One of the landscape gems of Chantilly is the Pelouse, a vast esplanade of greensward now forming, in part, the celebrated race track of Chantilly. Sport ever formed a part of the outdoor program at Chantilly, but that of to-day is just a bit more horsey than that of old, a good deal less picturesque and assuredly more vulgarly banal as to its cachet than the hunts, the tourneys and courses of the romantic age.
Thousands come to Chantilly to wager their coin on scrubs and dark horses ridden by third-rate "warned-off" jockeys from other lands, but probably not ten in ten thousand of the lookers on at the Grand Prix du Jockey Club in May ever make the occasion of the spring meeting an opportunity for visiting the fine old historic monument of the Condés.
The "Races" of Chantilly may be given a further word in that they are an outgrowth of a foundation by the Duc d'Orleans in 1832. The track forms a circuit of two thousand metres, and occupies quite the best half of the Pelouse, closed in on one side by the thick-grown Forêt de Chantilly and flanked, in part, on the other by the historic Écuries, with the Tribune, or grand stand, just to the south.
Many tourists arrive at Chantilly by auto, stop brusquely before the Grande Grille, rush through the galleries of the chateau, do "cent pas" in the park, give a cursory glance at the stables and are off; but more, many more, with slower steps and saner minds, drink in the charms which are offered on all sides and consider the time well spent even if they have paid "Boulevard Prices" at the Restaurant du Grand Condé for their dejeuner.
It has been said that a museum is a reunion of objets d'art brought about by a methodical grouping, either chronologically or categorically. The Duc d'Aumale's Musée de Chantilly is more an expression of personal taste. He collected what he wished and he arranged his collections as suited his fancy.
The famous Musée de Chantilly, which is the lodestone which draws most folk thither, so admirably housed, was a gift of the Duc d'Aumale who, for the glory of his ancestors, and the admiration of the world, to say nothing of his own personal satisfaction, here gathered together an eclectic collection of curious and artistic treasures, certainly not the least interesting or valuable among the great public collections in France. The effect produced is sometimes startling, a Messonier is cheek by jowl with a Baron Gros, a Decamps vis à vis to a Veronese, and a Lancret is bolstered on either hand by a Poussin and a Nattier. Amid all this disorder there is, however, an undeniable, inexplicable charm.
There are three distinct apartments worth, more than all the others, the glance of the hurried visitor to the Musée Condé at Chantilly. In the first, the Santuario, is the Livre d'Heures of Etienne Chevalier, by Jean Fouquet, considered as the most important relic of primitive French art extant.
The Cabinet des Gemmes comes second, and here is the celebrated "Diamant Rose," called the Grand Condé.
Finally there is the Galerie de Psyche, with forty-four coloured glass windows, executed for the Connetable de Montmorency in 1541-1542.
The great collection of historical and artistic treasures stowed away within the walls of Chantilly the Duc d'Aumale selected himself in order to associate his own name with the glorious memory of the Condés, who were so intimately connected with the chateau.