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368 MEUDON, AND ITS PAST AND
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
« Every Autumn Sunday The Inhabitants Fr...
causes which _coxild produce such effects , by saying that M . St . Servien had found a mine of gold and determined to out-rival
the magnificence of the Chateau of the Luxembourg by building for . himself a finer one . But these whispers soon died away
when M . St . Servien gave his detractors to understand that he was as rich In blank lettres de cachet as he was in land and money .
The much envied , and , it must be said , ill-gotten wealth of St . Servien did not long continue in the hands of his family , for his
son was a spendthrift who strove to emulate the reputation acquired at the French Court by the Duke of Buckingham . His
expenses therefore far exceeded his receipts ; and as he was a soldier in a time of peace , and a man of pleasure , he had neither
foreign towns to plunder , nor the French treasury at his disposal . When therefore Louvois offered to purchase the Lordship of
Meudon ,. he gladly sold it for a sum much below its nominal value . This statesman greatly increased its boundaries , and
made it so magnificent that , with all its natural advantages , it outrivalled Versaillesthen freshlissued from a marsh . Louis XIV .,
who was not only , the despot y of his people and his courtiers , but of his familas wellwas iqued at seeing Louvois so
magnifiy , p cently lodged , and as he also disliked to see his only son separating himself from Court , for which the Dauphin ' s excuse was , that he
had no residence nearer to it than Choisy le Roi , " the Sun kin" therefore did all he could to possess himself of his Chateau ;
but g to his honour be it saidLouvois stoutly resisted all the . attempts of his despotic soverei , gn , so that it was not till he died
that Louis could obtain Meudon . le The Koi king and then in exchanged addition the it with sum Madame of 90000 Louvois louis-d for ' or . Choisy [ Both
the Daup , hin gave and his Bavarian wife reluctantl , y consented to the change of residence thus brought about , since it obliged them to
live near the Court , under the depressing influence of which , the Dauphiness , from being the most animated woman of her day ,
became the most low-spirited . One of her complaints was that she was incessantly tormented with the sight of workmen around
her , and hearing of their deaths from the effects of fatigue , brought on by labouring niht and day in excavating ponds and converting
hills into hollowswhile g she could never escape from the monoto-, nous din of the hammeras masonscarpentersand gardeners were
continually at work at Meudon , ; for , Louis XIV , . was determined to do all in his power to embellish it , which is tantamount to saying
that he did his best to spoil it , and undo all that Nature and the good taste of its former possessors had done to make it one of the
most beautiful spots in France . Le Notre replanted the park and gardens in his stiff triangular stle ; Mansard built the orangery ,
which it must _Tbe confessed was an y improvement , as were also the
rich furniture with which the interior was decorated , and the
368 Meudon, And Its Past And
368 MEUDON , AND ITS PAST AND
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1863, page 368, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081863/page/8/
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