| Description | [Diary Transcription]
40
1838
September
view of keeping it up — Price has not yet been named but the frère aîné [elder brother] said they should
not take less than 2000/. I laughed and said I had no intention of becoming the purchaser but
I thought if I held out my hand to him with 1500/. in it, the chateau would be mine — he
said nothing to the contrary — we looked upon the chateau and lands there to belonging (on sale) of
the Chateau de Villemure where lived the Béarnois poet Despourrius whose grandson
and heritiers are now going to sell the chateau and what remains of the estate — the rental of the
lands and farm buildings used to be 2000 francs a year — but now the rental is reduced to only 750/.
so much has been sold off — my friend the frère aîné (Jean Ballotte) values the estate
as it is (chateau and land) at franc 30000/. to 35000/. — I observed the purchaser ought to
have 5 per cent answer — oh yes! certainly — the mountains Charles has always called Monts Travisés
are the Montagne de Bergonz which includes the mountains forming both sides of
the vallée d’Estrême de Sales — the brêche in this montagne (that has so
often reminded me of les Echelles near Chamberi is the brêche du roi pour aller
a St. Pé — pic de Soulon or called here pic du Midi just above the village of Soulon — Soulon and Estalos the
2 original villages Pierrefitte belongs to Estalos — the village under the chateau de Villemure
is Adas and then the village of Lāŏ (Lāh-ŏ) — Argeles a charming valley —
80 men now employed at Arrens in the vallée d’Arzun, making a new good
carriage road to Eauxbonnes — A- [Ann] had eaten the cold mutton we brought with us — and then sat sketching in her rough book — off from the Chateau de Beaucens at 3 40/.. — stopt
at 4 20/.. at Villelongue to put on my tartan cloak, and off from there at 4 25/.. —
a horse road from Villelongue to Bagnères de Bigorre by the vallée de Baudéan —
4 hours from here to the Hourquette, and then 1 1/2 hour farther to Riva (Rēē-vă) a village de
l’Esponne — I suppose it a good day’s journey from here to Bagnères de Bigorre by that route —
one ought to see the lac Bleu a little distance from the route in question at 4 hours
distance from Villelongue — at the bridge at Luz at 5 33/.., in 1 8/.. hour from Villelongue —
at home (having stopt a minute at the sadler’s about a portmanteau) at 6 50/.. — determined to be
off at 7 a.m. tomorrow for Eauxbonnes — Pierre to be off on foot au point de jour
and Charles to ride the mule with us — dinner at 7 10/.. to 8 — then sat with A- [Ann] partly talking,
partly sleeping and writing the 1st 28 lines of today till about 9 1/2 when Mr. Pagès came
and sat an hour — the lac Blue, called by the people here the lac de Lioo or some such name well worth
seeing — the English sulfur springs (Harrogate) weak — none in France but in the Pyrenees —
the springs in general deposit the sulfur, but Barèges does not — and this is its great advantage —
the baths of Schintznac good but not so strong as here — Panticouse water said to be
strong (sulfurous) — the German baths some of them good — the Italian not renommés —
does not know the baths of Batalha not far from Padua — A-’s [Ann] pain in her stomach
today nerves — she should travel a great deal and seek a good climate — sat with A- [Ann] till near 11 —
fine day though brouillard on the mountain tops — Fahrenheit 58º at 11 1/4 p.m. —
[margin text:] Road to Bagnères de Bigorre by the vallée
de Beaudéan.
Lac Bleu
41
1838
September Friday 21
6
8 10/..
fine morning — breakfast at 7 in about 1/2 hour — pother about our things — the taking a dress for
me and more things and the arranging them in a portmanteau and travelling bag as lastly determined kept us doing till
9 1/2 instead of being off at 7 a.m. — Fahrenheit 57º now at 9 1/2 a.m. Tuesday 16 October 1838 vide page 70 breakfast at 9 3/4 and had the Master
of the hotel till 1 20/.. — was in the garde du corps of Louis 18 — dismissed in 1822 with several others after the
assassination of the Duke de Berri — then employed in our English foreign office as a sort of courier — sent
to Greece with a Mr. Warden or some such name who for his good services helped him to purchase
this hotel 10 or 11 years ago — had just been in England and was in Paris when the revolution of 1830 broke
out — knows something of everybody — inquired if Lord Stuart de Rothesay had finished High Cliff, and how he could pay for it —
said Sir George Rose had told him it would cost a great deal of money — did not understand how Lord Stuart de Rothesay
could find the money — I said he had had a large fortune from Lord Hardwicke Lady Stuart de Rothesay’s father — our landlord
said Lady Stuart de Rothesay had been here 2 or 3 years ago — he mentioned Lord William Paget as having wanted
him to go with him to the banker here for £50; but he knew his Lordship, and declined — Lord William gets
into a great deal of debt, and cheats all his tradespeople — leaves them unpaid — his lady now at
Pau, and very ill off — mentioned the Beaumonts of Britton — one of the Misses Beaumont has married
a Swiss who has bought the tittle of baron at Baden, and is going to buy a chateau near here —
which, purchase furnishing and repairing, will cost him 500,000 francs — magnificent magnolias in the
garden there — but not much land to the chateau — merely enough to keep the baron’s horses and find the
chateau in common wine and oil — his wife has made her will, and left him all the law allows her to
leave him — our landlord knows it, for he witnessed the will — no fermiers here — people
must stay at their chateaus and look after their wine and oil — then they can make 6 or 7 per cent of their
estates — otherwise next to nothing that is the reason there is nobody in town now — come in in the
winter — very few rich enough to go to Paris, except the Marquis de Mon-Calme, and the family
of Castries and d’Assas and a few more — can live here pretty well for 25,000 francs a year
many of the young men of family here, not rich, not in any employ — cant or wont go to
court, and in a fausse position and much to be pitied — think of going to see the chateau the Baden
baron is about to buy, and of going to see the rail road to Cette which is almost finished — Mr. Wickham
is here in the winters — his wife died about 2 years ago — his retired pension 25,000/. a year and may
have an hereditary estate of about £800 a year — not everybody would have accepted his place — that of
government spy — great sums of money passed through his hands for buying over the person and that and yet
he himself not rich — meat as dear here as in Paris — everything as dear except wine and oil
and the fruit grown hereabouts — but this part of the country one of the richest in France — our landlord has
2 daughters — the oldest 15 — suffers from the blood qui n’est pas bien reglé [which is not well regulated] — has been at school
in England (Hammersmith near London) ever since her return, a year ago has suffered very much — requires
constant watching and amusement — is in fact histerical and all but epileptic — the M.D-s here can do
nothing for her — advise him to get her married — impossible at her age to think of this — must wait
patiently — many girls of her age hareabouts affected in the same way — A- [Ann] and I out at 1 40/.. —
at the Musée Fabre from 1 50/.. to 3 35/.. — the gem of this fine collection of pictures (given by Fabre himself
a good artist — several of his pictures in the collection) is a Raphael no. [number] 271. Portrait d’un jeune
[margin text:] all but the
1st 2 lines and 3/4
the 3rd line of this
page written here
by mistake
vide page 70
Montpellier page 70
Tuesday 16 8br [October] 1838
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