In 1907, we read a note by M. de Nolhac in Les Consignes de Marie Antoinette in which he says that the old porte de la ménagerie which must have led from the avenue to the French garden is now lost, but that it must have been “tout auprès des bâtiments de la Conciergerie et des cuisines.”[[69]] We thought that perhaps it was the one we went by, and on looking at Mique’s map of 1783 found a broad road dividing the kitchen court into two parts. At present solid continuous buildings on the two sides of the kitchen court show no sign of an entrance, though in two places the roofs have a difference of level.
In April, 1909, a Frenchman, who sold prints and seemed to be a specialist in maps, said that Mique’s map was the only authoritative one.
In September, 1910, we learned from the first authority that Mique’s map was “exact”: that the road found in it had certainly existed, and its position relatively to the pond in the French garden was explained. A search for some sign of it was at once made, and successfully. On the garden side, not at all far from the chapel, the jamb of an old opening still projects from the building, covered with ivy; and the stones on the ground are laid, for a space of about twelve paces, the other way from the stones on either side, evidently to make a carriage road. A large rectangular stone was lying on the ground which might either have been a step, or part of the second jamb. On the avenue side marks of an opening of some sort can be traced through the plaster with which Louis Philippe finished the buildings after restoring and also altering them. The opening would have included two present windows not far from the porte de la bouche, as the signs of it are visible on both sides of the opening, and the space between is from twelve to twenty paces.
Within the kitchen court the buildings have been so altered and plastered over that no traces of change could be found.
All the points corresponded with the recollection of the roadway through which we had passed in 1901.
Two Labourers with Cart and Horse
On her second visit, January 2nd, 1902, Miss Lamont saw, in the field near the Hameau, two labourers, in brown tunics and bright-coloured short capes, loading a cart with sticks. The capes hardly came below their shoulders and had hoods: one was bright blue and the other red.
In May, 1904, a search was made in the archives with the result that it was clear that carts and horses for the purpose of tidying the grounds were hired by the day in old times, and not kept in the farm for constant use. In January, 1789, two men, instead of the usual one (“plus un homme”), were hired “pour ramasser les loques des chenilles et les brûler.”[[70]]
In 1906 we discovered that the tunic and short cape were worn by the bourgeoisie in the fourteenth century.
In April, 1908, we had proof that the artisans were wearing them in the eighteenth century, and that some of the working men at Trianon in 1776 had “hardes de couleur.”[[71]]