Ferney, Which Was Only A Miserable Village When Voltaire First Took Up His
Residence There, Is Now A Large Flourishing And Opulent Town.
I found Voltaire's Chateau occupied by a fat heavy Swiss Officer who was on
duty there, Ferney being at this moment occupied by the troops of the Swiss
confederation.
He was at breakfast, but on my stating to him that I was
come to see the apartments of Voltaire he directed the housekeeper to shew
them to me. On the left hand side after ascending a flight of steps, before
you come into the Chateau, is a Chapel built by Voltaire with this simple
inscription: "Deo erexit Voltaire." In the apartment usually occupied by
him for the purpose of composition, are preserved his chair, table,
inkstand and bed as sacred relics; and in the Salon are to be seen the
portraits of several public characters, his contemporaries, and which were
constantly appended there in his life time. Among these portraits I
distinguished those of Frederick the Great of Prussia, Catherine II of
Russia, Lekain, Diderot, Alembert, Franklin, Helvetius, Marmontel and
Washington, besides many others. There is nothing remarkable either in the
Chateau, or in the gardens appertaining to it; but as it stands on an
elevation, it commands a fine view, which is so well described in that ode
which begins:
O maison d'Aristippe, o jardins d'Epicure!
I returned to Geneva and dined with my friend M. Picot the banker, who
presented me to his brother's family, which I found a very amiable one, and
I was particularly delighted with his father, a fine venerable old man, who
is a pastor of the Church of Geneva and a great admirer of our poets
Thomson and Milton.
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