X.  
Also a square Stone Urn, or small Tomb, well Carved, and Inscribed. D. M. 
 SULPICIO 
 NOTO. ADESTE 
 SUPERI.  

l'Abbaie de St. Germains.  I saw the Choir of the Abbey of St. Germains, and the Altar near the lower end of it; in which Position also I remember to have seen an Altar in the Choir of St. John's Church at Lions; both plain Tables. Mons. l'Abbe de Villiers, who has an Apartment in the Convent, a Learned Man, went with me, and to the Library also; which is two large Galleries well furnished; at the end of one of them is a large Closet of Manuscripts; also another Armoir in the great Library, where the most ancient Manuscripts are kept, yet with more care. In this I saw the Psalter, as it is believed, of St. , who lived in the 6th Century; it is certainly very ancient; being a large Quarto of fine purple Velom, and on it are writ the Psalms in large Capital Letters, with Commas or Points. The Letters seem to have been of Silver; and the great Initial Capitals of Gold.  
They show also a Psalter in the short Notes of Tyro, Tullius' Libertus; with a Discourse concerning the use of such Short Hand in the beginning of the Manuscript; it was writ very fair on Velom, with red Ink, as I remember.  
The Codicils or Waxed Table Books of the Ancients; which were thin Cedar Board's about 14 inches long, and 5 broad, 6 or 8 of them glued together by Shreds of Parchmen; The Rims were a little raised, with a flat and broad Border, the better to preserve the black Wax, which was spread over them. I saw more of these afterwards in the King's Library; and by the Letter it is manifest, they were in use much later, than I could have imagined. This here was in Latin, and I could read here and there a Word, for the ground was much torn up, as Pro duobus Falconibus, etc. The Style or Steel Pen had cut through in many places; so that with a good Eye-glass I could see the board bare. I take this past to be nothing else, but what the Etchers in Copper use at this day to cover their Plates with, to defend from the Aquafortis; which is a Composition of Bitumen and Bees Wax.  
Here also I saw a Manuscript of 3 or 4 Leaves written upon true Egyptian Paper, in which with an Eye-glass 'twas easy to discern, how the flags were disposed, length-ways and , one over another. The Letters which remained, which were but few, were large and fair square Capitals. This Fragment I take to be the most ancient Writing they have.  

P. Mabillon.  I Visited in this Convent, at his Chamber, Pere Mabillon, who has so well deserved of the Commonwealth of Learning by his Writings, and particularly that Excellent Book De re Diplomaticâ; he seemed to me to be a very good Natured and Freehearted Man; and was very well pleased to hear, that our Catalogue of English Manuscripts was so forward in the Press at Oxford. He thankfully owned the favour of the Cotton Library; and was very sorry to hear of Dr. Bernard's Death, of whom he spoke very kindly; but he expressed a wonderful Esteem for Dr. Gale, the Dean of York.  
In another Conversation I had with P. Mabillon, (for he was my Neighbour, and I was often with him) telling him the Account we had brought us of Palmyra, and the Tracts that were writ of it, and that more was intended to be published about it, he was much concerned, that those Accounts, which were pure Matters of Learning in general, were written in English; and he told me, he was afraid it might be with us, as it was with them, since they cultivated their own Language so much, they began to neglect the ancient Tongues, the Greek and Latin.  
He shown me certain Figures not ill taken with Red Chalk, of some very ancient Monuments observed by some of the Fathers of their Order; one of which was present in the Chamber, upon the Mountain of Framond near Salme, which lies in the middle of that Tract of the Mountain, called La Vauge, betwixt Alsace and Lorraine. There were great Remains of an ancient City. These Figures which the Fathers shown me, were about 12 in all; but 5 or 6 of them were of Mercury; and Cock at his Foot; a Chlamys knotted upon the Right Shoulder, hanging at his Back; his Hair laid in curls about his Face, and tied with a Ribbon, whose two ends might be seen on the top of his Head, like Horns; a Caduceus in his Hand, which was very differently represented in all the Figures of him; sometimes held up, othertimes the point resting at his Feet; sometimes the Snakes were twisted about a Stick; and again in others without one, or the Designer had taken no notice of it; sometimes the Tail of the Serpents spread and flying about, and again in others close twisted with many braids; a Girdle came round the bottom of his Belly, and which had in the middle of it two Rings, one fastened to the other, and hanging betwixt his Legs. These many Statues of Mercury in a French Country are a confirmation of what Caesar says of the Religion of the Gauls, in his 6th Book, Deum maxime Mercurium colunt: hujus sunt plurima simulacra, etc.  
There were some few Roman Letters on some of them, which were so imperfect that I could make nothing of them.  

Library of St. Genevieve.  The Library of St. Genevieve is a very large and fair Gallery, upon the very top of the House, well stored with Books on both sides up to the top, and kept in Cases wired with Brass; which is a good security, and hinders not the Books from being seen.  
Also it is adorned with fair Busto's of the ancient Men of Learning.  
The Musaeum is a little Closet on the side of this Gallery; of which there is a Book lately published: I saw in it very little of Natural History, that was remarkable. They keep half a dozen Joints of a large Cornu Ammonis, which they show as a rarity. But it is well stored with ancient Idols, and Sacrificing Vessels, Lacrymatoirs, Pateras, Strigils; also ancient Weights and Measures; Coins, and particularly the As, and its first and latter Divisions.  
There we saw an ancient As, with Etruscan Letters of a kind of red Copper; The Letters seem to be akin to the old Greek Characters. These are the Capital Letters about the Coin going round, and bringing every Letter before you. See Table 1. Figure 2.  
As quasi Aes; This is very reasonable, for before the Greeks had invented double Letters, the Romans were skilled in their Writing. So Vitruvius 
† De architect. l. 7. c. 2. Ed. Barbari.  tells us Aerugo was in the Hetruscan Tongue called Eruca; Whence undoubtedly by Translation the common Caterpillar had its Name, from its blueness; which also is an evidence, that the Tuscan Writing was in the old Greek Character.  
But nothing pleased me more than to have seen the Remains of the Cabinet of the Noble Pieresc. the greatest and heartiest Maecenas to his power of Learned Men of any of this Age.  
Amongst the first and very old Brass Roman Coins there was a Sextans with a Caduceus of Mercury on one side, and a Scallop Shell on the other; probably, because they might have at first had the use of Shell Money, as some parts of both the Indies and Africa have at this day, till Mercury, whose Emblem that Staff is, taught them the use of Metallic Money.  
Also in this Cabinet are Wet Measures, as the Ancient Congius, of which they have an old one, and an exact Copy of that of the Capitol; also a Sextarius, and a Quartarius. Now the Congius containing 120 Ounces The Sextarius 20 Ounces; The Hemina 10 Ounces; The Quartarius 5 Ounces, I doubt not but the Cyathus, by reason of the aforesaid Division, held two Ounces and an half; which is the Measure so frequently to be met with in old Physic Authors, and of so great concern in Doses.  
In that Hetruscan As , one Cap quoifs or covers the double head of Janus. I saw an ancient Statue of Mercury in the Garden belonging to the King's Library in Paris, where Mercury has upon his Head a long Cap doubled, or laid double upon his Head, as though there were some affinity betwixt those two Inventors of Trade, Arts and Learning.  
Here also we saw the Steel Dies of the Paduan Brothers, by which they stamped and falsified the best ancient Medals so well, that they are not to be distinguished but by putting them into those Moulds; which makes them very valuable, there being a 100 and more of them, and are prised at 10000 Crowns. They Stamped upon old Medals, whereby the Cheat was the greater; for by this means they were of the ancient Metal, had the green Coat, and the same ragged Edges.  
I saw a Picture here of about 6 inches over, finely painted in Mosaic, the very little squares were scarce visible to the naked Eye, but the whole appeared like the finest Hatching in Stamps; yet by the application of a good Eye-glass, I could readily distinguish the squares of all colours, as in other Mosaiques. This sort of Painting had a very admirable effect, besides the duration.  
Here was also the Leg of a Mummi well preserved, the Toes only bare, black and shining as Pitch: The Bandage was very curious and was disposed in Obliqne Circles, Decussated; but the Fillating very narrow. I told the Father, that this was still Flesh; and that Mummy therefore in Venice-Treacle did break Lent, if given at that time; He answered, he did not believe it: I told him how he should be convinced, viz. If that Leg was kept a good while in a damp Cellar, it would yield and stink like very Carrion, tho' it was at least 3000 years old; which thing happened to one in London, so carelessly laid by.  
There was one thing very curious, and that was an Ancient Writing Instrument of thick and strong Silver-Wire, wound up like a hollow Bottom or Screw; with both the Ends pointing one way, and at a distance; so that a Man might easily put his Forefinger betwixt the two Points, and the Screw fills the Ball of his Hand. One of the Points was the Point of a Bodkin, which was to Write on Waxed Tables: The other Point was made very Artificially, like the Head and Upper-Beak of a Cock, and the Point divided in two, just like our Steel-Pens; from whence undoubtedly the Moderns had their Patterns; which are now made also of fine Silver and Gold, or Prince's Metal; all which yet want a Spring, and are therefore not so useful as of Steel, or a Quill: But a Quill soon spoils; Steel is undoubtedly the best, and if you use China Ink, the most lasting of all Inks, it never rusts the Pen, but rather preserves it with a kind of Varnish which dries upon it, though you take no care in wiping it.  

M. Colberts Library.  I saw the Library of the late Monsieur Colbert, that great Patron of Learning. The Gallery wherein the Printed Books are kept, is a Ground-Room, with Windows on one side only, along a fine Garden. It is the neatest Library in Paris, very large, and exceedingly well furnished. At the upper-end is a fair Room, wherein the Papers of State are kept; particularly those of the Administration of Cardinal Mazarine, and his own Accounts when he was in Employment: These make up many hundred Folio's, finely Bound in Red Maroquin and Gilt.  
The Manuscript Library is above-stairs, in three Rooms, and is the choicest of that kind in Paris: It contains 6610 Volumes. The Catalogue of them Monsieur Balure shown me; which he said was designed shortly for the Press.  
He shown me many rare Books, Carolus Calvus' Bible, a vast Folio in velum, and his Prayer Book or Hours, all writ in Gold Letters.  
Also the Missa Beati Rhenani, whereof all the Copies were burnt but four. The Original Deed of the Agreement of the Greek and Roman Church at Florence. The Regalia agreed upon at Lions, and many others which I have forgot.  
I saw neither Greek nor Latin Manuscript but what had the Marks of the Goths upon them: that is, the Letters maimed, and consequently not very Ancient.  
He shown us Servietoes Book, for which he was Burnt at Geneva; which cost Monsieur Colbert at an Auction in England, 25 Crowns. The Title is, De Trinitatis Erroribus Libri 7. per Michaelam Serveto alias Reves ab Aragonia Hispanum 1531. I had forgot the particular place where the Circulation of the Blood through the Lungs is mentioned: but he told me very Civilly, I should have it Transcribed at any time.  
We told him, we came to see him as well as the Library: He replied, It was his hap to have more Reputation than Merit. He was a little old Man, but very cheerful and of a quick Wit.  
He complained much of the Refusal of the Emperor's People concerning the Manuscripts of Vienna, in order to the publication of the Capitulaires: For he said, Letters were never at War: That for his part he had most willingly given leave for at least Twenty four Manuscripts to be Collated for Dr. Mill's Edition of the Testament.  

Library of the Sorbonne.  The Library of the Sorbonne is a very long and large Gallery, reasonable well stored with Books; no Catalogue Printed.  
Amongst the Manuscripts, they show, Titus Livy in French, upon velum, in a very large Folio, Bound in two Books: The first is almost throughout Illuminated with very fine Miniatures. The Book is Dedicated to King John, by Pelon. Berchorius: And in the Title Page is a very curious Design of that King receiving the Present from the Author of the Translation.  
Amongst the Illuminations and Ornamental Pictures in the Margin, I could not but take notice of a Brass Cannon fired, well Painted, with two large Arms or Gudgeons, one on each side near the Touchhole; which Evinces Cannon to have been in use at that time.  
This Manuscript confirms the loss of Titus Livy, and that it was deficient in that Age, as to what is now wanting, there being nothing more in this than what is in the Printed Copy. This was the Gift of Cardinal Richlieu to the Library; who in a manner Rebuilt the whole College, and Beautified it as it is. His Tomb is in the middle of the Choir, before the great Altar, in White Marble; and is for plainness and exquisite Performance, the best thing of that kind I ever saw.  

Library St. Victor.  I see the Library of St. Victor: This most Ancient Convent is the best seated of any in Paris; has very large Gardens, with shady Walks, well kept. The Library is a fair and large Gallery: It is open three days a week, and has a range of double Desks quite through the middle of it, with Seats and Conveniencies of Writing for 40 or 50 People.  
The Catalogue was not finished, nor intended to be Printed; which yet I think is always necessary in all Corporations, for check of loss of Books, for the use of Strangers, for Benefactions.  
In a part of it, at the upper end, are kept the Manuscripts; they are said to be 3000; which though not very Ancient, have yet been found very useful for the most correct Editions of many Authors. This is one of the pleasantest Rooms that can be seen, for the Beauty of its Prospect, and the Quiet and Freedom from Noise in the middle of so great a City.  
In this Convent is very prettily lodged, in an outward Court, Monsieur Morin, another Physician of that Name. In his Apartment, he hath a large and excellent Collection of Physic Books and Natural History. He Saluted me with the greatest Kindness imaginable; and at first word, asked me, If there was any more of Sir Francis Willoughby's Works Printed besides his History of Fishes, and that other of Birds; both which he had. He had in another Room a well stored Musaeum of Natural History, of all sorts, and of comparative Anatomies: A Cabinet of Shells, another of Seeds, among which were some from China: Variety of Skeletons, etc.  

Celestins.  I saw the Celestins. The Library is an Upper-Gallery, very pleasant, and plentifully furnished with Books. This is a very fine Convent; with the noblest Dortoire, having open Galleries round: also, very large Gardens, with Alleys and shady Groves; and divers Kitchen-gardens, well Cultivated. Also a Vineyard of White-Wine Grapes, well kept; which is the only thing of that Kind within the Walls of Paris.  
Here I also saw the Closet or Cell of P. Hochereau; who had a very choice Collection of Original Paintings, of very many of the best Masters: Amongst the rest, I took notice of the Originals of Rambrant, excellent Pieces, St. Peter and the Cock: The Nativity of our Saviour: And, The Massacre of the Innocents'. His Colouring is not to be imitated: his Invention great and natural, and the Design most correct.  

〈…〉 de l'Oratoirs. P. Mallebranch.  I was to Visit Pere Mallebranche of the Fathers of the Oratory: They live very neatly together in a kind of Community, but under no Rule: He was very handsomely lodged, in a Room well furnished: He is a very tall, lean man, of a ready Wit and cheerful Conversation.  
After an hours discourse, he carried me into the Public Library of the House: A fair Gallery well lighted, and well furnished with Books; with an Apartment at the upper end for Manuscripts, where were many Greek and Hebrew. Amongst the rest, the Library-Keeper shown us the Samaritan Pentateuch, of which Morin made use. It seemed to me to be much later than that of Sir John Cotton's Library with us, because it was of a much smaller Letter, and more broken in the Writing, which was all I am capable to judge by.  
They were busy in Reforming the Disposition of the Library; and making a good Catalogue, according to the Method of the late Archbishop of Rheims; and which I like well of, they had drawn out some Hundreds of Books, and exposed them in the middle of the Library, upon a long Table, for Sale, as being Duplicates; and from the Sale of them to furnish themselves with what they wanted.  
The Books which were written by Protestants, I observed, they were locked up in Wired Cases, not to be come at without particular leave.  
The Freedom and Nature of this Order puts me in mind of what I heard of a certain rich and learned Man, Monsieur Pinet, of the Law; who put himself at length into Religion, as they say, amongst the Fathers; but first persuaded his Cook to do so too; for he was resolved not to quit his good Soups, and such Dishes as he liked, whatever became of his Penance and Retirement. This Compliment the Elegant and Learned Monsieur Peletier, in Monsieur Colbert's place, Controller General of the Finances, made his Guests at his Country House near Choisy, having voluntarily quitted all his Employments at Court: He said, He reserved his Cook, tho' he retrencht the rest of his Retinue; they might therefore expect a slender Philosopher's Dinner, tho' well dressed.  
It is wonderful to consider how most of the rest of the Orders abuse themselves for God's Sake, as they call it. Hunger and Ill-Diet not only destroys a Man's Health, but Maugre all his Devotion, puts him out of Humour, and makes him Repine and Envy the rest of Mankind; and well if it do not make him also Curse in his Heart his Maker; Job is not every Man's Roll to Act. The Original and Rise of Natural Philosophy and Physic was to Invent a more wholesome and better Food, than the Beasts have, and to Eat Bread and Flesh instead of Herbs and Corn; to Drink Wine instead of Water; those, and a thousand other things were the Blessings of Physic, and still the good management of these things, both in Health and Sickness, are under the Directions of the Physicians. Now for a sort of Melancholy and Wilful Men, to renounce these Comforts, and destroy their Healths, and all this upon a pretended Principle of Religion and Devotion, seems to me, I confess, great Ingratitude to God the Author of it.  
Indeed, I hearty pitied F. P. an industrious honest Man, after his return from the Indies, who was nothing but Skin and Bone; and yet by the Rules of his Order he could not Eat any thing that was wholesome and proper for his Cure; nothing but a little slimy nasty Fish and Herbs: And tho' he took, as he told me, Hypocochoana five times, it had no effect upon him. 'Tis true, I never heard him complain; But what will not blind prejudice do against all the Reason of Mankind.  
I know some of these Men have been useful to Mankind by their Studies; but the very same men would have been much more, had they stayed with their Neighbours, and Taught the World by their Conversation and Example; Wisdom, and Justice, and Innocence, and Temperance, which they highly pretend to, are not things to be hid in Corners, but to be brought forth to Instruct and Adorn the Age we live in: To abandon the World, and all the Conveniencies of Life and Health, is (let them say what they please) the height of Chagrin, and not Religion.  
There were some other Public Libraries I saw, as that of the Grands Augustins, College Mazarin, College Navarre, and great many more I did not see for want of an opportunity; but there is nothing particular I remember about them.  
There is such a passion of setting up for Libraries, that Books are come to most unreasonable Rates.  
I paid to Anisson 36 Livres for Nizolius; 20 Livres for the Two small Quarto's of the Memoirs of the Academy de Sciences, that is, as I may say, for two years Philosophic Transactions; for they began those Monthly Memoirs in imitation of ours, out of the Registers of the Academy, but did not think fit to continue them above two years.  
As to Stamps, I had a mind to have bought a complete Set of Melans, that incomparable Master; but I was asked 200 Livres, and 12 excepted, which might amount to as much more; for some of his Graving in Octavo done at Rome, they asked me a Pistol apiece; and for the Head of Justinianus a Lovis; which yet is his Masterpiece.  
I was at an Auction of Books in the Ruë St. Jaques, where were about 40 or 50 People, most Abbots and Monks. The Books were sold with a great deal of trifling and delay as with us, and very dear; for Hispania illustrata Aud. Sciotti, of the Francfort Edition, from 20 Livres, at which it was set, they bid up by little and little to 36 Livres; at which it was sold. The next was a Catalogue of French Books in a thin Fol. in an old Parchment Cover by De la Croix de Maine, 8 Livres. And so I left them to shift it amongst themselves.  
After having said so much of the Public Libraries, I cannot but congratulate their happiness, to have them so well secured from Fire; it being one of the Perfections of this City to be so built and furnished, as not to have suffered by it these many Ages; and, indeed, I cannot see how Malice itself could destroy them, for the Houses here are all built of Stone, Walls, Floors, Staircases and all, some few Rooms excepted; no Wainscot; Woollen or Silk Hang, which cannot be fired without giving notice by the intolerable stench, and the supply of much Fuel. 'Tis well for us in London, that there are very few public Libraries, and those small and inconsiderable, and that the great number of Books are distributed into a thousand hands, (no Country in Europe can compare to us for private Libraries) for if they were together in such vast quantities as in Paris, Learning would run the hazard of daily suffering. Here with us, methinks, every Man that goes to Bed, when asleep, lies like a dead Roman upon a Funeral Pile, dreading some unexpected Apotheosis; for all is combustible about him, and the Paint of the Deal Board's may serve for Incense, the quicker to burn him to Ashes.  
In the next place I will Account for what I saw, that seemed to me singular and new in the Improvement of Arts, or wanting in our Country.  

pottery of St. Clou.  I saw the pottery of St. Clou, with which I was marvellously well pleased, for I confess I could not distinguish betwixt the Pots made there, and the finest China Beware I ever saw. It will, I know, be easily granted me, that the Paintings may be better designed and finished, (as indeed it was) because our Men are far better Masters in that Art, than the Chinese; but the Glazing came not in the least behind theirs, not for whiteness, nor the smoothness of running without Bubbles; again, the inward Substance and Matter of the Pots was, to me, the very same, hard and firm as Marble, and the self same grain, on this side vitrification. Farther, the Transparency of the Pots the very same.  
I see them also in the Mould, undried, and before the Painting and Glazing was applied, they were as white as Chalk, and melted upon the Tongue like raw Tobacco Pipe Clay, and felt betwixt the Teeth soft like that, and very little gritty; so that I doubt not, but they are made of that very Clay.  
As to the Temper of the Clay, the Man freely owned to me, it was 3 or 4 times well beaten and wet, before it was put to work on the Wheel; but I believe it must first be melted in fair Water, and carefully drawn off, that the heaviest part may first sink; which also may be proper for Courser Works.  
That it required two, and sometimes 3 or 4 Fires to bake it, to that height we saw it in the most finished Pots: Nay, some of them had had 11 Fires.  
I did not expect to have found it in this perfection, but imagined this might have arrived at the Gomron Ware; which is, indeed, little else, but a total Vitrification; but I found it far otherwise, and very surprising, and which I account part of the felicity of the Age to equal, if not surpass the Chineses in their finest Art.  
As for the Red Ware for China, that has been, and is done in England, to a far greater perfection than in China, we having as good Materials, viz. the Soft Haematites, and far better Artists in Pottery. But in this particular we are beholding to two Dutchmen Brothers, who wrought in Staffordshire, (as I have been told) and were not long since at Hammersmith.  
They sold these Pots at St. Clou at excessive Rates; and for their ordinary Chocolate Cups asked Crowns apiece. They had arrived at the Burning on Gold in neat Chequer Works. He had some Furnitures of Ten Tables at 400 Livres a Sett.  
There was no Moulding or Model of China Ware, which they had not imitated; and had added many Fancies of their own, which had their good effects, and appeared very beautiful.  
Mons. Morin in Conversation told me, that they kept their Sand as a Secret to themselves; but this could not be for other purposes than Colouring: Also he said they used Salt of Kelp in the Composition, and made a thing not unlike Frit for Glass to be wrought up with White Clay; neither could this be, for I did not taste it in the Raw Pots.  
The Ingenuous Master told me, he had been 25 years about the Experiment, but had not attained it fully, till within this 3 years.  

Glasserie.  The Glass-house out of the Gate of St. Antoine well deserves seeing; but I did lament the Fondery was no longer there, but removed to Cherborne in Normandy for cheapness of Fuel. 'Tis certainly a most considerable addition to the Glass-making. For I saw here one Looking-glass foiled and finished, 88 inches long, and 48 inches broad; and yet but one quarter of an inch thick. This, I think, could never be effected by the Blast of any Man; but I suppose to be run or cast upon Sand, as Lead is; which yet, I confess, the toughness of Glass Metal makes very much against.  
There they are polished; which Employs daily 600 Men, and they hope in a little time to employ a 1000 in several Galleries. In the lower they grind the course Glass with a Sand Stone, the very same they Pave the Streets in Paris; of which broken they have great heaps in the Courts of the Work-houses: This Stone is beat to Powder, and sifted through a fine Tamis. In the Upper Gallery, where they polish and give the last Hand, they work in 3 Rows, and 2 Men at a Plate, with Ruddle or Powdered Haematites in Water.  
The Glasses are set fast in White Puttie, upon flat Tables of Stone, sawed thin for that purpose. The grinding the Edges and Borders is very troublesome, and odious for the horrid grating noise it makes, and which cannot be endured to one that is not used to it; and yet by long custom these Fellows are so easy with it, that they Discourse together as nothing were. This is done below, and out of the way of the rest.  
'Tis very diverting to see the joint Labour of so many Men upon one Subject. This has made Glass for Coaches very cheap and common; so that even many of the Fiacres or Hackneys, and all the Remises have one large Glass before.  

Artificial Pearl.  Amongst the Bïoux made at Paris, a great quantity of Artificial Pearl is to be had, of divers sorts; but the best are those which are made with Scales of Bleakes. These Bleaks they fish in the River Seine at Paris, and sell them to the Pearl-makers for that purpose.  
Mons. Favi, at the Pearl d'Angleterre, told me, that he paid for the Fish only of the little River Yier of Ville Neuve St. George, 4 Leagues off of Paris, by the year 110 Pistols. This Fish in French is called De la Bellette: Sometimes in Winter he has had 30 Hampers of the Fish brought him, for the Scales only which he uses in Pearl-making. He sells some Strings for a Pistol; and they have formerly been sold much dearer. This sort is very neat and lasting.  
Enquiring of a Goldsmith, a great Dealer in Pearl, about those which were made of the Scales of Fishes, he told me, that it was so; That the Scales were beat to Powder, and that made into a Liquid Past with Icing-glass, and cast into the hollow Glass Beads, and so gave the colour by way of foil from the inside.  
I asked him, if he had any Fresh Water and Muscle Pearl; and he forthwith shown me one of 23 Grains, of a blush colour or faint Cornation, perfectly globular; he told me, he valued it at 400 l. for that it would mix or match better with the Oriental Sea Pearl, than the bluish ones. Further, he assured me he had seen Pearl of 60 odd Grains of Fresh Water Muscles; and some Pear fashioned. That in Lorraine, and at Sedan, they fished many Pearls in the Rivers thereabout.  

The Gobelins.  The formerly so famous a Workhouse, the Goblins, is miserably fallen to decay; perhaps, because the King having furnished all his Palaces, has little more to do for them.  
Here I saw the making Marble Tables, inlaid with all sorts of coloured Stones.  
Also the Atteliers or Work-houses of Two of the famous Sculptures Tuby; in which was a Lacoon Copied in White Marble admirably; also that other of Quoisivox, in which was, amongst other rare Pieces, Castor & Pollux, in White Marble, exceeding beautiful and large; a Copy also after the Antique.  

Hubins.  At Hubins the Eye-maker, I saw Drawers full of all sorts of Eyes, admirable for the contrivance, to match with great exactness any Iris whatsoever: This being a case, where mis-matching is intolerable.  
He himself also formerly wrought in false Pearl, and affirmed, that the Glass Pearls were painted within with a Paste made of the Scales of the Bleak only; which he said was a good Trade here to the Fishermen, who sold the Scales for so much the Ounce. These Necklaces were formerly sold at great Prices, 2 or 3 Pistoles apiece.  

La Platrerie.  I saw the Platrerie or Plaster Quarries near Montmartre, and the manner of burning of it. 'Tis burnt with open Fire, set up against it; The hardest Stone is burnt enough in 2 or 3 hours' time.  
The top Band or Bed is very hard like a Freestone, they distinguish the Beds by several Names, i. e. 1. Mutton, 2. Lane, 3. Busier, 4. Clikar, 5. Grosban, 6. Pillier noir, etc.  
That which they call Lane is like Talk or Selenites transparent, and splits in thin flakes; but there is but little of it, and the Beds are small; This seems to be but a Fluor to the greater Beds of grey Stone. This Rock is covered with a kind of grey Sand to a great depth; which is not of the nature of Plaster.  
Though this Plaster burnt is never used (that I could learn) to fertilise either Corn Ground, or Pasture, as our Limestone is; yet I see no reason, why it may not, it being full of Nitre, if it has lain long in damp Caves.  
This is not peculiar to Paris only; for I have seen Quarries of it near Clifford-Moore in Yorkshire; where it is called Hall-Plaster.  

Millstones.  I cannot omit the Millstones, which they grind their Wheat with at Paris, as upon the River of the Gobelins out of the Gate St. Bernard, where it falls into the Seine, and all throughout Picardy down to Calais, where I have seen great numbers of them.  
These Millstones are very useful, and so sweet, that not the least grit is ever found in their Bread: They are mostly made up of pieces, 2, 3, or more set together by a cement, and hooped round with Iron to keep the pieces faster together: They are made of a kind of Honeycomb Stone, wrought by the petrification of Water, or Stalactites. The very selfsame Stone I have seen Rocks of on the River Banks at Knarsborough, at the Dropping Well in Yorkshire: therefore I advise my Countrymen to put these excellent Stones in practice; for certainly no place stands in more need of it; for the Bread in the North of England is intolerably gritty, by reason of those Sand or Moor Stones, with which they grind their Corn.  
These Stones are sold at 500 Livres a pair; whence they come I forgot to be informed.   

In the next place we will see how the Parisians Eat, Drink, and Divert themselves.  

Of the Food of the Parisians.  

Bread.  The Diet of the Parisians consists chief of Bread and Herbs; it is here, as with us, finer and courser. But the common Bread, or Pain de Gonesse, which is brought twice a week into Paris from a Village so called, is purely white, and firm and light, and made altogether with Leaven; mostly in 3 Pound Loaves, and 3 d. a Pound. That which is Baked in Paris is courser and much worse.  
As for the fine Manchet, or French Bread, as we call it, I cannot much commend it; it is of late, since the quantity of Beer that is Brewed in Paris, often so bitter, that it is not to be eaten, and we far exceed them now in this particular in London.  
The Grey Salt of France (which there, at Table, is altogether in every thing made use of) is incomparably better and more wholesome than our White Salt. This I the rather mention, because it seems not yet to enter fully into the consideration and knowledge of our People; who are nice in this particular to a fault. But I must take leave to tell them, that our Salt spoils every thing, that is pretended to be preserved by it, be it Fish or Flesh. For whether boiled from the inland Salt Pits, or the Sea Water, it is little less than Quicklime, and burns and reeses all it touches; so that 'tis pity to see so much good Fish, as is caught upon the Northern Line of Coast, particularly the God and Ling and Herring, now of little value, which were formerly the most esteemed Commodities of England. 'Tis certain there is no making good Salt by fierce and vehement boiling, as is used; but it must be kerned either by the heat of the Sun, as in France; or by a full and over-weighty Brine, as at Milthrope in the Washeses of Lancashire; for in no other place in England I ever saw it right made; but yet that is not there understood to purpose, for they also boil the Brine, which possibly by some slight Artifice might be brought to give its Salt without stress of Fire.  

White Kidney Beans and Lentils.  In Lent the common People feed much on White Kidney Beans, and white or pale Lentils, of which there are great Provisions made in all the Markets, and to be had ready boiled. I was well pleased with this Lentil; which is a sort of Pulse we have none of in England. There are two sorts of White Lentils sold here; one small one, from Burgundy, by the Cut of Briare; and another bigger, as broad again from Chartres; A 3d also much larger, is sometimes to be had from Languedoc. Those excepted, our Seed Shops far exceed theirs, and consequently our Gardens, in the Pulse Kind for variety; both Pea and Bean.  

Long Turnips.  The Roots differ much from ours. There are here no round Turnips; but all long ones and small; but excellently well tasted, and are of a much greater use, being proper for Soups also; for which purpose ours are too strong; we have, indeed, of late got them into England, but our Gardeners understand not the Managing of them. They sow them here late after Midsummer; and at Martinmas or sooner, before the Frost begin, they dig them up, cut off the tops, and put them into Sand in their Cellars, where they will keep good till after Easter, nay, till Whitsuntide; Whereas if the Frost take them, they are quite spoiled, and that piece of ill Husbandry makes them to be despised here; having lost their taste, and they soon grow sticky in the Ground. The Sandy Plains of Vaugerard near Paris, are famous for this sort of most Excellent Root. After the same manner they keep their Carrots.  
After we had been 2 or 3 days Journey in France, we found no other Turnips but the Navet; and still the nearer Paris the better. These, as I said, are small long Turnips, not bigger than a Knife Haft, and most excellent in Soups, and with Boiled and Stewed Mutton. I think it very strange, that the Seed should so much improve in England, as to produce Roots of the same Kind 6 or 10 times as big as there; for I make no question, but the long Turnips, of late only in our Markets, are the same.  

Potato.  The Potato are scarce to be found in their Markets, which are so great a Relief to the People of England, and very nourishing and wholesome Roots; 
Jerusalem Artichokes.  but there are store of Jerusalem Artichokes.  

Cabage.  They delight not so much in Cabage, as I expected, at least at the Season while we were there, from December to Midsummer. I never saw in all the Markets once Sprouts, that is, the tender Roots of Cabbages; nor in their public Gardens, any Reserves of old Stalks. The Red Cabage is esteemed here, and the Savoy.  
But to make amends for this, they abound in vast quantities of large Red Onions and Garlic. And the long and sweet White Onion of Languedoc are to be had also here. Also Leeks, Rockamboy, and Shallots are here in great use.  
It has been observed, that the Northern People of Europe much delight in Cabage, as the Russes, Poles, Germans, etc. 'Tis certain the Cabage thrives best in cold Countries, and is naturally a Northern Plant, and the Keel is to be found wild upon the Maritine Rocks, as I have seen it at Whitby, and the Cold ripens it, and makes it more tender and palatable.  
The Southern People are pleased with the Onion Kind, for the same reason, for that the great Heats meliorate them, but give a rankness to the Cabage. The Leeks are here much smaller than with us; but to recompense this, they are blanched here with more care and art, and are 3 times as long in the white part, which is by sinking them early so deep in mellow Earth. There is no Plant of the Onion Kind so hardy as this, and so proper for the cold Mountains; witness the use the Welsh have made of them from all Ages; and indeed it is excellent against Spitting of Blood, and all Diseases of the Throat and Lungs.  

Lettuce.  Though the Lettuce be the great and universal Salad, yet I did not find they came near our People, for the largeness and hardness of them; indeed, about a week before we left Paris, the long Roman Lettuce filled their Markets, which was incomparable, and I think beyond our Silesian.  

White Beets.  April and May the Markets were served with vast quantities of White Beets, an Herb rarely used with us, and never that I know of, in that manner for Soups. The Leaves grow long and large, and are tied up, as we do our Silesian or Roman Lettuce to blanche, and then cut by the Root: The Stalks are very broad and tender, and they only are used, stripped of the green Leaves; They Cook those Stalks in different manners.  

Asparagus.  The Asparagus here are in great plenty, but for the first month they were very bitter and unpleasant; from whence that proceeded I cannot guests; afterwards I did not much perceive it.  

Sorrel.  They are so great Lovers of Sorrel, that I have seen whole Acres of it planted in the Fields; and they are to be commended for it; for nothing is more wholesome, and it is good to supply the place of Lemons, against the Scurvy, or any ill habit of the Body.  

Mushrooms.  But after all, the French delight in nothing so much as Mushrooms; of which they have daily, of which they have daily, and all the Winter long, store of fresh and new gathered in the Markets. This surprised me; nor could I guests where they had them, till I found they raised them on hot Beds in their Gardens.  
Of Forced Mushrooms they have many Crops in a year; but for the Months of August, September, October, when they naturally grow in the Fields, they prepare no Artificial Beds.  
They make in the Fields and Gardens out of the Bar of Vaugerard (which I saw) long narrow Trenches, and fill those Trenches with Horse Dung 2 or 3 foot thick, on which they throw up the common Earth of the place, and cover the Dung with it, like the ridge of a House, high pitched; and over all they put long Straw or long Horse Litter; 
Champignons'.  Out of this Earth springs the Champignons, after Rain, and if Rain comes not, they Water the Beds every day, even in Winter.  
They are 6 days after their springing, or first appearance, before they pull them up for the Market.  
On some Beds they have plenty, on others but few, which demonstrate they come of Seed in the Ground; for all the Beds are alike.  
A Gardner told me, he had the other year near an Acre of Ground ordered in this manner, but he lost a 100 Crowns by it; but mostly they turn to as good profit, as any thing they can plant.  
They destroy their old Beds in Summer, and dung their Grounds with them.  
They prepare their new Beds the latter end of August, and have plentiful Crops of Mushrooms towards Christmas, and all the Spring, till after March.  

Moriglios.  I saw in the Markets the beginning of April, fresh gathered Moriglios, the first of that Kind of Mushroom, that I remember ever to have seen; though formerly I had been very curious and inquisitive about this Kind of Plant, and had distinguished and described 30 Species of them growing in England, yet I do not remember ever to have found this Species with us; it is blackish, and becomes much blacker, when boiled, whence probably it had its Name; but there are some few of them that are yellow. They are always of a round Pyramidal Figure, upon a short thick Foot-stalk; The Foot-stalk is smooth, but the outside of the Mushroom is all deeply pleated and wrinkled like the inside of a Beasts Maw. The Moriglio split in two from top to bottom is all hollow and smooth, Foot, stalk, and all. In this hollowness is sometimes contained dangerous Infects. The taste raw is not ungrateful, and very tender. This Mushroom seems to me to be produced of the Tree Kind.  
This sort of Mushroom is much esteemed in France, and is mostly gathered in Woods at the foot of the Oaks; There were some of them as big as Turkey Eggs. They are found in great quantities in the Woods in Champagne, about Reims, and Nostre Dame de Liesse.  
They string them, and dry them; and they seem to me to have a far better relish than the Champignons.  
The French say there are no bad Moriglios; but there are bad Mushrooms. At first I was very  of eating them; but by degrees, and that there was scarce any Ragouts without them, I became pleased with them, and found them very innocent. I am persuaded the harm that comes from eating them, is from the noxious Infects and Vermin that feed upon them, and creep into them; I have often found them full of such Animals. Possibly the Garden or forced Mushrooms, being that is done in Winter, and in the Spring, may be much freer of this mischief, at what time Infects are dead, or not much stirring, than the wild Mushrooms of August.  

Fish.  This City is well served with Carp, of which there is an incredible quantity spent in the Lent; They are not large, and I think are the better for it, but they are very clean of Mud, and well tasted.  
They have a particular way of bringing fresh Oysters to Town, which I never saw with us; To put them up in Straw Baskets of a Peck suppose, cut from the Shell, and without the Liquor; They are thus very good for Stewing, and all other manner of Dressing.  
There is such plenty of Macreuse, a sort of Sea Ducks, in the Markets all Lent, that I admire where they got so many; but these are reckoned and esteemed as Fish, and therefore they take them with great Industry; They have a rank fishy taste, yet for want of other Flesh were very welcome. I remember we had at our Treat at the King's Charge at Versailles a Macreuse Pie near two foot diameter, for it was in Lent; which being high Seasoned, did go down very well with rare Burgundy. There is a better Argument in Leewenhoeke for Birds participating something of the nature of Fish, though their Blood is hot, than any the Council of Trent could think of, and that is, that the Globuli of the Blood of Birds are Oval, as those of Fishes are; but this will take in all the Bird Kind; which also in time those Gentlemen may think fit to grant.  

Flesh.  As for their Flesh, Mutton and Beef, if they are good in their Kind, they come little short of ours, I cannot say they exceed them. But their Veal is not to be compared with ours, being red and course; and I believe no Country in Europe understands the Management of that sort of Food like the English. This was once proper to Essex; but now it is well known, that nothing contributes more to the whiteness and tenderness of the Flesh of Calves, than often Bleeding them, and giving them much Food of Milk and Meal, besides sucking the Dam. By much Bleeding the red Cake of the Blood is exhausted, and becomes all White Serum or Chyle. The same effect Cramming hath upon Poultry, so as the Blood is well near all Chyle; and the Livers of Geese so fed by force, will become, for the same reason, vastly great, and white and delicious.  
I cannot but take notice here of a great Prejudice the French lie under, in relation to our Flesh; 'Tis generally said amongst them, that our Meat in England will not make so strong Broth, as the French, by a third part. If they say, not so salt and savoury, and strong tasted, I agree with them; and yet the French Meat is never the better. For first their Meat is mostly leaner and more dry, and (which is all in all in this matter of Soups) is long kept before it be spent, which gives it a higher and salter taste; for as Meat rots, it becomes more urinous and salt. Now our People by custom, covet the freshest Meat, and cannot endure the least tendency to putrefaction; and we have good reason to do so, because our Air is twice as moist as theirs, which does often cause in the keeping of Meat a Mustiness, which is intolerable to all Mankind; whereas the Air of France being so much drier, keeping of Meat, not only makes it tender, but improves the taste. So that could we secure our Meat, in keeping it from that unsavoury quality, it would far outdo the French Meat, because much more juicy.  
I don't remember I eat of above two sorts of Flesh, but what we have as good or better in England, and that was of the Wild Pigs; and the Redleged Partridge. Of these last I eat at St. Clou, taken thereabouts; as to bigness; they are much degenerated from those in Languedoc, and less; but far excel the grey Partridge in taste.  

Fruits.  As for their Fruits our Journey was in the worst time of the year, from December to Midsummer, so that we had little save Winter Fruits; some few Bon Chritiens we tasted, not much better than ours, but something freer of Stones; the Virguleus Pears were admirable, but to our sorrow, they did not last long after our arrival.  
The Kentish Pippin, as we call it, was here excellent; but two other sorts of Apples stock the Markets. The Winter Calvil or Queening, which though a tender and soft Apple, yet continued good till after Easter. Also the Pome d'Apis, which is served here for show, more than use; being a small flat Apple, very beautiful, very red on one side, and pale or white on the other, and may serve the Ladies at their Toilets for a Pattern to Paint by. However this tender Apple was not contemptible after Whitsuntide; and which is its property, it never smells ill, though the Ladies keep it (as sometimes they do) about them.  
I never met with any thing peculiar in their Sweet Meats, but a Marmalade of Orange Flowers; which indeed was admirable; 'Twas made with those Flowers, the Juice of Lemons, and fine Sugar.   

The Wines follow, and Water to Drink.  

Wines.  The Wines about Paris are very small, yet good in their Kind; those de Surene are excellent some years; but in all the Taverns they have a way to make them into the fashion of Champagne and Burgundy.  
The Tax upon Wines is now so great, that whereas before the War they drank them by Retail at 5 d. the Quart, they now sell them at 15 d. the Quart and dearer, which has inhansed the Rates of all Commodities, and Workmen's Wages; and also has caused many thousand private Families to lay in Wines in their Cellars at the cheapest hand, which used to have none before.  
The Wines of Burgundy and Champagne are most valued; and indeed, not without reason; for they are light and easy upon the Stomach, and give little disturbance to the Brain, if drawn from the Hogshead, or lose bottled after their fashion.  
The most esteemed are Vin de Bonne of Burgundy, a red Wine; which is Dolce Piquante in some measure, to me it seemed the very best of Wine I met with.  
Volne, a pale Champagne, but exceeding brisk upon the Palate. This is said to grow upon the very borders of Burgundy, and to participate of the Excellency of both Counties.  
There is another sort of Wine, called Vin de Rheims, this is also a pale or grey Wine; it is harsh; as all Champagne Wines are.  
The White Wines of value are those of Mascon in Burgundy.  
Mulso in Champagne, a small and not unpleasant White Wine.  
Chabri is a quick and sharp White Wine well esteemed.  
In March I tasted the White Wines called Condrieu, and d'Arbois, but found them both in the Must, thick and white as our Wines use to be, when they first come from the Canaries; very sweet, and yet not without a grateful flavour; they clear towards Summer, and abate much of the flavour and sweet taste. Those Wines thus in the Must are called in the Prints Vin des Liqueurs.  
There is a preparation or rather stifling of the White Wine in the Must, used in Burgundy and elsewhere, which they call Vin Bouru; it gives a sweet taste, and it is foul to the Eye; those also are called Vin des Liqueurs. This is only drunk a Glass in a morning, as an equivalent to Brandy.  
Vin de Turene en Anjou of two years old, was one of the best White Wines I drunk in Paris.  
Gannetin from Dauphine: This is a very pale and thin White Wine, very like the Verde of Florence, sweet, and of a very pleasant flavour, especially while it is Des Liqueurs.  
The Red Wines of Burgundy, Des quatres fevilles, as they say, or of 4 years old, are rare, but they are esteemed much more wholesome, and are permitted to the Sick, in some cases, to drink of; they are fine, and have a rough, but sound taste; not pricked, as I expected. This Term Des quatre fevilles, is used also to Volne, or any other sort of Wine which is kept any time.  
There are also in esteem stronger Wines at Paris, as Camp de Perdris.  
Coste Bruslee, both Red Wines from Dauphine, of very good taste, and hot upon the Stomach.  
De l'Hermitage upon the Rosne.  
But the most excellent Wines for strength and flavour are the Red and White St. Laurence, a Town betwixt Toulon and Nice in Provence. This is a most delicious Muscat. These are of those sorts of Wines, which the Romans called Vinum passum, that were made of half Sun dried Grapes: for the Grapes (especially the White Muscadine Grapes) being usually sooner ripe, than the common Grapes of the Country, called Esperan, viz. the latter end of August, (as I have seen them in the Vintage at Vic, Mirabel, and Frontiniac, 3 Towns near the Sea in Languedoc, where this sort of Wine is made) they twist the Bunches of Grapes, so breaking the Stalks of them, that they receive no longer any nourishment from the Vine, but hang down and dry in the then violently hot Sun, and are in few days almost turned into Raisins of the Sun; hence, from this insolation, the flavour of the Grape is exceedingly heightened, and the strength and oiliness, and thick Body of the Wine is mightily improved. I think the Red St. Lauren was the most delicious Wine I ever tasted in my life.  
Besides these, here are also the White Wines of Orleans, Bourdeaux Claret, and those Excellent Wines from Cahors: also Cabreton, White and Red, from about Bayone, strong and delicious Wines: and all sorts of Spanish Wines, as Sack, Palm, Mountain Malaga, Red and White, Sheries, and indeed the French are, of late, very desirous to drink of the strongest Wines.  

Ratafia's.  Besides Wines, there is no Feasting without the Drinking at the desert all sorts of Strong Waters, particularly Ratafia's; which is a sort of Cherry Brandy made with Peach and Apricock Stones, highly piquant, and of a most agreeable flavour.  
The pungent and acrimonious quality of these and such like Kernels was not unknown to the Ancients, and very poisonous to some Animals. Dioscorides tells us, a Past made of the Kernels of Bitter Almonds will throw Hens into Convulsions, and immediately kill them. Birds have but little Brain, and so are the stronglier affected with this Volatile Venom. Not unlike effect 'tis possible Ratafia may have in some tender and more delicate Constitutions, and weak and feeble Brains, and may be one cause of so many sudden Deaths, as have been observed of late.  
Vattee is a sort of Perfumed Strong-water from Provence, made (as it is pretended) of Muscat Wine distilled with Citron Pills and Orange Flowers.  
Fenoulliet de l'Isle de Ree, is valued much, 'tis much like our Aniseed Water.  
These and many more sorts of Strong-waters, and strong Wines, both of France and Italy and Spain, are wont to be brought in, at the latter end of the Desert in all great Feasts, and they drink freely of them; Which Custom is new: when I was formerly in France, I remember nothing of it. But it is the long War that has introduced them, the Nobility and Gentry suffering much in those tedious Campagnes, applied themselves to these Liquors to support the Difficulties and Fatigues of Wether and Watch; and at their return to Paris, introduced them to their Tables. Sure I am, the Parisians, both Men and Women, are strangely altered in their Constitutions and Habit of Body; from lean and slender, they are become fat and corpulent, the Women especially: Which, in my Opinion, can proceed from nothing so much as the daily drinking strong Liquors.  

Coffee, Tea, Chocolate.  Add to these Drinks the daily use of Coffee with Sugar, Ten and Chocolate, which now is as much in use in Private Houses in Paris, as with us in London: And these sugared Liquors also add considerably to their Corpulency.  
I must not forget, that amongst the Drinks that are in use in Paris, Cider from Normandy is one. The best I drank of that Kind, was of the colour of Claret, reddish or brown; The Apple, that it was made of, was called Frequins, which is round and yellow, but so bitter, that it is not to be eaten; and yet the Cider that is made of it, is as sweet as any new Wine. It keeps many years good, and mends of its colour and taste. I drank it often at a Private House of a Norman Gentleman, of whose Growth it was; otherwise, if I had not have to the contrary, I could not have believed, but that it had been mixed with Sugar.  
There are also very many public Coffeehouses, where Tea also and Chocolate may be had, and all the Strongwaters and Wine ; and innumerable Alehouses. I wonder at the great change of this Sober Nation, in this particular; but Luxury like a Whirlpool draws into it the Extravagances of other People.  
'Twas Necessity, and the want of Wine, (either naturally, as in a great part of Persia and the Indies; or from their Religion, as in Turkey,) that put Men upon the invention of those Liquors of Coffee and Tea: Chocalate, indeed, was found out by the poor starved Indians, as Ale was with us. But what else but a Wanton Luxury could dispose these People, who abound in Excellent Wines, the most cordial and generous of all Drinks, to ape the necessity of others.  
Mighty things, indeed, are said of these Drinks, according to the Humour and Fancy of the Drinkers. I rather believe they are permitted by God's Providence for the lessening the number of Mankind by shortening Life, as a sort of silent Plague. Those that plead for Chocolate, say, it gives them a good Stomach, if taken two hours before Dinner. Right! who doubts it? you say you are much more hungry having drunk Chocolate, than you had been if you had drunk none; that is, your Stomach is faint, craving and feels hollow and empty, and you cannot stay long for your Dinner. Things that pass thus soon out of the Stomach, I suspect are little welcome there, and Nature makes haste to get shut of them. There are many things of this sort which impose upon us by procuring a false hunger.  
The Wild Indians, and some of our People, no doubt digest it; but our Pampered Bodies can make little of it; and it proves to most tender Constitutions perfect Physic, at least to the Stomach, by cleansing that into the Guts; but that wears it out, and decays Nature.  

† Gage.  It is very remarkable with what greediness the Spaniards drink it, and how often in a day, 5 times says Gage, at least. The Women drank it in the Churches, and the disorder could scarce be remedied.  
The old Romans did better with their Luxury; they took their Tea and Chocolate after a full Meal, and every Man was his own Cook in that case. Caesar resolved to be free, and eat and drink hearty, that is, to excess, with Tully; and for this purpose Cicero tells his Friend Atticus, that before he lay down to Table, Emeticen agebat, which I construe, he prepared for himself his Chocolate and Tea; something to make a quick riddance of what they eat and drank, some way or other.  
There are two sorts of Water which they drink at Paris; Water of the River Seine, which runs through the Town; and the Water brought in by the Aqueduct of Arcueil, which, by the by, is one of the most Magnificent Buildings in and about Paris, and worth going to see: This noble Canal of hewn Stone conveys the Water 15 miles to Paris.  
The River Water is very pernicious to all Strangers, not the French excepted, that come from any distance, but not to the Natives of Paris, causing Looseness, and sometimes Dysenteries. I am apt to think, the many Ponds and Lakes that are let into it to supply the Sluices upon the Canal De Briare, are in part the cause of it. But those who are careful of themselves purify it by filling their Cisterns with Sand, and letting it sink through it; which way clears it, and makes it very cool and palatable.  
As for the Spring Water from the Maison des Eaux, it is wholesome in this respect, and keeps the Body firm; but it is very apt to give the Stone, which the People of this Town are infinitely subject to. An Instance of this I had by chance, when coming from seeing the Aqueduct of Arcueil, in the very Road near the Wall of the Aqueduct, a great number of Earthen Pipes, which had served to convey that Water to some House, were cast to mend the Highways. I observed, that of 4 inches diameter the hollow of the Pipes were all stopped up to the breadth of a Shilling, with a firm Stone petrified; so that they were forced to break up the Pipes being altogether useless. Now what Petrifies in the Water-Pipes is apt in some weak Constitutions to petrify also in the Kidneys and Bladder.    

In the next place we will see how the Parisians divert themselves; which consists chief in Plays, Gaming, Walking, or Coaching.  

The Plays here are divided into two Houses: One for the Operas, and the other for the Comedies.  

Opera's.  I did not see many Operas, not being so good a Frenchman as to understand them, when Sung: The Opera, called l'Europe Gallant, I was at several times, and it is looked upon as one of the very best. It is extremely fine, and the Music and Singing admirable: The Stage large and magnificent, and well filled with Actors: The Scenes well suited to the thing, and as quick in the removal of them, as can be thought. The Dancing exquisite, as being performed by the best Masters of that Profession in Town: The Clothing rich, proper, and with great variety.  
It is to be wondered, that these Operas are so frequented: There are great numbers of the Nobility that come daily to them, and some that can Sing them all: And it was one thing that was troublesome to us Strangers, to disturb the Box by these voluntary Songs of some parts of the Opera or other; That the Spectators may be said to be here as much Actors as those employed upon the very Stage.  

Comedies.  The Comedies have another House in another part of the Town; for the Operas are under the Roof of Monsieur, and it is part of the Palais Royal.  
The Disposition of the Theatre is much the same; but something less: And here the Stage itself is to be Let; where for Strangers, the Places are most commodious, to hear and see.  
I heard many Tragedies, but without gust for want of Language: But after them, the Little Plays were very Diverting to me, particularly those of Moliere, Vendange de Suresne, Pourcegnac, Crispin Medecin, le Medecin malgre luy, le Malade Imaginaire, etc.  
In this all agree, that tho' Moliere's Plays have less of Intrigue in them; yet his Characters of Persons are incomparable, so true and just, that nothing can be more: And for this Reason, so many of them are only of two or three Acts; for without an Intrigue well laid, the Characters would have failed him, in which was his Excellency. However, this is now so much become a Custom on the French Stage; that you ever have one of these little Pieces tacked to the Tragedy, that you may please yourself according to your Appetite.  
'Tis said, Moliere Died suddenly in Acting the Malade Imaginaire: Which is a good instance of his well Personating the Play he made, and how he could really put himself into any Passion he had in his Head. Also of the great danger strong and vehement Passions may cause in weak Constitutions, such as Joy and Fear; which History tells us, have killed many very suddenly. He is reported to have said, going off the Stage, Messieurs, Jay jove le Malade Imaginaire; Mais je suis veritablement fort Malade; and he died within two hours after. This Account of Moliere is not in his Life by Perault, but it is true: And he yet has blamed him for his Folly, in persecuting the Art of Physic, not the Men, in divers of his Plays.  
Moliere sent for Dr. M—, a Physician in Paris of great Esteem and Worth, and now in London, a Refuge. Dr. M— sent him word, he would come to him, upon two Conditions; the one, that he should Answer him only to such Questions as he should ask him, and not otherwise Discourse him; the other, that he should oblige himself to take the Medecines he should prescribe for him. But Moliere finding the Doctor too hard for him, and not easily to be Dupt, refused them. His Business, it seems, was to make a Comical Scene in exposing one of the Learnedest Men of the Profession, as he had done the Quacks. If this was his Intention, as in all probability it was, Moliere had as much Malice, as Wit; which is only to be used to correct the Viciousness and Folly of Men pretending to Knowledge, and not the Arts themselves.  
This I must needs say, That Obscenity and Immorality are not at all upon the French Stage, no more than in the Civil Conversation of People of Fashion and good Breeding.  

Preaching.  One Afternoon in Lent, I was to hear a Sermon at La Charite, preached by an Abbot, a very young man. His Text was about the Angel's Descent into the Pool of Bethesda, and Troubling the Waters. I am not so good a Frenchman as to understand all he said, but he had many good Arguments about the necessity of Grace, and the means to attain it. I was strangely surprised at the Vehemency of his Action, which to me appeared altogether Comical, and like the Actors upon the Stage, which I had seen a few days before: Besides, his Expressions seemed to be in too Familiar a Style: I always took a Sermon to the People to require a grave and ornate kind of Eloquence, and not Verba Quotidiana, with a certain dignity of Action; but 'tis possible this way here best suits with the Customs and Manners of the People; who are all Motion, even when they say the easiest and most intelligible Things,   


Gaming.  Gaming is a perpetual Diversion here, if not one of the Debauches of the Town: But Games of mere Hazard are strictly forbid upon severe Fines to the Master of the House, as well private as Public, where such Playing shall be discovered. This was done upon the Account of the Officers of the Army; who, during the Winter used to lose the Money, which was given them to make their Recruits, and renew their Equipages in the Spring. And indeed, such quick Games, as Basset, Hazard, etc. where Fortune in a manner is all in all, are great Temptations to Ruin, by the sudden Passions they are apt to raise in the Players: Whereas Games, where Skill and Cunning, and much Thought are employed, as well as Luck, give a Man time to Cool, and recover his Wits, if at any time great Loss shall have Dismounted his Reason; for he must quickly come to himself again, or forfeit his Skill and Reputation in Conducting the Game, as well as Husbanding his Money.   


Fair of St. Germains.  We were in Paris at the time of the Fair of St. ; It lasts six weeks at least: The Place where it is kept well bespeaks its Antiquity; for it is a very Pit or Hole, in the middle of the Faubourg, and belongs to the Great Abbey of that Name. You Descend into it on all sides, and in some places above 12 Steps; so that the City is raised above it 6 or 8 Foot.  
The Building is a very Barn, or Frame of Wood, Tiled over; consisting of many long Allies crossing one another, the Floor of the Allies unpaved, and of Earth, and as uneven as may be; which makes it very uneasy to Walk in, were it not the vast crowd of People which keep you up: But all this bespeaks its Antiquity, and the rudeness of the first Ages of Paris, which is a foil to its Politeness in all things else now.  
The Fair consists of most Toy-shops, and Bartholomew-Fair Ware; also Fiance and Pictures, Joiners Work, Linen and Woollen Manufactures; many of the great Ribbon Shops remove out of the Palais hither: No Books: Many Shops of Confectioners, where the Ladies are commodiously Treated.  
The great Rendezvous is at night, after the Play and Opera are done; and Raffling for all Things Vendible is the great Diversion; no Shop wanting two or three Raffling Board's. Monsieur, the Dauphin, and other Princes of the Blood come, at lest once in the Fair-time, to Grace it.  
Here are also Coffee-Shops, where that and all sorts of strong Liquors  are to be Sold.  
Knavery here is in Perfection as with us; as dextrous Cutpurses and Pick-Pockets. A Pickpocket came into the Fair at night, extremely well Clad, with four Lackeys with good Liveries attending him: He was caught in the Fact, and more Swords were drawn in his Defence than against him; but yet he was taken, and delivered into the Hands of Justice, which is here sudden and no Jest.  
I was surprised at the Impudence of a Booth, which put out the Pictures of some Indian Beasts with hard Names; and of four that were painted, I found but two, and those very ordinary ones, viz. a Leopard, and a Racoun. I asked the Fellow why he deceived the People, and whether he did not fear Cudgelling in the end: He answered with a singular Confidence, that it was the Painter's fault; that he had given the Racoun to Paint to two Masters, but both had mistaken the Beast; but however, (he said) tho' the Pictures were not well designed, they did nevertheless serve to Grace the Booth and bring him Custom.  

Elephant.  I saw here a Female Elephant betwixt 8 and 9 foot high, very lean and ill kept. Nothing could be more Docil than this poor Creature. I observed, she bent the Joints of her Legs very nimbly in making her Salutes to the Company: Also that the Nails of her Fore-Toes, were large and almost five Inches long. This was from the Continent, having the Ears entire. I had seen one about 13 years ago in London much less, from the Island of Ceylon, of another Species with Scallopt Ears, and the Tail with two rows of large, thick, and stiff black Hairs.   


Coaching.  Coaching in Visits is the great and daily Business of People of Quality: But in the Evenings, the Cours de la Rein is much frequented, and a great Rendezvous of People of the best Fashion. The Place indeed is very commodious and pleasant, being three Allies set with high Trees of a great length, all along the Bank of the River Seine, enclosed at each end with noble Gates; and in the middle a very large Circle to turn in. The middle Alley holds four lines of Coaches at least, and each side Alley two apiece: These eight lines of Coaches, may, when full, supposing them to contain near 80 Coaches apeice, amount to about 6 or 700. On the Field side, joining close to the Allies of the Coaches, there are several Acres of Meadow planted with Trees, well grown, into narrow Allies in Quincunx Order, to walk in the Grass, if any have a mind to light; and this must needs be very agreeable in the Heats of Summer, which we stayed not to enjoy.  
One thing this Cours is short of ours in Hyde-park, for if full, you cannot in an hour see the Company twice you have a mind to see, and you are confined to your line; and oftentimes, the Princes of the Blood coming in, and driving at Pleasure, make a strange stop and embarras.  
Besides, if the weather has been Rainy, there is no driving in it, it is so miry and ill gravelled.  
Those which have a mind to drive further out of Town for the Air, have Woods, one to the West, and another to the East, most convenient. I mean, the Bois de Bologne, and the Bois de Vincennes; this last is very opaque and pleasant. There are some Ancient Roman Statues in the first Court of this House.  
But for the Castle in the Bois de Bologne, called Madrid, it was built by Francis the First, and it is altogether Moresque, in imitation of one in Spain; with at least two rows of covered Galleries running quite round, on the outside the four faces of the House; which sure in a very hot Country, are greatly refreshing and delightful: And this is said to be built on purpose for a defence against a much hotter Climate, than where it stands; which that King had no mind to visit a second time.   


Walking.  But let us return to Paris; Towards 8 or 9 a Clock in June most of them return from the Cours, and land at the Garden Gate of the Tuilleries, where they Walk in the cool of the Evening. This Garden is of the best Ordonnance, and now in its full beauty, so that Mons. Le Nostre has seen it in its infancy, for it is all of his Invention, and he enjoys his Labours in perfection. Certainly the Moving Furniture of it at this time of the Evening, is one of the Noblest Sights that can be seen. The Night I came away from Paris, a Lady of Quality, Madam M— when I took my Leave of her, asked me, What I had seen in Paris that most pleased me; I answered her Civilly, as I ought to do; but she would not take my Compliment, but urged me for a further Answer: I told her, (since she would have it it so) that I just then came from seeing what pleased me best; that was, the Middle Walk of the Tuilleries in June, betwixt 8 and 9 at night; I did not think that there was in the World a more agreeable place than that Alley at that hour, and that time of the year.    

And now we are got into the Gardens of Paris, I shall give you a short taste of all of them of Note, at least of such as I saw.  


Tuilleries.  This of the Tuilleries is vastly great, has shaded Terraces on two sides, one along the River Seine, planted with Trees, very diverting, with large Parterrs in the middle, and large Fountains of Water, which constantly play; one end is the Front of that Magnificent Palace the Lovure; the other is low, and for prospects, open to the Fields; The rest is disposed into Alleys, and Grassplots, and Copsies of Wood; with a great number of Seats upon Down in all parts, for the Accommodation of the Weary.  
In the Tuilleries there is one thing which I much liked, and that was an Amphitheatre, with the Stage, Pits and Seats, and the Scenes leading into the Stage very pretty; from all sides close Alleys leading into it.  
Nothing can be more pleasant than this Garden, where in the Groves of Wood the latter end of March, Black Birds, and Trostles, and Nightingales, sing most sweetly all the morning, and that as it were within the City, for no Birding is suffered here near this City, and the Fields round the Town, are all, every where, full of Partridges, and Hares, and other Game.  
The Garden of the Palais of Luxenburgh is also vastly great, and has something of champatre in it, like St. James's-Park; it is also filled with People daily of good Quality; but because the hard Winters have destroyed many of the Walks, by killing the Pole Hedges, it is not so frequented, as formerly; yet it hath its Fountains and Parterres, and some well shaded Allies; and for Air, I prefer it before the Tuillieres, because it is seated upon a high Ground next the Fields, in the Faubourgh of St. Germains.  

Physic Garden.  As to the King's Physic Garden, it is a very great Piece of Ground, well furnished with Plants, and open also to walk in, to all People of Note. There is great variety of Ground in it, as Woods, Ponds, Meadows, Mounts, besides a vast Level, by which it is fitted for the Reception and Growth of most sorts of Plants.  
I first saw it in March with Dr. Turnfort, and Mr. Breman, a very Understanding and Painful Gardner. The Green Houses well stored with tender Exoticks, and the Parterrs with Simples; though but few of them then to be seen; yet by the Trees and Shrubs, and some Plants which did not lose their Heads, I could well judge of the Furniture.  
Dr. Turnfort told me, that he shown a 100 Plants every Lesson, and he had in the Summer 30 Lessons, which made 3000 Plants; besides the very early and late Plants, which he reckoned could not be less than a 1000 more.  
I took particular notice of these Plants in the Green Houses at that time.  

Jasminum Asoricum floor albo viridarii Regis Lusitanici.  
Marum Cortusii, which had been Potted 30 years.  
Caryophyllus Creticus arborescens.  
Smilax fructu nigro.  
Iris bulbosa flore luteo.  
Symphytum minus Boraginis flore.  
Fraxinus Americana florida.  
Staechas folio serrato Bochini.   
This Garden is endowed by the King and Duke of Orleans, and has 2000 l. a year Sterling Rents belonging to it, whereof 500 l. is given to the chief Physician who overlooks all, and the rest to the Botanic Reader, Dr. Turnfort, and Under-Gardners, with Lodgings for all.  
Mr. Breman told me, he had in the beginning of April made an end of Sowing his Hot Beds, and had put into the Ground 2000 Species of Seed.  
From the Mount in the King's Garden, on the other side the River, upon the declivity of a high ridge of Hills, I had a fair view of the Palace or Countryhouse of Father la Chaise, the King's Confessor; it is very finely seated against the South Sun, and well Wooded on both sides: A fit Seat for a Contemplative Person.  

Garden of the Palais Royal.  The Garden of the Palais Royal, considering it is in the middle of the Town, is very large, has 2 or 3 great Basins with their jet d'Eau, but not well kept; nor hath any thing elegant in it, but the good order and disposition of its shady Walks and Parterrs: It is ever full of good Company.  

Garden of the Arsenal.  The Garden of the Arsenal is much larger, and finer kept; has the prospects of the Fields, and lies open to the Ramparts: It is also much frequented for the beauty of its Walks.  
There are also divers Convents which have spacious and well kept Gardens, which are always open and public to People of any Note; as the Carthusians, which is vast and Champestre. The Celestins, very fine and large; That of St. Genevieve, which is great, and very well kept; and the Terrace for length and breadth is incomparable, extremely well planted with Horse-chesnuts; having also on the South side upon the Terrace, 3 or 4 square Copses of the same Trees; which have a marvellous effect for Shade in Summer.   

These Private Gardens I saw in Paris.  
D'Aumont. It's Green House opened into the Dining Room: The Orange Trees seemed to have suffered, and had their Leaves withered; for the Room was too broad by half.  
The Treillage, at the upper end of the Garden, was very well adorned with Gilding, and had in the middle a Pavillon, in which was an old Roman Statue of a young Man, very well preserved: The fashion of the Toga here was so evident, that it might well pass for a conviction to those, who have thought it to be a Blade, or a Garment open before like a Cloak.  
This Treillage is performed with that variety of Ornaments, that it resembles Filegreen Work, and is large. The Painting of these Works in green is not well performed in all places alike; it is either too yellow, or of a sad dirty green, or Sea green; few have hit the right Grass green colour. To do it well, it is to be primed in yellow, and then to be covered with Vert de Montagne or Lapis Armeniacus; of which last colour we have plenty in England about Maulham in Craven in Yorkshire.  
This is the great benefit of Treillage in Cities, that besides the beauty of it to the Eye, it takes away and hides the ill prospect of the Neighbouring Houses.  
Here were very many Figtrees well grown in square Boxes; and Parterrs well stocked with Flowers; each sort by themselves; as Tulips apart; Junkills apart; Anemonies apart; Ranunculus' apart; Daffodils apart.  
Puissart. This Garden is very neat, and open at the end to the Tuilleries. The Treillage Walk or Arbour at the upper end is very fine, 70 Paces long, and 8 broad, hath 3 Pavillons all open at the top. It is all of Iron, painted green, and cost 15000 Livers.  
The Gardener was an Artist; and had some Plants in Cases in good order, not to be seen elsewhere, as large Rosemary Bushes, Jacobaea Maritima, Marum Syriacum, etc.  
The Walls were well covered with Fruit Trees; he had not cut his Peaches; when I asked him the reason, he told me, it was his way, not to cut them till after flowering, which he found by Experience to improve the Fruit; whereas he said, the early cutting Stocked them, and impaired the Fruit.  
The Orangery here was the most beautiful Room, for the bigness, I had seen, paved with Marble, and neatly Wainscoted with Oak, from the top to the bottom, after our English manner. I make no doubt it served to eat in in Summer, when cleared of Trees.  
Bouvillier. I found not any thing more remarkable here than the Trellage at the end.  
Comartin. The Trellage in this Garden was most admirable in the fashion of a Triumphal Arch; half of it was an Aviarie, with a Fountain in it, well stored with Birds.  
Here were large Iron Vasa's upon Pedestals, the first I had seen of the Kind, painted over of a Copper colour.  
Les Diguieres. This is the only House in Paris, I saw kept in all the parts of it, with the most exact cleanliness and neatness, Gardens and all.  
In the Garden there were several pieces of Trellage; that at the upper end was very noble, and cost 10000 Livres; another piece of it cost 6000. But I saw a small one all of Iron-leaves painted green, the only one of the Kind. Here also were great Vasa's of Trelliage upon Pedestals.  
The Fountains in this Garden were very curious, though small, with proper Ornaments, which had a marvellous effect, when the Spouts played off.  
The first Court was set about with Cases of extraordinary large Laurus Tinus, and in the Gardens there were some cut into square Pyramids.  
A Person of Quality came into the Garden to me, who with great Civility conducted me up to the Apartments.  
In the Apartment of the Duchess, which was all of her own Contrivance, and had an Air of State and Agreeableness beyond any thing I had seen, I observed hanging down in the middle of the Bedchamber the finest Crystal Candlestick in France: The Pieces were all bought single by her, and the Contrivance and setting them together was her own; it cost 12000 Crowns.  
But before I left the Garden, in an obscure Parterre I saw the Tomb of a Cat, viz. a Black Cat Couchant upon a White Marble Cushion, fringed with Gold, and Gold Tassels hanging at the corners upon a square Black Marble Pedestal: On one of the sides of that Marble is writ in Letters of Gold. 
Cy gist Menine la plus aimable & la  
Plus aimee de toutes les chattels.  On the other side. 
Cy gist une chat jolie  
Sa mistress qui n'aimoit rien  
L'aime jusques à la folly  
Pour quoy dire! on le voit bien   
This is not the first Instance of this kind of folly; I have seen something of it in England; and have read much more in History.  
If you blame me for Transcribing this Epitaph, I will submit; but I could never have forgiven myself, if I had Transcribed the many fine Inscriptions I met with at Paris, though in most Elegant and truly Roman Words; others in pure Court French. You may read them in the Description of Paris.  
De Lorge. We had the good fortune here to find the Marshal himself walking in his Garden; who Entertained us with great Civility, viz. the Dean of Winchester and myself. This Garden was not finished, and the House itself was but building; but it is one of the finest in Paris, and has the advantage of a most free and extended prospect of the Fields and Montmarter: At the end of the Garden rises a Tarrass equal with the Rampart.  
That which was in this House and Garden very commodious and noble was, that betwixt the two Courts the Coaches drive through a stately Hall upon Pillars, and might land on either side, up a step or two, which leads to the Staircases and other Apartments; and then in the furthest Court, which is only divided from the Garden by high Pallasadoes of Iron, they turn, and take up the Company again; so that no Wether offends them. Which is much wanting here; and more with us at London, where we most need it.  
This Hall is open upon Arches to the Garden, and the Staircase itself is so contrived, that you enjoy a full prospect of the Garden and Montmarter in descending.  
The Marshal very obligingly shown us his own Apartment; for all the rest of the House was full of Workmen; and in his Bedchamber his little Red Damask Field Bed, which he lay in now, and which also served him, when he commanded upon the Rhine.  
He shown us his great Sash Windows; how easily they might be lifted up and down, and stood at any height; which Contrivance he said he had out of England, by a small Model brought on purpose from thence: There being nothing of this Poise in Windows in France before.  
He also had us into a Set of small Closets or Rooms, after the English fashion, very prettily furnished, neatly kept, and retired, with his English Keys to them, as he told us; and from thence we descended a back Pair of Stairs: We did all we could to hinder him from seeing us take Coach: He sent his Page after us, to invite us some day to Eat with him.  
Hostel Pelitier. The Garden here was very neat, with a Trelliage at the end after the manner of a Triumphal Arch, but not very high, nor well Painted; yet its Beauty and Finishing differ much from any I had seen before. In the two Niches were placed great Iron Vasa's or Flower Pots, right before the middle of a Basin of Water, which was set a Playing for our Entertainment, which is a Compliment the French are willing to oblige Strangers with.  
In the Orangerie were very large Trees, and two pair of Myrtles in Cases, cut Globe-wise, the best and biggest I had seen: Large Bushes in Pots of Marum Syriacum. Great store of Tulips, Anemonies, Ranunculus, and other Flowers in Beds, in the Parterre, each by themselves.  
Also Anemonies and Ranunculus' in little Earthen Pots, as with us; but in very light Mold. Great and very fair Laurus Tinus' in Cases. And, which was singular, along one of the Garden Walls were planted Abel Trees, whose tops were disposed and spread by an Iron Trelliage into Arches at equal distances, which had a very good effect.  

Hostel-sullie.  The Garden of the Hostel-sullie had nothing remarkable in it.  

Louvois.  The best Piece of Treillage of Iron Bars and Wood intermixed, is that in the Garden of feu Mons. Louvois. And this is one of the neatest Gardens in Paris. The whole upper end is adorned with a noble Treillage after the manner of a Triumphal Arch; it cost a great Sum of Money: There are 4 Statues disposed on Pedestals under it, which have a good effect; these are Antique, rarely good. One of the first Empresses, a Diana, an Apollo, etc. Here the Walks are hard Gravel, but not Rolled. On one side of the Treillage is a large Aviary well stored with Birds.  
The Walls of the Green House are Matted; and large Pans of Iron hang down in the middle of the House, at equal distances, to every Window one; They have Pulleys to let them down or run them up to what height they please. This way may very well correct the moistness of the Air, which the breath of the Plants cause, and sufficiently warm them. Hot Beds puff up Plants; yet a warm Air over their Heads may be as useful to refresh and nourish them in Winter.  

Furnier.  The last Private Garden I saw, was that of Mr. Furnier, a few days before we left the Town, nothing could be prettier. At the upper end a noble Treillage, two great Vasa's of Iron painted of a Brass-colour and gilt.  
Here I saw an Apple Tree Potted, as the Figs and Oranges use to be; it was the White Queenen, (or Calvil d'Este) the Stem of the bigness only of my Thumb, full of Fruit the first of June.  
Many Pots of Sedum Pyramidale, now a most elegant Ornament. But nothing is here so pompous as double red and stripped stocks; which they multiply with care; and their Pains are justly Rewarded. With a thousand other things, which my short turn in the Garden would not give me leave to remember.  
There are great numbers of these Private Gardens in Paris, which deserve seeing; but the Season of the year not much favouring our Curiosity, we did not much inquire after them.   

Hitherto I have given a short Account of what I saw mostly in Paris, as to the People, abroad and at home; The Country, round about it, is full of populous and neat Towns, and many Palaces of the King and Princes of the Blood; which are not to be equalled with any thing we have in England. But I am unwilling to lead you any further, it being much out of my way and humour to go to Court; but because it was my fortune to be at Versailles, St. Clou, Marli, and Meudon, I will venture to say something of each.  
These 4 Royal Palaces and their Gardens possess a barren and hilly Country, as big as most Counties in England: Two of them, Meudon and St. Cloud, have the Prospect of Paris under them; but the former hath it much more open and fully, than the latter.  
This District may be said to be Le Berceau des Roys, or the Nursery of Kings; for the chief of the Blood Royal are lodged here, viz. the King, Monseigneur the Dauphin, and the 3 Grandsons, the Dukes of Burgundy, d'Anjou, and Berry, Monsieur or the King's Brother, and his Son the Duke of Charlres, and Mademoiselle his Daughter. All these are, or will be (as it is easy to guests by the growth and proportions of the youngest) very large and well shaped beautiful People. The other Branch of the Blood Royal, of the House of Bourbon, as the Prince of Conde, the Duke of Bourbon, and the Princesses his Daughters, the Prince of Conti, are all of less Stature, but very well shaped and handsome.  
The Duke du Maine and the Conte de Toulouse I did not see; but the Princess Dowager of Conti often, who is without dispute one of the most graceful and handsomest Women in France, and methinks exceedingly like the King her Father, as I remember him in his full beauty, when I first saw him in the year-65.  
These 4 Palaces are all entirely built and furnished in this King's time, and all the Gardens, and what belongs to them.  

St. Clou.  St. Clou is the nearest Paris, and the Castle is very magnificent, and most commodious. The Great Salon and the Gallery are extremely well Painted.  
The Gardens are a vast Extent, 12 or 15 miles in compass.  
The Natural Woods on the South-west side the House, are well Husbanded, and cut into small and bigger Alleys, to save the Trees; which they have had so great a care of, they have kept them standing not only in the Alleys, but in the very Steps of Stone, which are made to descend into the Alleys.  
In the other parts of the Garden the Alleys are mostly triple, and well shaded, run out in vast lengths of several miles, every where Basins and Jets d'eau; but there is a Cascade, which I saw several times play, and is said to be the most beautiful and best furnished with Water of any in France. In the middle of the large Basin amongst the Woods, I saw a Jet d'eau, which threw up a Spout of Water 90 foot high, and did discharge itself with that force, that it made a mist and coolness to the Air a great compass round about, and gave now and then cracks like the going off of a Pistol; such force the vent of Wind in the Pipes had.  
The Pipes which convey the Water are composed of Iron Cylinders 3 foot long, some 10, some 20 inches diameter, till they divide; and then they are of Lead.  
I was once kindly invited to St. Clou by Madam's Physician, Monsieur Arlot, who sent his Coach for me to Paris, and nobly Treated me: Before Dinner he carried me in his Coach (for this privilege is granted him) into all parts, and round the Gardens; which were well furnished with Alleys and Walks, adorned with Cypress, Pines, and Sirs, cut into Pyramids; and Waterworks every where playing in abundance, particularly the Gerbes d'eau were very fine, that is, great and thick, seeming Streams of Water thrown up into the Air; This is done to husband the Water by a great number of small Pipes like a Sheaf, to represent a solid Pillar of Water.  
Monsieur has added, and taken into this vast Garden, a new acquisition of a Mountainous Plain, which overlooks all the Country round; and will, no doubt, when it is modelled by that admirable Contriver Mons. le Nostre, make one of the most delightful Places in the World.  
From the Balustrade in the Upper Garden, the River Seine, and a vast Plain bounded by Paris, is to be seen, and makes a most delightful Prospect.  
These vast riding Gardens are unknown to us in England, and se promener a cheval, on en carosse, is not English. We cannot afford to lose so much Country, as those Gardens take up. I see in some of the Quarters not only Partridge and Hares plentifully, but, which I wondered at, 5 Biches or Female Red-Deer feeding.  
The Orangery belonging to this Garden is very large and magnificent, paved with Marble, and was filled with vast Trees in Cases, not to be brought in or out without proper Engines, but in it there was nothing but those Orange Trees, Oleanders', and Laurus Tinus'. He goes out of the end of his Apartment, that is, the noble painted Gallery is continued upon a level with the Orangery, which leads directly into an ascending Walk of a vast length; and also fronts or flanks all along the Parterre or Flower Garden; where they are disposed of in Summer. At this Treat I eat of a Preserve or Wet Sweetmeat, made of Orange Flowers, incomparable; and the Lady obliged me with the manner of making it.  
Though there were high and proper Walls for Fruit in many parts of the Garden, yet nothing of that nature was to be found, only ordinary and infructiferous Greene's were fastened to the Treillage, which are the Linings of most Walls here. In the Garden are many Arbours of Treillage, Pavillons, etc. of Iron mixed with Wood, painted Green, with Honey Suckles running up them. These Gardens have above 150 People always employed to keep them in order; which stands in 40000 Livres a year.  
Another time I Dined with the Captain of the Castle, who shown me all the Apartments at leisure. I eat here of the Red Legged Partridge taken here upon these Hills; They are much less here than in Languedoc, but yet far better tasted, than the Grey Partridges taken in the same place. This was the beginning of April, and we drank our Wine in Ice, which I was not ware off, till I found the bad effect of it in my Throat; and the next day much more; but it went off again without any great trouble. There is no Animal that abuses itself in Meat and Drink, as Man does; we daily drink excessive hot and excessive cold; in other Creatures its Instinct that guides them, but as for us we neither act by Instinct, nor Reason; but betwixt both loosely, and therefore oftener are catcht, to our own destruction.  
At the end of the Apartments of Monsieur, are a fine Set of Closets; The first you enter is furnished with great variety of Rock Crystals, Cups, agates upon small Stands, and the sides of the Rooms are lined with large Panes of Looking-glass from top to the bottom, with Japan Varnish and Paintings of equal breadth intermixed; which had a marvellous pretty effect. The other Room had in it a vast quantity of Bijou, and many of very great Price; but the Siam Pagods, and other things from thence, were very odd.  
There was also one very small Roman Statue of White Marble, not 10 inches high, which cost 20000 Crowns; one Leg of it was a little injured. It seemed a Piece of admirable Workmanship. It was a Boy, who had in the Skirt of his Tunic a Litter of Puppies, and the Bitch lying at his feet and looking up.  

Meudon.  I cannot say much of Meudon, because I was not within the House or Park; it will require yet some time to bring it to that perfection which is designed, for that Monseigneur has been but lately possessed of it; The Road from Paris to it is yet unpaved; but the Situation is admirable, and the Splanade before the House is like a vast Bastion, and commands the full view of all the Campagne, and Paris under it. The Gardens are very great, but I only coasted them, and the House.  

Versailles.  As to the Palace of Versailles, (which is yet some miles further within the Mountainous Country, not unlike Black-Heath or Tunbridge) 'tis without dispute the most magnificent of any in Europe; Yet what of it was first built, and much admired 30 years ago, is now no longer relished: However this King intends to rebuild it, where it is faulty. 'Tis, as I said, placed in a very ungrateful Soil, without Earth proper for Herbs, or Water; but he hath brought that to it in abundance, and made the Ground too to be fruitful.  
There are Books writ to describe this famous Palace in every part; to which I refer the Reader. The Way to it is new, and in some places the Mountains are cut down 40 foot, so that now you enjoy it a mile in prospect before you come to it; it opens and closes in 3 Courts, the more remotest narrower and narrower; which is a fault; and is, as I was told, designed to be pulled down, and made into one noble large square Court of the same order of building, as that magnificent Front is, which looks upon the Gardens. The Gilded Tiles and Roof have a marvellous effect in prospect. The Splanade towards the Gardens and Parterres are the noblest things that can be seen, vastly great, with a very large Basin of Water in the middle, walled round with white Marble, on which are placed a great number of incomparable Brazen Vasa, and large Brass Figures couchant, of the best Masters in Sculpture; it were endless to tell all the Furniture of these Gardens of Marble Statues, and Vasa of Brass and Marble, the multitude of Fountains, and those wide Canals like Seas running in a straight line from the bottom of the Gardens, as far as the Eye can reach.  
In a Word, these Gardens are a Country laid out into Alleys and Walks, Groves of Trees, Canals and Fountains, and every where adorned with ancient and modern Statues and Vasa innumerable.  
May the 17th the Waters were ordered to Play for the Diversion of the English Gentlemen. The Playing of the Spouts of Water, thrown up into the Air, is here diversified after a thousand fashions. The Theatre des eaux, and the Triumphal Arch are the most famous Pieces. But in the Groves of the Left Hand, you have Aesop's Fables, in so many Pieces of Waterworks, here and there in Winding-Alleys. This might have been said to be done in Vsum Delphini. 'Tis pretty to see the Owl washed by all the Birds; the Monkey hugging her young one, till it spouts out Water with a full Throat, and open Mouth, etc.  
The Orangery, or Winter Conservatory for Tubs of Winter Green's, is what corresponds to the greatness of the rest. 'Tis a stupendious half square of underground Vaults, like the Naves of so many Churches put together, of exquisite Workmanship in hewn Stone, well lighted and open to the South Sun. It contains 3000 Cases of Greene's; whereof near 2000 are Orange Trees, and many hundreds of them are as big as generally they naturally grow in the Earth: Hence amongst them are some, which are said to be in Cases from the time of Francis the First.  
They did not think fitting to put them out this year till the latter end of May; and indeed their Oleanders', Laurels, Lentiscus', and most other Greene's, had suffered miserably.  
In the Pottagerie (which is part of these Gardens, and hath its magnificence also) there are 700 Cases of Figs, besides Wall Fruit of all other Kind's: By all the Gardens in and about Paris, I perceived they are very fond of this Fruit.  
I observed in small Fiance or Painted Pots a vast number of the narrow leaved Laurus Alexandrina; also Thlapsi floor albo, Leucoii folio latifolium; also the Sedum Pyramidale; These are not yet Ornaments in our Gardens, that I know of.  

Marli.  The 15th of May my Lord Ambassador went to Marli, where the Waters played for his Diversion.  
I must needs say it is one of the pleasantest Places I ever saw, or, I believe, is in Europe; it is seated in the bosom or upper end of a high Valley, in the midst of and surrounded with Woody Hills. The Valley is closed at the upper end, and gently descends forwards by degrees, and opens wider and wider, and gives you the prospect of a vast plain Country, and the River Seine running through it.  
Marli is a square House raised upon Steps, and Terrassed on all sides; The 4 Fronts all alike; and the Doors opening into the Garden all the same. In the middle an Octogon-hall, running up Dome-wise, in which all the side Rooms meet; which are all Rooms of State. Above are 12 Lodgings, with a narrow Gallery leading to them. In the lower Rooms at Marli, particularly in the Octogon Salan, are extraordinary large (6 foot at least) Marble, or rather Agat Tables; To the best of which they may be compared. They are veined like Wood, and of an Amber colour; These are the admirable effect of Petrification. Of this very Stone I have seen great Blocks in the Banks of the Dropping Well at Knaresborough in Yorkshire. I forgot to ask here whence they had them.  
In one of the Ground Rooms was a Semicircular Gilt Bar or Rail, which took off and enclosed the upper end of the Room: Within the Bar was disposed several Rows of Porcelain or fine China on Gilt Shelves. Here at the Corners, within the Bar, opened two small Doors, whence the Ambassador and his Retinue were plentifully served with Chocolate, Tea, and Coffee, in a most obliging manner; Many of the Nobility and Gentlemen of France were ordered to attend him there.  
The two side Fronts of the House have in prospect great Alleys cut through the Woods, and paved for the more commodious coming down to the House; which is descending all the way.  
On each side the Valley, close under the Woods, run along in a line, six square Pavillons or smaller Palaces of the very same figure and beauty with the Mother House; at equal, but large distances, as 500 Paces. The 6 on the right hand the Garden are for the Men; The other 6 on the left are for the Women of Quality; whom the King weekly appoints, upon a List given, to attend him, and enjoy the Pleasure of this Retirement, as I may say, from Court. Before those Pavillons, and betwixt them, are the finest Alleys and Walks imaginable, with Fountains, and all the Decorations of Treillage and Flowers. Such a show of not ordinary Tulips in broad Beds, of a 1000 Paces long, every where, all this vast Garden over, in their full beauty, was a most surprising sight. I could not forbear to say to the Duke de Villeroy, who was pleased much to accompany me in this Walk, That sure all the Gardens in France had contributed to this Profusion of Flowers; which he took so well, that the Marishal his Father; afterwards detached himself to single me out, and very obligingly embraced me, and saluted me with a Kiss, and followed it with very kind and familiar Discourse.  
The Cascade coming down from the brow of the Hill, on that Front of the House which respects and stands near it, was new and singular, and of the Kings own invention, as, indeed, all the Garden besides. From the House it appeared a Broad River, quietly gliding down the Hill; but when I went near it, I found it composed of 52 large square and shallow Basins of Water, disposed at right Angles, and not declining, but falling over one into another.  
In the Garden were many Fountains, nobly adorned, and had variety of Water Pipes playing up into the Air in them. Here are some Gerbes of a singular fashion, with a Circle of a great number of large Pipes, within at least two foot diameter; which made the appearance of a vast Pillar of Water. There was one Jet d'eau in the bottom of the Garden, which we were told threw up Water 120 foot high; for of 50 and more Fountains, we saw but those on the side Alleys to play; most of the great Basins in the middle were mending, and dry. To furnish all this Water, there is a most stupendious Machine, which was invented by 2 Liegois. This Machine forces the Water up 560 foot, from the River Seine, to the top of the Tower or Aqueduct. It throws up 500 inches of Water by almost continued Ructations, or quick Pulses. It is wrought by 14 Wheels of 32 feet diameter each, set in the River, and carried about night and day by its Stream.  
This Invention is the same with what is practised in the deep Coal-pits about Leeds in Lower-Germany; so that to see the Engines, and a great number of Iron Cylinders or Water Pipes, lying bare above ground, and running up a vast Mountain, is to imagine a deep Coal-Mine turned wrongside outward.  
The Tree most in use here, was the small leaved Horne-Beam; which serves for Arcades, Berceaus; and also Standards with Globular Heads: At the foot of which they have planted little Sprigs of the same of a foot and half high; and also in some places in like manner, whole areas full of them; which cut smooth and level, make the finest green Hedges I ever saw; Some of these low Hedges were 12 foot broad, and in a barren and dry Climate supply very artificially the use of Grassplots.  
'Tis certainly very commendable in the King, who pleases himself in Planting and Pruning the Trees with his own Hand, to make use of no other Trees, but what the Neighbouring Woods afford; so that 'tis admirable to see whole Alleys of Pole Hedges of great height, and long Rows of goodly Standard Globes of 18 months' growth only.  
If this great King, as he grows older, should take a fancy to place himself in a warmer Climate, (and he has a good one of his own, as any under the Sun, in Languedoc) as he does his Winter Greene's in proper Houses; (and, methinks, this Instance alone should be sufficient, to convince him of the necessity there is to cherish decaying Nature, and that a Naturally warm Air is a better fence, than  or Fire) what Wonders would not his Purse and Passion for Planting do there?  
The next Woods in Languedoc would afford Laurel, and Myrtles for Pole Hedges; Lentiscus' and Phylarea's in as great abundance, as Hazel or Thorn with us. Also Jasmins for Arbours and Treillage; Cistus' and Rosmary, and a hundred other sweet smelling Woody Shrubs grow every where in the Fields, to furnish the Pots and Vasa.  
There the tall Cypres' grow of themselves, to 60 and 100 foot high, like so many Towers; and also Tonsil at pleasure, for the most beautiful Pole Hedges imaginable. The very Fields are most Excellent, and well furnished Parterrs of Flowers, and are Naturally Pottageries, or Kitchen Gardens. The Vineyards are very Orchards; and all the most tender Fruits with us are there Standards; as Figs, and Grapes of all sorts, Apricocks, Peaches, Nectorins, Jujubs, etc. The delicious and large Cherries; and, whatever has been said to the contrary, Pipins and Pears there are in far greater perfection, than with us, or in any parts of France else, besides that happy Climate.  
What was it for so great a King to make a Walk from Marli to Montpelier, or (if I might choose) to Pescenas, seated in the bosom of a well Watered Valley, enclosed with perfumed Hills. 'Tis not half so far as betwixt Lahor and Agria, two Seats the Mogul has thus joined. This would Eternise his Name, above any Palace he has yet built, and bring to himself much Health in his old Age. The Gardens of the Hesperides, and the Labyrinths of Cande, so famous in History, would be nothing to such wonderful Performances, as his Abilities and Happy Genius is capable of. For besides the Natural Product of the Country, the Climate also is capable of producing, and nourishing with small Art and Expense, what ever Plants both the Indies can afford. Whereas, at this end of the World, we drudge in vain; and force a Pleasure which is dead, and gone before we can well enjoy it: We have indeed a kind of show of the Summer Delights, but all on a sudden we drop into a long and tedious Winter again. But we love the Places we are used to, or born in. Man, to say the truth, is a very Animal, as any Quadrupede of them all; and most of his Actions are resolvable into Instinct, notwithstanding the Principles which Custom and Education have superinduced.  
The pleasure of seeing is scarce to be tired; but yet after 2 or 3 hours Walk in so fine and great a Garden, I was forced to make a halt behind the Company, and glad to retire to the gilt Bureau in the Palace again, to refresh myself; where I found some of the King's Officers waiting, and some other Gentlemen of the Household, who had made several Campagnes in Flanders. I had now more a mind to a Glass of cool Burgundy, than the insignificant Indian Liquors; which though I knew was against the sanctity of the place, yet nothing was denied me a Stranger. Here being alone, we fell into Discourse of the English, and of their King. They willingly allowed the English to be truly Brave; and now in Peace they found also, that they were as Civil, and well Bred, as Brave; That no Nation had given the King and his Court that satisfaction, that the English had done; being curious and inquisitive after all good things; They did see a great difference betwixt them and other Nations; They did not stare, and carelessly run about, or hold up their Heads, and despise what they saw; but had a true relish of every good thing, and made a good Judgement of what was Commendable; and therefore the King took pleasure to have them shown every thing. This Discourse of the English they concluded with a great Encomium of K. William.  
As for their own King they were much in the Praise of him, as one may easily imagine: That his Retirement hither was mostly for his Health; That he left Versailles every Tuesday night, and came hither with a select Company of Lords and Ladies; That he returned not till Saturday night, and sometimes intermitted 10 or 14 days; so that he spent half of his time here in Repose; That he was the most affable Prince in the World, and never out of Humour, of a pleasant and open Conversation where it pleased him; easy of access, and never sent any one away discontented; The most Bountiful Master in the World, of which there were Ten thousand Instances; nothing of Merit in any Kind, but he most readily and cheerfully Rewarded, ever, of late years at least, preferring the Virtuous; so on the other hand, he never spared the Rebellious and Obstinate; That the Government of his People could not be carried on with less severity and strictness; nor the Taxes which was necessary to support it, raised; That he delighted not in Blood or Persecution; but that the Art of Government had different Rules, according to the Climate and Nature of the People, where and upon whom it was to be put in practice. His great Wisdom appeared in nothing more, than in preserving himself amidst his Troops, his Converts, his Court and numerous Family, all in a manner fit for the Throne. The greatness of his Mind, and Magnificence, in his Buildings. This was the Sum of the Discourse these Gentlemen were pleased to entertain me with.  

The Pipinerie.  At my return to Paris I was to see the Pipinerie, or Royal Nursery of Plants, in the Fauxbourgh of St. Honorie; where I met the Master or Controller of it, Monsieur Morley, one of the Ushers of the Bedchamber to the King.  
He, like the rest of the French Nation, was Civil to me; and shown me a Written Almanac of Flowering Plants for the whole year, which he said was an Original; it might, indeed, be so in French, but we have had Almanacs for Fruit and Flowers, for every month in the year, Printed divers times, for above this 30 years, thanks to Mr. Evelyn.  
This Ground enclosed with high Walls is vastly big, as it ought to be, to supply the King's Gardens; Here are several Acres of young Pines, Cypresses, Vues, etc. also vast Beds of Stock July-Flowers, of all sorts of Bulbes, as Tulips, Dafidills, Crocus', &c. and therefore I could easily believe him, when he told me, he had sent from hence to Marli alone, in 4 years' time, 18 millions of Tulips, and other Bulbous Flowers; for which he offered to show me his Memoires.  
He further told me, that the furnishing the Trianon, (a peculiar House of Pleasure, with its Parterres at the end of the Gardens at Versailles) with Flower Pots in season, every 14 days in the Summer, took up no less than 92000 Pots from hence.  
Also from hence he could Plant and furnish in 14 days time, any new Garden the King should cause to be made.  
Here besides the Plants common to us and them, I saw a multitude of Pots well conditioned of Staechas citrina folio latiusculo.  
Also a sort of Cotila, which bore large Sun Flowers or Marigolds, propagated by Slips, called by him Amaroutre.  
In this Ground are several Houses to lodge the tender Winter Green's; amongst the rest there is one very large, which I may call the Infirmary of sick Orange Trees; which coming from Genoa by Sea, are here deposited in a peculiar Green House; and there were in it, and then actually carrying out into the Air, (it was the 22th of May our Style) 300 Trees in Cases as thick as a Man's Thigh; but after 10, and some after 17 years cherishing, had not yet got Heads decent enough to be removed, and to appear at Court, they being often forced to lop both Tops and Root, that they might recover them.  
After all, it must be said, that this Magnificence, and the number of these Palaces and Gardens, are the best and most commendable effect of Arbitrary Government. If these Expenses were not in time of Peace, what would be this King's Riches, and the extreme Poverty of the People? For it is said, that every 3 years, some say much oftener, he has all the Wealth of the Nation in his Coffers; so that there is a necessity he should have as extravagant and incredible ways of expending it, that it may have its due circulation amongst the People.  
But when this vast Wealth and Power is turned to the Disturbance and Destruction of Mankind, it is terrible; and yet it hath its use too: We and all Europe have been taught, by the Industry of this great King, mighty Improvements in War; so that Europe has been these 12 years an Over-match for the Turk; and we for France by the continuation of the War. The 40 Millions Sterling which the late War hath, and will cost England, before all is paid, was well bestowed, if it had been for no other end, than to teach us the full use and practice of War; and in that Point to equal us with our Neighbours.  
It was observed by Polybius of the Romans, that wherever they met with an Enemy, that had better Weapons than themselves, they changed with them; This Docility gained them the Empire of the World. On the contrary, those late Eastern Tyrants have despised Learning, and consequently must submit to the more refined Valour of Europe. I say, the Effects of Arbitrary Government, both in War and Peace, are Stupendious.  
The Roman Emperors, because absolute Lords of the People; far outdid the Commonwealth in Magnificent Buildings, both Public and Private. Augustus' left Rome a Marble City, which he found of Brick only. Nero burned it and rebuilt it, and a Golden Palace for himself, like a City. Vespasian and Titus built Amphitheatres and Baths far surpassing any Buildings now upon the face of the Earth; in one of which 120000 Persons might see and hear, and be seated with more convenience, than upon our Stages. Adrian visited most parts of the World, on purpose to build Cities. Trajan had his Name on every Wall, which he either restored, or built. His Pillar and Bridge over the Danube are Stupendious Monuments of his Expenses.  
The Egyptian Kings built them Monuments, wherein they slaved their whole Nation, and which are the Wonders of the World to this day, the Obelisks I mean, and Pyramids.  
The Asiatic Emperors of China and Japan have outdone the Europeans in this kind of immense Buildings, as the Wall in China, the Cut Rivers and Sluices and Bridges there. In Japan the Buildings are no less incredibly great.  
Of this Absolute Dominion we have Examples even in those two American Empires, of Mexico and Peru. In this last, mere Nature forced Impossibilities without Art, Tools, or Science. The Cusco Fortress was a Masterpiece, where Stones were laid upon Stones, which no Engine of ours could carry, or raise up; or Tools better polish, and fit together; where a Country near as big as all Europe, was turned into a Garden, and cultivated better than Versailles, and Waterworks brought to Play and overspread some thousands of miles, where it never Rains. This was the only Arbitrary Government well applied to the good of Mankind, I ever met with in History; where Roads and Storehouses of Food and Raiment were the Guides, and numbered the miles for the Travellers, and the whole Empire turned into an useful and intelligible Map.  
As for the Turks, Persians, and Mogul, the whole Empire is intended solely for the Pleasure of one Man; and here even Tyranny itself is foully abused.  
Yet I should be loath to see them in any kind exemplified in England. In our happy Island we see such Palaces and Gardens, as are for the Health and Ease of Man only; and what they want in Magnificence, they have in Neatness. There is not such a thing as a Gravel Walk in or about Paris, nor a Rowler of any sort; when it Rains the Tuilleries are shut up, and one walks in Dirt some days after. The Grass Plots, or, as they call them Bowling Greene's, are as ill kept, they clip them and beat them with flat Beaters as they do their Walks. This puts me in mind of what I saw in the Garden of the Prince of Conde in Paris; where there was a Grassy Circle of about 4 foot wide, round one of the Fountains in the middle of the Garden; to keep this down, and make it of a finer Turf, the Gardner had Teathered two Black Lambs, and two White Kids, at equal distances, which fed upon it. What ever the effect was, I thought it looked pretty enough; and the little Animals were as Ornamental, as the Grass.  
All the Paintings and Prints made of late years of the King make him look very old; which in my mind is not so; for he is plump in the Face, and is well coloured, and seems healthy, and eats and drinks hearty, which I saw him do; This is certainly an injury to him, and possibly in complaisance to the Dauphin, or worse. This is the meanest Compliment I have known the French guilty of towards their Prince; for there are every where Expressions of an other nature all over Paris. See The Description of Paris, where they are collected and at large. The Romans under Augustus, (the first Absolute Master of that People, as this King is of the French) had upon this Subject from the People a much finer thought, and wish, De nostris annis tibi Jupiter augeat annos.  
However it be, the King seems not to like Versailles so well as he did; and has an Opinion, that the Air is not so good, as elsewhere; he leaves it (as I said) every week on Tuesday night, and goes mostly to Marli, or Meudon, and sometimes to the Trianon, which is but at the end of the Gardens, and returns not to Versailles till Saturday night: Besides his extraordinary removes to Fontainbleau. I wonder no body puts him in mind of that Paradise of France, Languedoc, where he may be with ease in 4 days, at the Rate that Kings use to Travel. I had this Discourse at Table with one of the Introducteurs to the Ambassador at Versailles; but he could not bear it, it being against the Interest of all settled Courts to remove, though it were never so good for their Prince's Health. I remember but of one Instance in History, and that was Aurenzebe the Great Mogul, who in his middle Age fell desperately sick, and long languished at Labour; but took Advice of some body about him, and went in his own Kingdom a progress of 1000 miles to Casimire, a very mild and temperate Climate, where he recovered, and lived to almost a 100 years old.  
The King now seldom or never Plays, but contents himself sometimes with looking on; but he hath formerly been engaged, and has lost great Sums. Monsieur S. Rooked him of near a Million of Livers at Basset, by putting false Cards upon him; but was imprisoned and banished for it some years.   

Before I give over the Business of Gardens and Country, I will add some Remarks, which seemed particular and new to me.  
In the Kitchen Gardens at and near Paris, are a great number of Apricock Standards; but kept low; very full of Blossoms, and good Bearers.  
They make a Conserve of the Fruit; which I like above any of their Wet Sweetmeats; it was made by cutting them into thin slices, and throwing away the Stone; which our People spare sometimes, and leave in the Flesh entire, and spoils the Sweetmeat, and sets it a fretting.  
They employ the Stones in Brandy, and distil them in Spirits.  
In the beginning of April we had store of Sparagrass, but they were often so bitter, to me at least, that there was little pleasure in eating them. 'Tis certain they were much worse, than ours in England in that particular. Which puts me in mind of the Wild Sparagrass, which grows plentifully with us on the Sea Coast in Lincolnshire. This is very fair to the Eye; yet no culture of our Gardens, by often transplanting, could make it eatable. I fancy the Sparagrass recovers something of its natural force in a warmer Climate; for the sweet is as it were degenerated. If they would have them good here, they must renew the Seed from England or Holland.  
The Wild Sparagrass of Languedoc is another Plant called Corruda.  
I procured out of Languedoc a sort of Praecox Vine, about 50 Plants, by the Clermont Carrier; the which I gave to Mr. London, our King's Gardener, for my Lord Ambassador. This Grape is White, very thin Skinned, and clear as a drop of Water; it is usually ripe at St. Johnsmass in July at Montpellier, where it is called Des Vnies.  
There are also in this Town Praecox Grapes, as Dr. Turnfort told me, in the Physic Garden; but whether the same with the Vnies, I know not.  
I have said they delight much in Figs in Pots or Cases; but here is another way of preserving the Fig Trees set in the Ground, which is much practised; and that is to lap, and tie them up in long Straw, from top to bottom; for which they are placed at a little distance from the Walls. This also is practised to such Trees as stand in the middle of the Parterre; they did not open them till Mid- May.  
The Exotic Trees, which the Parisians most delight in, for their Garden Walks, and for the Shade in their Courts, are the Maroniers, or Horse Chestnuts, of which they have innumerable; for the Fruit ripens very well here, and comes up of itself. Also the Acacia Rovini, which is very common, and makes pretty Alleys, and which they lop and turn to pollard's, with good effect; but of these last the Leaves are late in putting forth, it being the 15th of May our Syle, when these Trees were scarce green.  
May 25, when I took my Leave of Monsieur valiant, I found him in his Flower Garden; he shown me a Parcel of Ranunculus', in full Flower, which he had received but two years before from Constantinople; They were very beautiful and rare, at least such as I had never seen; as pure White, White and Green, White and Stripped with Carnation, Pure Carnation or Rose-colour, Stripped Carnation, etc.  
Of these he had sold some a Pistol a Root, and hoped in a year or two to be more plentifully stocked with them, that he might afford them cheaper. I did see afterwards a few of them in the Royal Pipinerie, and also in the Seedsman's Garden, Monsieur le Febre; but both came from him.  
I also took notice of his Iron Cradles or Hoops over his Beds, which were removable, and to be made higher and lower, according to the height and nature of the Floors they were designed to cover. This, me-thoughts, was far beyond all the Inventions of Wooden Covers, and might with Sail-Cloths and Mats well serve for a sort of portable Green House, to the less tender Plants.  
I saw Le Febre's Flower Garden May 9 The Tulips were in their prime; indeed, he had a very large and plentiful Collection. The Panacheé or Stripped Tulips were many, and of great variety. He observed to me, that from his large and numerous Beds of self-flowered Tulips, that is, of one colour, as Red, Yellow, etc. they expected yearly some Stripped one's, which if perfect, that is, stripped in all the six Leaves, would but doubtfully continue, and perhaps return to their former state the next year; but if they laboured, or did not finish the striping of all the six Leaves the first year, there were better hopes of their continuing in that state.  
Though I had no mind to descend into the Stone Pits, which are like our Mines, Well-fashion, and the Stones wound up with great Wheels, to husband the Soil over them: Yet I went to Vanre, 3 miles from the Town, which is a ridge of Hills that runs along to the Observatoire. Here the Quarries are open on the side of the Hill, as with us. In those I observed 2 or 3 layers of Stone, 2 or 3 foot thick, mostly made up of Shells, or Stones in the fashion of Shells. Amongst these Shell-stones the most remarkable for bigness was a certain smooth and long Buccinum, tapering with very many spires. I measured one whose first spire was 8 inches diameter, the full length I could not so well come at; yet holding proportion with those of the kind which lay flat, and which we could see in their full length, it must have been a foot long at least. There is no Buccinum in any of our Seas a quarter so big. Here are many of this Species. Also other large Turbinated Stones, which come near some of the West-India Kind's of Music Shells, of which Genus yet there are none in the European Seas.  
These Layers of Stone mixed with Shell-figured bodies, are at certain distances in the Rock, and other Rocks void of Shells interposed.  
Fanciful Men may think what they please of this matter; sure I am, until the History of Nature, and more particularly that of Minerals and Fossils' is better looked into, and more accurately distinguished, all Reasoning is in vain. It is to be observed, where Men are most in the dark, there Impudence reigns most, as upon this Subject: They are not content fairly to descent, but to insult every body else. In like manner upon the Subject of Mineral Waters; How many Scribblers have there been, without any knowledge of Fossils'?  
I know not whether it be worth the noting, but it shows the Humour of the French, that I saw in some Country Towns near Paris, the Church Wall near the top, had a two foot broad Mourning List, which compassed the whole Church like a Girdle, and on this was at certain distances, painted the Arms of the Lord of the Manor, who was dead.    

I shall conclude, what I have to say further, with the Air of Paris, and the State of Health and Physic there.  

Air.  The Air of Paris is drier than that of England, notwithstanding the greatest part of the City is placed in a dirty miry Level; The Muddy Banks of the River Seine witness this; also the old Latin Name of Paris, Lutetia; but some of them are unwilling to derive it from Lutum; though there are several other Towns in France, formerly more considerable than it, of that very Name; but from the Greek Original, as Tolon, Tolousa, which in that Language signify Black Dirt. We have an undoubted Experiment of the different Temper of the Air in our Philosophic Transactions; where it is demonstrated, that there falls twice as much Rain in England, as at Paris; Registers of both having carefully been kept, for so many years, both here and in France.  
From this quantity of Rain with us, our Fields are much greener; and it was a pleasing surprise to me at my return, sailing up the River of Thames, to see our green Fields and Pastures on every side; but we pay dearly for it, in Agues and Coughs, and Rheumatic Distempers.  
The Winter was very rude and fierce, as was ever known in the Memory of Man; The cold Winds very piercing; and the Common People walk the Streets all in Mouffes, and Multitudes had little Brass Kettles of Smallcoal kindled, hanging on their Arms; and yet you should scarce hear any one Cough.  
I never saw a Mist at Paris in the 6 months I stayed there, but one; though a very broad River runs through the middle of the City, nor any very strong Winds; but this may be accidental, and the Temper of some one year by chance.  
We were very sensible by the 20th of February our Style, though the Nights were cold, and the White Frosts great in the Mornings, that the Sun at Noon had a much stronger force and heat, than with us, at that time of the year.  
Another Argument, of the Dryness of the Air at Paris, we had from the alteration of Health; such as were thick Breathed, and Caught and Spit much, soon recovered; and the insensible perspiration of the Skin was so clear and free, that the Kidneys had little to do; so that it was observed by most, that though we drank pretty freely of the thin Wines of Champagne and Burgundy, yet they never broke our sleep to get shut of them; and that very little passed that way in the morning.  
Lastly, a sign of the Dryness and great goodness of the Air of Paris is, the vast number of Iron Bars all over the City; which yet are mostly entire, and the least decayed with Rust, I ever saw in any place; whereas ours in London are all in a few years all over rusty, and miserably eaten.  

Water.  We were sufficiently alarmed at our first coming to Paris, with the unwholesomeness of the River Water, and cautioned against drinking it; and yet it was almost impossible to avoid the bad effects of it, for within the month two thirds of the Family fell into Fluxes, some into Dysenteries, and some very ill of it. The French that come out of other remote countries' suffer as well as the Strangers. We were told boiling it was a good Remedy to prevent its Griping Quality; but that is a mere Notion, for we know Mineral Waters boiled have a stronger effect, and this quality can proceed from nothing less.  
The Well Waters here are much worse than the River Waters, because more Mineral. But our safety was in the Water brought from the Maison des Eaux, where the Aqueduct of Arcueil empties itself to serve the great Palaces and City Fountains.  

Dysentery.  The Disease of the Dysentery being one of the most common in Paris, 
Hypopecovana.  the most celebrated Drug for its cure is now the Hypopecovana; though I never once made use of it to any of our People, but cured them all as soon, and as well with our usual Remedies. Indeed they have great need of it here, for the poorer sort of People, through ill Diet, this Water, and Herbs, are very subject to it; This Root is said to cure it with as much certainty, and as readily, as the Jesuits Powder an Ague; Of this most of the Physicians and Apothecaries agreed. They give it in Powder from 10 grains to 40, which is the largest Dose. It most commonly Vomits, and sometimes Purges, but both gently. 'Tis sold here from 20 to 50 Crowns a Pound. They divide it into 4 sorts, according to its goodness.  

The Stone.  Another popular Disease here is the Stone; and there are Men well practised in the Cutting for it. There are also two Hospitals, where great numbers are cut yearly, as La Charite, and Hostel-Dieu, in both of these there are Wired Chests full of Stones cut from Human Bodies; and in the Chest of La Charite is one, which exceeds all belief; it was cut from a Monk, who died in the very Operation; it is as big as a Child's Head. It is but the Model or Pattern of the Stone which is kept in the Chest; which has this Inscription on it. Figure & grosseur de la pierre, peasant 51 ounces, qui font trois liures trois ounces, qui a esté tirée dans cet Hospital au mois de Juin 1690, & que l'ou conserve dans le couvent de la Charité.  
But that which I shall here most insist upon is the new way, practised by Pere Jaques, a Monk. About the 20th of April he cut in the Hostel-Dieu 10 in less than an hours time: The 3d day after, all were hearty and without pain but one.  
He cuts both by the grand and little Apparel; in both he boldly thrusts in a broad Lancet or Stilleto into the middle of the Muscle of the Thigh near the Anus, till he joins the Catheter or Staff, or the Stone betwixt his Fingers; then he widens the incision of the Blader in proportion to the Stone with a Silver Oval Hoop; if that will not do, he thrusts in his 4 Fingers, and tears it wider; then with the Duck's Bill he draws it out.  
I see him cut a second time in the Hostel-Dieu; and he performed it upon 9 Persons in 3 quarters of an hour, very dexterously. He seemed to venture at all; and put me into some disorder with the cruelty of the Operation; and a stouter Englishman than myself. However I visited them all in their Beds, and found them more amazed, than in pain.  
Pere Jaques cut also his way in the other Hospital La Charite, much about the same time, 11 at twice. Here Monsieur Marshal, the best of the Surgeons for this Operation now in Paris, harangued against him before the Governors, who coldly answered, they would be determined by the Event, which way was best.  Atque hac ratione Faeminis Calcúli omnium facillimè exciduntur; nempe scalpello intra vaginam uteri in vesicam adacto. 
Of those cut in La Charite one died; and being dissected, it was found he had his Bladder pierced in 4 or 5 places; also the Museulus Psous sadly mangled; also the left Vesiculae Seminales cut.  
Notwithstanding this, if this Method was well executed by a Skilful Hand, it might be of good use to Mankind.  
This way of Cutting for the Stone, puts me in mind of what I formerly writ and published in the Phil. Transactions, about Cutting above the Os Pubis, in the Fund of the Bladder.  
Also of that Experiment of Cutting for the Stone of an Alderman of Doncaster in the Gluteus Major, he was twice cut in the same place, and outlived both. I saw the first Stone, which was very large, and in some measure transparent, Crystal like. This Experiment is Printed in Dr. Willies Scarborough Spa, 14 years ago at least, and is a fair hint for this new Method.  
Since my return I had a Letter from Mr. Probie, a very Learned and Industrious young Gentleman, who was with me to see the Operation, that part relating to this Matter I shall here transcribe. Indeed, I mightily longed for an Account of this Matter, the success of which I came away too soon to learn any thing for certain.  
Paris, Aug. 2. 98.  
Peer Jaque's Reputation mightily slackens, out of Forty five that he cut at the Hostel-Dieu, but sixteen of them survive; and of Nineteen in the Charite, but eleven. He has practised at the Hospitals at Lions, but, 'tis said, with worse success than at Paris. I am sensible he has got abundance of Enemies, which makes me very often question, what I may hear said of him. Dr. Fagon, the King's Physician, told Dr. Turnfort, when he went to present his Book to him, that he had cut Seven at Versailles, and that six of them are alive, and as well as if never cut. The Person that died was so Distempered, that he was not expected to live, and 'twas thought, if he had not been cut, he had not lived so long: The Surgeons have a great mind to cry down the Man, though they practise his Method. For Marshal has since cut after Pere Jaque's Manner, only with this difference, that Marshal's Catheter was cannulated. Le Rue, the second Surgeon of the Charity Hospital cut after the old Manner, at the same time when Marshal cut Pere Jaque's way, but had not so good success as Marshal had; for all that Marshal cut are alive and very well, whereas the other lost one or two of his number; besides, those that lived were not so soon cured, no, not by a month or six weeks.  
Thus far Mr. Probie.  

Pox.  The Pox here is the great Business of the Town; a Disease which in some measure hath contributed to the ruin of Physic here, as in London. This Secret Service hath introduced little Contemptible Animals of all sorts into Business, and hath given them occasion to insult Families, after they had once the knowledge of these Misfortunes. And it is for this reason the Quacks here, as with us, do thrive vastly into great Riches beyond any of the Physicians, by treating privately these Calamities.  
It was a pleasant Diversion to me to read upon the Walls every where about the Town, but more particularly in the Fauxbourgh of St. , the Quacks Bills Printed in great Uncial Letters.  
As, 
De par l'ordre du Roy.  
remedy infallible & commode pour la gerison des maladies secrets sans garder la chambre.  Another, 
Par permission de Roy.  
Manniere tres aisee & tres sure pour guerir sans incommodity, & sans que persone en appercoive, les maladies veneriennes, etc.  Another, 
Par privilege du Roy.  
L'Antivenerien de medicine Indien, pour toutes les maladies veneriennes, tells quelles quissent estre, sans aucun retour, & sans guarder la chambre. Il est tres commode & le plus agreable de monde.  Another, 
remedy assure de Sieur de la Brune privilege du Roy, etc. sans qu'on soit contraint de garder la chambre, etc.   
By these Bills it is evident, there is yet a certain Modesty and Decorum left in the Concealing this Disease, even amongst the French; They would be Cured secretly, and as though nothing were doing; which those Wretches highly promise. But this is that Handle which gives those mean People an occasion to insult their Reputation, and injure them in their Health for ever.  
Every body here puts their helping Hand, and meddles with the Cure of this Disease, as Apothecaries, Barbers, Women, and Monks; yet I did not find by all the inquiry I could make, that they had other Remedies than we. Nay, there is something practised in the Cure of this Distemper in England, which they at Paris know nothing of; but this old Verse forbids me to say any thing further. 
Artem pudere proloqui, quam factites.   

Apothecary's Shops.  The Apothecary's Shops are neat enough, if they were but as well stored with Medicines; and some are very finely adorned, and have an Air of greatness, as that of Monsieur Geofferie, who has been Provost des merchand's, in the Rue Burtebur, where the Entry to the Basse Cor is a Port-cochier, with Vasa's of Copper in the Niches of the Windows; within are Rooms adorned with huge Vasa's and Mortors of Brass, as well for sight, as for use. The Drugs and Compositions are kept in Cabinets disposed round the Room. Also Laboratories backwards in great perfection and neatness. I must needs commend this Gentleman for his Civility towards me; and for his Care in Educating his Son, who came over with Count Tallard, a most Hopeful and Learned Young Man; whom our Society at Gresham-Colledge, at my Request, honoured with admitting him Fellow, according to his Deserts.  

Physicians.  I had the opportunity of Conversing with many of the Physicians in this City; who all agree in the low Condition and Disesteem it was in, from the boundless Confidence and intruding of Quacks, Women, and Monks. Monsieur d'Achin, the late chief Physician, has been ill thought on for taking Money, and giving protection to these sort of Cattle; but the chief Physician now, Monsieur Fagon, is a Man of great Honour and Learning, and very desirous to promote the Art.  
It is here as with us, some practice out of mere vanity, others to make a Penny any way to get Bread. The cause of all this is, I think, the great Confidence People have of their own Skill, an arrogance without thinking. To pass a Judgement upon Cures, and the good and evil practice of Physic, without doubt is one of the nicest things, even to Men of the Faculty; but a Jury, that is, the very ordinary Men in England, are suffered now to undertake the Question; when I may truly say, that I have ever found, no disparagement to them, the most Learned Men of the Nation, the most mistaken in these Matters; and can it be otherwise in so Conjectural an Art, when we ourselves scarce know, when we have done ill or well.  
Another cause of the low Esteem of Physic here, are the sorry Fees that are given to Physicians; which makes that Science not worth the Application and Study. The King indeed is very liberal, as in all things else, in his Pensions to his chief Physician, and gives his Children good Preferments.  
Also Mr. Burdelot, who is also well Pensioned, and lodged at Versailles, Physician to the Duchess of Burgundy, a Learned Man; he is perfectly well Skilled in the History of Physic; and we may shortly (as he told me) expect from him, another Supplement to Vauder Linden, of many thousand Volumes, which have escaped that Catalogue, and are not accounted for.  
Monsieur, and the Dauphin, and all the Princes of the Blood, have their Domestic Physicians; some of whom I knew, as Monsieur Arlot, Monsieur Minot, to the Prince of Conty, of my acquaintance formerly at Montpelier. The Two Morins very Learned Men; also Monsieur Grimodel, etc.  
Others have the practice of Nunneries and Convents, which gives them Bread; others have Parishes; and some such Shifts they make; but all is wrong with them, and very little encouragement given to the Faculty.  
April 14. the Prince of Conty sent his Gentleman and Coach at midnight to fetch me to his Son, and to bring with me the late King Charles' Drops to give him. This was a very hasty call. I told the Messenger, I was the Prince's very humble Servant; but for any Drops or other Medicines I had brought nothing at all with me, and had used only such as I found in their Shops, for all the occasions I had had to use any. I desired he would tell him, that I was ready to Consult with his Physicians upon his Son's Sickness, if he pleased to command me, but for coming upon any other Account I desired to be excused; but I heard no more of the Matter, and the young Prince died. By this it is evident, there is as false a Notion of Physic in this Country, as with us; and that it is here also thought a Knack, more than a Science or Method; and little Chemical Toys, the Bijous of Quacks, are mightily in request. This Heresy hath possessed the most thinking, as well as the ignorant part of Mankind; and for this we are beholden to the late vain Expositors of Nature, who have mightily inveighed against and undervalved the ancient Greek Physicians, in whose Works only this Art is to be learned, unless single Persons could live over as many Ages, as those Wise Men did.  
Men are apt to prescribe to their Physician, before he can possibly tell, what he shall in his Judgement think fitting to give; 'tis well if this was in Negatives only; but they are prejudiced by the impertinence of the Age, and our Men, who ought to Converse with the Patient and his Relations with Prognostics only, which are the honour of Physic, and not play the Philosopher by fanciful and precarious Interpretations of the Nature of Diseases and Medicines, to gain a sort of Credit with the Ignorant; and such certainly are all those that have not studied Physic thoroughly, and in earnest.  
Those Drops were desired of me by other Persons of Quality, as the Princess d'Espinoy, the Duchess of Boullon, Monsieur Sesac, etc. and having bethought myself how my Master, the late King Charles, had communicated them to me, and shown me very obligingly the Process himself, by carrying me alone with him into his Elaboratory at Whitehall, while it was Distilling. Also Mr. Chevins another time shown me the Materials for the Drops in his Apartment newly brought in, in great quantity, that is, Raw Silk. I caused the Drops to be made here. Also I put Dr. Turnfort upon making of them; which he did in perfection, by Distilling the finest Raw Silk he could get. For my part I was surprised at the Experiment often repeated, having never tried it before. One Pound of Raw Silk yielded an incredible quantity of Volatile Salt, and in proportion the finest Spirit I ever tasted; and that which recommends it is, that it is when rectified, of a far more pleasant smell, than that which comes from Sal Armoniac or Hartshorne; and the Salt refined and cohobated with any well scented Chemical Oil, makes the King's Salt, as it's used to be called. This my Lord Ambassador gave me leave to present in his Name; and the Doctor now supplies those which want. Silk, indeed is nothing else, but a dry Jelly from the Insect Kind, and therefore very Cordial and Stomachick no doubt. The Arabians were wise, and knowing in the Materia Medica, to have put it in their Alkermes.  
This must be said for the Honour of this King, that he has ever given great Encouragements for useful Discoveries in all Kind's, and particularly in Physic. 'Tis well known he bought the Secret of the Jesuits Powder, and made it public; as he lately did that of the Hypococana.  
To Conclude, it was my good Fortune here to have a Bundle of Original Papers of Sir Theodore Mayerne, and his Friends, who Corresponded with him, presented me by the Reverend Dr. Wickar, Dean of Winchester, who Marrying his Kinswoman found them amongst other Writings of Law Matters. I have not yet had the leisure to peruse them, but those who know the Worth of that great Man, will desire they may be made public; which if they are, they shall come forth entire, and not disguised, as some of his other Papers have been, to the great detriment of Physic; and I think it is the first Example of this Nature, that Posthumous Papers were ever abreviated, and made what they never were, before an entire and full publication.   
FINIS.  

 depiction of a species of snail 
Purpura Americana F. Plumier   depiction of a species of millipede 
julus Americanus F. Plumier   depiction of a species of centipede 
Scolopendra Americana F. Plumier    

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The Works of Virgil, containing his Pastords; Georgicus and Aeneids Translated into English Verse by Mr. Dryden, adorned with a Hundred Sculptures. The Second Edition.  
The Satyrs of Decimus Junius Juvenalis Translated into English Verse by Mr. Dryden, and several other Eminent Hands; Together with the Satyrs of Aulus Persius Flaccus, made English by Mr. Dryden, with Explanatory Notes at the end of each satire; To which is prefixed a Discourse concerning the Original and Progress of Satire. Dedicated to the Right Honourable Charles Earl of Dorset, etc. The Second Edition, adorned with Sculptures.  
Davenant's Essay upon Ways and Means for Supplying the Wars.  
The Old Bachelor, Double Dealer, Love for Love, and Mourning Bride; all 4 by Mr. Congreve.  
Amendments to Mr. Collier's False and Imperfect Citations from the Old Bachelor, Double Dealer, Love for Love, Mourning Bride, by the Author of those Plays.  
Five Books of Manelius in English by Mr. Creech.  
Seneca's Morals by Sir Roger L'Estrange. The Seventh Edition.  
Tully's Offices in English by Sir R. L'Estrange.  
Temple's Works. Suckling's Poems.  
Cowley's Works.  
Eachard's Roman History, in Two Parts.  
Charron of Wisdom, in Two Parts.