lace of the bishop, who is Fouquet's brother; it was formerly the house of the king of the Visigoths. In the cathedrall of St. Juste is a picture of Lazarus rising from the sepulchre, uery finely done. Carcassone towne and city together would make a large place. The tenth wee lye at Castelnaudarry; the 11th, by reason of bad weather and way, wee went but fiue leagues, and lay at Baleage, within three leagues of Tholouse. My duty to my mother. Your most obedient sonne, ED. BROWNE. Tholouse, May 12, 1665. SIR, Mr. Edward Browne to his Father. [MS. SLOAN. 1868.] Wee Since my returning into France I wrote to you from Arles and Tholouse. I receued yours at Montpellier, dated March 21. Wee chose to goe rather in the coach to Tholouse, then with the messenger to Lyons; the company wee also met with did induce us the rather, they being all Hugonotts, and men of good years. The French, commonly, the older they grow, are the more obliging and ciuill, and not at all formall, or expecting more respect then what themselves show to others; and indeed for ten days together wee neuer trauail'd better then with them, and at lesse expence. passed by Beziers, Pezenas, Narbonne, Carcassonne, and Castelnaudarry, for two or three dayes being in sight of the Pyrenæans, couered with snow, through a uery fine country, not unlike England. Tholouse, a uery great towne, yet I cannot compare it to Lyons, being built but of brick, and the houses much lower. The churches also, much accounted of in France, I could not admire, coming so lately out of Italy. At St. Sernin or Saturnine are the bodys of seuen of the Apostles, of our king St. Edmund, and of St. George and forty saints more, a thorne of our Sauiour's crowne, and one of the stones that kill'd St. Stephen. From the steeple of the cathedrall, St. Estienne, wee had a good sight of the towne. I cannot judge it by my eye so big as Norwich. The chappell of the Penitents Noirs is the neatest in France, after Nostredame des Champs à Paris. At the Dominicans, the tombe of St. Thomas Aquinas and the alter, at the Cordelliers the charnell house, is remarkable; for the skins of people buried doe not corrupt, so as you see many bodys which retaine the same shape, and are to bee knowne many years after death. In the towne house I saw the stone on which Montmorency was beheaded, and some od pictures, one of Louis, the Dauphin, son to Charles 7, entring into Tholouse on hors back, with the queen his mother behind him. The mills and sluce are worth seeing; the new bridge is uery noble in the fashion of Pont Neuf a Paris; the course by it, and a walk of free stone by the riuer side, are handsome. From hence wee went to Bourdeaux by water, downe the most pleasent riuer I euer yet saw; passing by diuers small townes, Verduse, Viole, &c.; wee stayd halfe a day at Aagen, a great place. Scaliger's house, and the hermitage in a rock, is all that is to be seen there; by Langon, where wee tasted of the white wine, and by Cadillac, a house of the Duke of Espernons, giuing way to few palaces in France. At Bourdeaux wee saw St. Andrew's church, and from the steeple had a prospect of the towne, riuer, and country about it, and could not but judge its situation the most conuenient of any towne wee had seen. St. Michel's church and steeple are high; an earthquake not long since broke downe the top of it. The amphitheatre, or Palais Galien, was about the bignesse of that of Verona; the Carthusian's couent is neat and large; the great street Chapeau Rouge well built; they are building, at present, a new citadelle, about Chasteaux de Trompette, that noble antiquity which they call Piliers or Palase de Tutele. I cannot gesse what it was, it resembles the most an old Pratorium, and hath six columnes in the front, but then it hath but eight on the sides, so that it wants three, and the manner of building arches on the top of the pillers [seems] peculier to this piece of antiquity. Wee went to Blay by water; from thence wee tooke horses to Xaintes, lying at Petiniords, and dining the next day at Ponts, where is only the ruines of an old castell, and graue stones after the manner of those at Arles. At Xaintes the amphitheatre is more ruined then that at Bourdeaux, though not inferiour to it, I suppose, when intire. The inscription upon the arch on the bridge is scarce legible; St. Eutropius's steeple is uery high, and St. Peter's uery thick. The old walls were built of great stones like those at Vienne; the bastions were uery large; wee are but just arriued here, so as I can say nothing of Rochell. I doe not now despair of being at Paris in good time to see the course of chymistry; I hope to get acquaintance in the hospitalls as soon as I come there, but if you can further mee in it, I would desire you, Sir, to doe it as soon as may bee, for I am uery desirous to employ that short time I haue to stay here to my greatest aduantage. Mr. Preston is extremely obliging here. Mr. Trumbull presents his seruis to you. I think to goe to the Ile of Ré to morrow, and the next day onward again. Your obediant sonne, Rochell, May 20, 1665. ED. BROWNE. SIR, Mr. Edward Browne to his Father. [MS. SLOAN. 1868.] I am at last arriued at Paris. I receued one from you at Nantes which was sent to mee from Mr. Dade, at Bourdeaux. My short stay there, and my not knowing hee was there at that time when I passed by, may, I hope, excuse my not uisiting him. In all the townes upon the riuer Loyr, I found no more then I expected. Sonmur is much the best built, being of freestone and ardois: the fosse at Nantes better then the towne. Angiers large, but not so big as Orleans, which from the steeple of St. Croix I guesse to be little lesse then Tholouse. The gilded ball upon the spire I suppose by relation to be as big as either of the two at Morocco. Blois is pleasent by reason of its situation upon the side of an hill. The Duke of Orleans' garden there is quite ruined, but a noble gallery is left, and one side of a pallace begun. At Towers we stay'd three dayes by reason Mr. Trumbull fell ill of a uery sharpe paine of his teeth, accompanied with a feauerish distemper; but after being let blood, glisters, and plasters to his ears and temples, tobacco took it away. In and about this towne are obseruable the church of St. Martin, St. Gesian, Marmousier, the long Maille, and Caue Goutiere. I got some terra Blæsentis in passing by. Here is no house in France so noble, so much finish'd, and so well accommodated, as Richelieu's. The uniformity of the building of the towne also was not a litle diuertissing, being very different from any thing else in this country. Juin 15, Paris. SIR, Mr. Edward Browne to his Father. [MS. SLOAN. 1868.] I receaued your last letter which you sent to Padoa, though I was gone from thence before the post came in. Cardinal Barlerigo is Bishop of Padoa, and Contarini is the present Doge of Venice, an old man, not much vnlike Tom Bensly. The court is now at St. Germain, Mr. T.'s indisposition hath hindred him from going thither a long time. Tis hard for men not to fall into extremes, his discours to me, if it bee not of his owne life, is commonly the great charity of papists, the religious liues of the tradesmen of Paris, and of one Vincent, a cobler, whom hee takes to bee the greatest saint; as also about the wickednesse of the English protestants, and the great power, hee finds by experience, that going in procession hath, to obtaine any thing desired. The Louure will not bee finished in many yeares if warres should happen. Bernini mislikes the deseigne of most which was done at the vpper end the last summer, which must be quite pulled downe, or much altered. The side by the Tuilleries is much built since I last left Paris. The colledg for the four nations ouer against it, ordered to bee built by Card. Maza rine's will, may bee perfected in three yeares more. The queen mother's sicknesse hinders the building of her monasterie and church of Val de Grace; which is the fayrest in Paris, though the cupola bee much too bigge for the church. The antiquities you mention of Paris is a booke of a large quarto, and is very particular; butt the new buildings are better worth seeing then any thing that pretends to be ancient in Paris. The lecture of plants heere is only the naming of them, their degrees in heat and cold, and sometimes their vse in physick, scarce a word more then may be seen in euery herball. When I was in Italie I did reade a booke De Vipera, printed at Florence, made by Francesco Redi. Some are upon translating it into French; butt Sir John Finch, in Italie, hath promised to write more perticularly and experimentally on that subiect. Redi mentions another of his bookes, calld, Discorso della Natura di Sale e delle loro Figure. I shall not write into Italie for it, because probably I may find it in England. The next weeke will putt an end to the course of chymistrie and the plants; but it will begin a priuate course. ED. BROWNE. Paris, July 11, 1665. SIR, Mr. Edward Browne to his Father. [MS. SLOAN. 1868.] Fearing I should not haue the conueniance of company when I desired, I took the first opportunity of going to Fontainebleau, though the weather is extreamly hot. The house is uery large, and hath diuers courts, but is but two storys high. There are diuers gallerys, two made by Francis the First, the painting being old is almost worne out, another by Henry the Fourth with his owne battels. The gallery under this is full of great stag's horns, some of them of uery odd shaps. The roomes indifferent; the chappell is one of the neatest in France. The gardens large; there is a cut riuer like to that of St. James's, and at one end a handsome |