SÈVRE

August 7th.—A very honest man with a voiture was to come for us from Abbeville, and then we were to go home. We expected him on Thursday, but to our great joy he came to-day, two days sooner than was expected. The whole house was in confusion; I was so delighted that I hardly knew what to do. We set off directly to see the china manufactory at Sèvre. The day was very fine, and we had a most pleasant ride. The rooms in which the china was were up a long pair of stairs. In the first room there was nothing but plain white china: the plates are a franc apiece. There were beautiful large painted vases, some with landscapes on them, some purple, and others brown. Very pretty white baskets of flowers; three little children under lace veils made of white biscuit china. Curious-shaped salt-cellars; an inkstand the shape of a boat, etc.; several pictures, one of the King, the Duchesse d'Angoulême, Sappho, etc.; beautiful cups with humming-birds painted on them; a set of plates with flowers, jonquils, polyanthuses, etc., on them; another set with roses, and another with vegetables, with their names marked in gold; Bacchus and Ceres in a car drawn by bulls ornamented with wreaths of gold flowers—the figures are white; a set of plates with Eastern pictures on them, and another with birds beautifully painted. There are several very large vases: one with a purple ground that cost 27,000 francs. There is a large china table on which Minerva is represented presenting the Louvre and other galleries to France. Another table, on which there are different palaces, cost 35,000 francs. There were also some very pretty white ornaments, with cones on the top and baskets of grapes about them. On one plate there is a view of Windsor, and on another General —— drowning in a river in Egypt.


THE SHEPHERD OF THE ANDALUSIAN SHEEP ([p. 151]).

THE VIRGIN IN THE CHURCH OF ST. REMIS [(p. 173]).