They Have Set Up A Petite Poste, On The Plan Of Our
Penny-Post, With Some Improvements; And I Am Told There Is A
Scheme On Foot For Supplying Every House With Water, By Leaden
Pipes, From The River Seine.
They have even adopted our practice
of the cold bath, which is taken very conveniently, in wooden
houses, erected on the side of the river, the water of which is
let in and out occasionally, by cocks fixed in the sides of the
bath.
There are different rooms for the different sexes: the
accommodations are good, and the expence is a trifle. The
tapestry of the Gobelins is brought to an amazing degree of
perfection; and I am surprised that this furniture is not more in
fashion among the great, who alone are able to purchase it. It
would be a most elegant and magnificent ornament, which would
always nobly distinguish their apartments from those, of an
inferior rank; and in this they would run no risk of being
rivalled by the bourgeois. At the village of Chaillot, in the
neighbourhood of Paris, they make beautiful carpets and screen-work;
and this is the more extraordinary, as there are hardly any
carpets used in this kingdom. In almost all the lodging-houses,
the floors are of brick, and have no other kind of cleaning, than
that of being sprinkled with water, and swept once a day. These
brick floors, the stone stairs, the want of wainscotting in the
rooms, and the thick party-walls of stone, are, however, good
preservatives against fire, which seldom does any damage in this
city. Instead of wainscotting, the walls are covered with
tapestry or damask. The beds in general are very good, and well
ornamented, with testers and curtains.
Twenty years ago the river Seine, within a mile of Paris, was as
solitary as if it had run through a desert. At present the banks
of it are adorned with a number of elegant houses and
plantations, as far as Marli. I need not mention the machine at
this place for raising water, because I know you are well
acquainted with its construction; nor shall I say any thing more
of the city of Paris, but that there is a new square, built upon
an elegant plan, at the end of the garden of the Thuilleries: it
is called Place de Louis XV. and, in the middle of it, there is a
good equestrian statue of the reigning king.
You have often heard that Louis XIV. frequently regretted, that
his country did not afford gravel for the walks of his gardens,
which are covered with a white, loose sand, very disagreeable
both to the eyes and feet of those who walk upon it; but this is
a vulgar mistake. There is plenty of gravel on the road between
Paris and Versailles, as well as in many other parts of this
kingdom; but the French, who are all for glare and glitter, think
the other is more gay and agreeable:
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