lister’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.

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I was furprized at the impudence of a booth, which put out the pictures of fomeIndian beafts with hard names; and of four that were painted, I found but two, andthofe very ordinary ones, viz. a leopard, and a raeoun. I alked the fellow, why hedeceived the people, and whether he did not fear cudgelling in the end.: he anfweredwith a fingular confidence, that it was the painter’s fault; that ,he had given the ra-coun to paint to two matters, but both had miftaken 'the beaft.; but however, (hefaid) thpugh the pictures were not well defigned, they did neverthelefs ferve to gracethe booth and bring him cuftom.

I faw here a female elephant betwixt eight and nine foot high, very lean and illkept. Nothing could be more docile, than this poor creature. I obferved, Hie bentthe joints of her legs very nimbly in making her falutes to the company : alfo that thenails of her fore-toes were large, and.almolt five inches long. This was from the con-tinent, having the ears entire. I had l’een one about thirteen years ago in Londonmuch lefs, from the ifland of Ceylon, of another fpecies with fcallopt ears, and thetail with two rows of large, thick, and fti!t black hairs.

Coaching in vifits is the great and daily bufinefs of people of quality : but in the even-ings, the Cours de la Reyne is much frequented, and a great rendezvous of people ofthe bell faftiion. The place indeed is very commodious and pleafant, being threealleys fet with high trees of a great length, all along the bank of the river Seine , in=clofed at each end with noble gates.; and in the middle a very large circle to turn m.The middle alley holds four lines of coaches at lead, and each fide alley two a piece:thefe eight lines of coaches may, when full, fuppofing them to contain near eightycoaches a-piece, amount to about fix or feven hundred. On the field fide, joiningclofe to the alleys of the coaches, there are feveral acres of meadow planted with trees,well grown, into narrow alleys in quincunx order, to walk in the grafs, if any havea mind to light; and this mult .needs be very agreeable in the heats of fummer, whichwe (laid not to enjoy.

One thing this Cours is fhort of ours in Hyde-park, for if full, you cannot in anhour fee the company twice you have a mind to fee, and you are confined to yourline; and oftentimes, the princes of the blood coming in, and driving at pleasure,make a ftrange (top and embarras.

Befides, if the weather has been rainy, there is no driving in it, it is fo miry and illgravelled.

Thofe, who have a .mind to drive further out of town for the air, have woods, oneto the weft, and another to the eaft, moft convenient. I mean, the Bois de Bologne,and the Bois de Vincennes; this laft is very opaque and pleafant. There are fomeancient Roman ftatues in the firft court of this houfe.

But for the caftle in the Bois de Bologne, called Madrid , it was built by Francisthe firft, and it is altogether morefque, in imitation of one in Spain : with at leaft tworows of covered galleries running quite round, on the outfide the four faces of thehoufe; which fure in a very hot country are greatly refrelhing and delightful: andthis is faid to be built on purpofe for a defence againfl: a much hotter climate, thanwhere it ftands; which that king had no mind to vifit a fecond time.

But let us return to Paris . Towards eight or nine o’clock in June moft of themfeturn from the Cours, and iand at the garden gate of the Tuilleries, where they walkin the cool of the evening. This garden is of the belt ordinance, and now in its fullbeauty, fo that Monf. LeNoftre has feen it in its infancy, for it is all of his invention,and he enjoys his labours in perfection. Certainly the moving furniture of it at this

time