The Kiosk

On our entrance into the English garden in 1901, we found our path crossed by another, beyond which, in front of us but rather to the left hand, stood a small circular building having pillars and a low surrounding wall. It was on rough uneven ground, and was overshadowed by trees.

Repeated searches during seven years by ourselves and others have failed to discover this building.

In September, 1908, Miss Lamont found in the archives a paper (without signature or date) giving the estimate for a “ruine” having seven Ionic columns, walls, and a dome roof. (A “ruine” seems only to mean a copy of an older building.) If the walls of this building were low it would correspond in appearance with our recollection of the kiosk. This “ruine” is said to have formed a “naissance de la rivière,” suggesting its position above the small lake which fed the principal river.[^[16]] A piece of old water pipe is still to be seen on the north-western side of the small lake.

If this “ruine” and two others of those alluded to in the archives were one and the same, there is additional reason for placing the columned building in this part of the garden. I. In 1788 it is stated that rocks were placed at intervals on a path leading from “la ruine” to the “2^ième source du ravin” beyond the wooden bridge.[^[17]] Desjardins considers one of the “sources” to have been close to the theatre which was at our right hand; this might have been the second spring.[^[18]] II. Mique states that in 1780 he placed a small architectural “ruine” above the grotto. A note in the archives, dated 1777, speaks of the “porte d’entrée au bout du grotte.”[^[19]] If, as we believe, we had just passed out of the gardener’s yard by this “porte d’entrée” we should have been close to the earliest placed grotto.

In 1909 two old maps were procured from Paris; in one, dated 1840(?), there is something which may indicate a small round building placed on the rocher behind the Belvédère. The other map was reproduced from an old one of 1705, but added to until a railway appears in it. In this map below the name “pavillon de musique” (the Belvédère) is the name “Le Kiosque.” It does not seem likely that a second name for the Belvédère should be given, and it may therefore refer to something else which does not appear in this map. Therefore the mere chance name which from the first moment we gave to our building was justified by there having been something called by that name exactly in that part of the garden.

In 1910 we looked out this name in the best etymological French dictionary and found that it was admitted to the French Academy in 1762, as “pavillon ouvert de tous côtés”: and defined by Thévenot (contemporary) as “kioch ou divan qui est maintenu de huit grosses colonnes.”