One thing struck me greatly—people went wherever they liked, and no one would think of interfering to show the way, or to prevent anyone from going in any direction. We searched the place at our pleasure.
We went to the Hameau, following the path taken by Miss Lamont on January 2, 1902. We tried to find the thick wood in which she had lost her way, but there was nothing like it, and such paths as there are now are perfectly visible from one another, even in summer. We asked a gardener sweeping one of the paths whether that part of the grounds had ever been a thick wood. He said he believed that it had been, but could give us no date beyond the fact that it was before his time—more than twenty years ago.
On our return to Versailles, we went into a bookseller’s shop and asked if he had any maps or views of the Petit Trianon as it had been in old days. He showed us a picture (which he would not part with) of the Jeu de Bague. We saw at once that the central building had some likeness to the kiosk, but the surrounding part was not like, and its position was unsuitable for our purpose. We enquired about the green uniforms of the garden officials, and he emphatically denied their existence. He said that “green was one of the colours of the royal liveries,” and when we answered that three years before persons in long green coats had directed us in the grounds, he spoke of it as “impossible, unless (he added) they were masqueraders.” One of the gardiens of the Palace also told us that “green was a royal livery and that now only the President had the right to use it on certain occasions.”
We asked how long the gardens had been thrown open to the public and people allowed to wander everywhere, and were told that “it had been so for years,” and this evidently implied a great many years.
The result of this visit was to make us take a graver view of the two first visits, and we resolved to look into the matter as carefully as we could, and to be entirely silent about the change of scenery until we had explained it somewhat to ourselves. After some years, and in spite of various false leads, we have been able to put together some very interesting facts. The details of the search are recorded in a book which, to us, goes by the name of the Green Book. It contains the original papers written in 1901, the history of the gradual accumulation of information, correspondence with one another and also with others on the subject, the accounts written by one or two friends who have helped us at different times, also pictures, maps, and lists of books consulted, and the account of curious incidents which took place during the search.
E. M.
F. L.
CHAPTER II
SUMMARY OF RESULTS OF RESEARCH
The Plough
The first incident in our expedition to Trianon in 1901 was that, after passing the logement des corps de gardes, a small hand plough was seen by Miss Lamont lying on the ground not far from some wide open gates in an old wall opposite to us, through which we could see the stems of a grove of trees, and a drive leading through it.