| Description | Page from the journal of Ann Walker, Jun 1834-Feb 1835
[Diary Transcription]
20.
about the town – went to the Museum – no very good paintings, except one or two by Ancient Artists – beautiful tombs of Duke of Burgundy & Philip le Hardi, removed from the Chartreuse at the Revolution. the Duke et sa femme, sculptured on the top, & at the sides most beautiful tabernacle work, in each compartment a monk & woman former with Missal en main, but in the centre compartment a monk et sa femme, with the cowl & hood drawn over their faces, she weeping, & he having his hands clasped in an agony of grief – very old door with arms of the French counties carved upon it – A Statue of Bossuet, & busts of a few other celebrated Frenchmen.
We [start of word, then a gap of two lines]
Went to the Churches of Notre Dame & – – [gap]
then to the park getting some orange syrup at a Confectioners by the way – Park nothing particular. A l’Hotel at – [gap] went to bed immediately –
[date missing, June 28th] Up at – [gap] breakfasted, then went to the Cathedral, the most plain, & least worth seeing of any, I have yet been to in France, not nearly so handsome as Notre Dame – Priest performing high mass, & saw another priest in the Confessional, with a board placed like a reading desk before his face, so that it could not be seen, & the [person?] confessing in a separate box, at the side, who was also concealed except the lower part of her person – appeared to be one or two fine Monuments but had not time to examine them – Went to the Jardin des Plants, just lately begun, & tastefully laid out, something on the plan of that at Paris – a brook winding thro’ the Garden, & each all the species of one genus of plants in one bed – very pretty edgings to walks, of Lavender ½ yard high, common sage, box, discovered the name of the plant, whose leaves are quite white, which was in Greenhouse at Crownest – [word crossed out] Cineraria. & of the Teazle Dipsacus.
21.
A mount of rock work judiciously placed for wild plants – numbers of Acacia trees. Magnolias, Oleanders, Marigolds of which the French are particularly fond – Dahlias – Poppy’s & Carnations. Saw at Rokeby Park – a very nice plan for shewing Carnations, advantageously, earth raised about 2 feet in form of a cheese, & banked up by the branches of large trees split down middle, bark side, outwards, these [words crossed out]. & plants placed on top – of the earth round edge then another raising of earth in middle, as if it might be a smaller cheese placed exactly upon a large one – & banked – same way as first, then a third, – whole beds of the different varieties of pansies, &c. – back to Hotel, & off for [gap] country not so pretty after we left Dijon – not at all tired detained at [word crossed out] Dole, for want of a postillion two hours – proposed dining which we did – wrote a little in journal. & off for Mont sous vaudré [Vaudrey] at 6 – – [gap] where we slept – going to bed as soon as we arrived.
June 29th Up at 4 – & off at w [gap] without breakfast for Poligny – pretty drive, breakfasted there at -- & off for at – . [gap] for Montrond – country began to be mountainous & very beautiful ascended a long range of mountains (Jura) to Montrond, then to Champagnole, Maison neuve to St. Laurent to Moray [Morez] slept there, comfortable apartment
off June 30th at 6.18 oclock for Rousses breakfasted & off at 10 to 7 to La Vattage [Vattay] – 12.21 off to Gex – had a trout, & then off for Ferney saw Voltaire’s chateau, & the his room just as it was when he died. present chateau built in 17[gap] the old one being destroyed at by the Revolution -- guide gave me a piece of the bark off an elm tree Voltaire planted – a very nice shady walk of Hornbeam, the boughs completely meeting at top, & trained to form an arch – walk about 6 or 8 feet wide bought a bust of Voltaire, a view of his chateau, the verse he composed the day before his death, & an impression of his seal – he built the village of Ferney & there his memory his [is] adored – he also built a church close to the gates of his chateau, it is now converted
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