The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [339]
‘White stockings, 18 l. – Wig. – Hat.
‘Sunday, Oct. 29. We saw the boarding-school. – The Enfans trouves.517 – A room with about eighty-six children in cradles, as sweet as a parlour. – They lose a third; take in to perhaps more than seven {years old}; put them to trades; pin to them the papers sent with them. – Want nurses. – Saw their chapel.
‘Went to St. Eustatia; saw an innumerable company of girls catechised, in many bodies, perhaps 100 to a catechist. – Boys taught at one time, girls at another. – The sermon; the preacher wears a cap, which he takes off at the name: – his action uniform, not very violent.
‘Oct. 30. Monday. We saw the library of St. Germain. – A very noble collection. –Codex Divinorum Officiorum, 1459: – a letter, square like that of the Offices, perhaps the same. – The Codex, by Fust and Gernsheym.
– Meursius, 12 v. fol. –Amadis, in French, 3 v. fol. – Catholicon sine colophone, but of 1460. – Two other editions,a one by…. Augustin. de Civitate Dei, without name, date, or place, but of Fust’s square letter as it seems.
‘I dined with Col. Drumgold; – had a pleasing afternoon.
‘Some of the books of St. Germain’s stand in presses from the wall, like those at Oxford.
‘Oct. 31. Tuesday. I lived at the Benedictines; meagre day; soup meagre, herrings, eels, both with sauce; fryed fish; lentils, tasteless in themselves. In the library; where I found Maffeus’s de Historia Indica: Promontorium flectere, to double the Cape. I parted very tenderly from the Prior and Friar Wilkes.
‘Maitre des Arts, 2 y. –Bacc. Theol. 3 y. –Licentiate, 2 y. –Doctor Th. 2 y. in all 9 years. – For the Doctorate three disputations, Major, Minor, Sorbonica. – Several colleges suppressed, and transferred to that which was the Jesuits’ College.
‘Nov. 1. Wednesday. We left Paris. – St. Denis, a large town; the church not very large, but the middle isle is very lofty and aweful. – On the left are chapels built beyond the line of the wall, which destroy the symmetry of the sides. The organ is higher above the pavement than any I have ever seen. – The gates are of brass. – On the middle gate is the history of our Lord. – The painted windows are historical, and said to be eminently beautiful. – We were at another church belonging to a convent, of which the portal is a dome; we could not enter further, and it was almost dark.
‘Nov. 2. Thursday. We came this day to Chantilly, a seat belonging to the Prince of Conde. – This place is eminently beautified by all varieties of waters starting up in fountains, falling in cascades, running in streams, and spread in lakes. – The water seems to be too near the house. – All this water is brought from a source or river three leagues off, by an artificial canal, which for one league is carried under ground. – The house is magnificent. – The cabinet seems well stocked: what I remember was, the jaws of a hippopotamus, and a young hippopotamus preserved, which, however, is so small, that I doubt its reality. – It seems too hairy for an abortion, and too small for a mature birth. – Nothing was in spirits; all was dry. – The dog; the deer; the ant-bear with long snout. – The toucan, long broad beak. – The stables were of very great length. – The kennel had no scents. There was a mockery of a village. – The Menagerie had few animals.a – Two faussans,b or Brasilian weasels, spotted, very wild. – There is a forest, and, I think, a park. – I walked till I was very weary, and next morning felt my feet battered, and with pains in the toes.
‘Nov. 3. Friday. We came to Compiegne, a very large town, with a royal palace built round a pentagonal court. – The court is raised upon vaults, and has, I suppose, an entry on one side by a gentle rise. – Talk of painting. The church is not very large, but very elegant and splendid. – I had at first great difficulty to walk, but motion grew continually easier. – At night we came to Noyon, an episcopal city. – The cathedral is very beautiful, the pillars alternately Gothick and Corinthian. – We entered