Arriving At La Roquelle, Our Cicerone Pointed Out To Us The Ruined
Walls Of What Once Had Been A Very Splendid Chateau; Its Former Owner
Being An Inveterate Gamester, Having Lost Large Sums Of Money, At
Length Staked The Chateau To An Englishman, Who Won It.
Upon arriving
to take possession, he was disappointed to find that he had only
gained the chateau, and that the large estate attached to it was
not in the bond.
Being unable to keep it up without the surrounding
property, he determined that no other person should enjoy it,
and therefore, greatly to the annoyance of the people in the
neighbourhood, he pulled it down. The present proprietor now lives in
an adjacent farm-house, and the story, whether true or false,
tells greatly to the prejudice of the English, and our friend, in
particular, spoke of it as a most barbarous act.
We found the chateaux on the banks of the Seine very numerous; many
were of great magnitude, and flanked by magnificent woods, the greater
number being clipped into the appearance of walls, and cut out into
long avenues and arcades, intersecting each other at right angles,
in the very worst taste, according to the English idea of
landscape-gardening. There was something, however, extremely grand and
imposing in this formal style, and we were at least pleased with the
novelty which it afforded.
At Andelys, perched upon a conical hill, are the picturesque remains
of the chateau Gaillard, which was built by Richard Coeur de Lion, and
must formerly have been of very great extent, its walls reaching down
to the river's brink.
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