It had been arranged that the Duke should buy a country-house for the children, and choice was made of Saint Leu, where they spent all the year except the winter. “In the beautiful park I had little gardens made for each of my pupils, which they dug and planted for themselves.” (So Pamela knew something about her business when she set about planting her “sweet pea and mignonette” in the garden at Kildare Lodge).
The children had a chemist and botanist among their teachers, a Monsieur Alyon, who accompanied them in all their walks, made them pick flowers, and taught them Botany. M. Alyon gave them, every summer too, a practical course in Chemistry, at which Madame de Genlis made a point of being present. A Pole, called Merys, who was very clever at black-and-white drawing, and water-colours, and had executed many commissions for the Duchess, was employed by Madame to prepare slides for an historical magic lantern. Four different sets of slides were painted by him, from written descriptions made by Madame, and in this attractive way the children learned their Bible History, Ancient History, Roman History, and History of China and Japan. The youngsters, we learn, took their turn week about lecturing with the lantern. Can anything be more modern?
Except, indeed, it be the way they learned Geography! She tells us of “a delightful game” she invented for her pupils. “I made them stage and play out in the garden, or inside the Château, according to the subject, the most celebrated voyages.” Everybody in the house, including Madame herself, had a rôle in these representations. They had wooden horses for the cavalcade; “the lovely river in the park represented the sea; a number of pretty little boats were our fleets. We had a wardrobe of suitable costumes. The best ‘Voyages’ we played were those of Vasco de Gamma and Snelgrove.”
Another device she had for teaching them history was to stage historic tableau. “I proposed the subjects, and M. Merys grouped the actors.” Those who were not performing had to guess the subject, which would be either historical or mythological. So successful were these “tableaux” that Madame got permission to build a regular little theatre for her children. It was so arranged that the back of the stage could open, if one so wished, and show “a long alley of the garden, all illuminated and adorned with garlands of flowers.” For this little theatre Madame wrote a great number of plays.
In this connection we are told of a success of Pamela. A “tableau” had been arranged representing “Venus and Psyche,” and the parts were taken by Pamela and her two half-sisters, Pamela’s rôle being that of “Love.” David, the great historical painter, was present, and his enthusiasm knew no bounds. It came nearer to his conception of ideal beauty than anything he had ever seen, he declared.
So much for their life at Saint Leu during the summer. At Bellechasse in the winter they were equally busy and equally happy. “I had a turning-lathe put up in an ante-chamber, and all the children, as well as myself, learned to use it. We learned indeed everything that did not require brute force. We learned bookbinding and leather work, and made an enormous number of Morocco leather pocket-books, equal in workmanship to those manufactured in England; we went in for basket-making, making laces, ribbons, artificial flowers, marble paper, wood-gilding, all sorts of hair-work (even wig-making!) Finally, for the boys we had carpentry.” We learn that the future King of the French, Louis Philippe, was particularly good at carpentry. With the sole help of his little brother, the Duke de Montpensier, he made for a poor woman of Saint Leu, in whom he was interested, a great press, and a table with drawers, “both articles as well made as if they had been the work of a first-class joiner.”
Later on the Duke bought a seaside residence for the children, and here they learned to fish, and swim, and collect shells, and “acquire,” as Madame says, “all sorts of local information.”
In the midst of all this, the Revolution was brewing, and in a journey Madame took with her pupils through the North of France, one feels she did more than collect “local information.” She tried to make up her mind which side was going to win, and feeling certain it was not the King’s, she deliberately turned her pupils’ sympathies towards the Revolutionary Party.
“The desire of showing all sides to my pupils (a thing which on this occasion tempted me to take a rash step) brought me from Saint Leu to spend some days at Paris in order to see the people band together to storm the Bastille.” ... She gives a wonderful description of the great ponderous black building swarming over with people, and of the cheers that went up from the crowds, as stone after stone fell beneath the blows of the assailants.