THE MIRROR
OF
LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
| Vol. XIV. No. 384. | SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1829. | [PRICE 2d. |
Voltaire's Chateau, at Ferney.
Voltaire is the bronze and plaster poet of France. Cheek by jowl withRosseau, (their squabbles are forgotten in the roll of fame), you seehim perched on mantel, bracket, ecritoire, and bookcase: in short,their effigies are as common as the plaster figures of Shakspeare andMilton are in England. How far the rising generation of France mayprofit by their household memorials—or the sardonic and satanic smileof their great poet—we will not pretend to determine; neither do weinvite any comparison; although Voltaire, with all his trickseyings andpanting after fame, never inculcated so sublime a lesson as is conveyedin
"The cloud-capp'd towers," &c.
which are inscribed beneath the bust of our immortal bard.
But we turn from Voltaire and his stormy times to the seat of hisretirement—Ferney, about six miles from Geneva; where he lived fortwenty years; but in his eighty-fourth year actually quitted this sceneof delightful repose for the city of Paris—there to enjoy a shorttriumph, and die. The latter event took place in 1778. At pages 62 and69 of vol. xii. of THE MIRROR, we have given a brief description ofFerney, with many interesting anecdotes, carefully compiled from avariety of authorities. Here Voltaire lived in princely style, asCondorcet says, "removed from illusion, and whatever could excitemomentary, or personal passion." According to M. Simond, a recenttourist, the château is still visited by travellers, and Voltaire'sbed-room is shown in the state he left it. The date of our view is aboutthe year 1800, since which the residence has been much neglected: andduring the late war, it was frequently the quarters of the Austriansoldiers. The gardens are laid out in the formal, geometrical style,and they command a view of the town and lake of Geneva. The apartmentsof the ground-floor of the house are in the same state as duringVoltaire's lifetime. In the dining-hall is a picture, representingdemons horsewhippingFréron:1such was Voltaire's mode of perpetuatinghis antagonists.
[pg 82]Of the purchase of Ferney, Voltaire thus speaks in his memoirs:—
"I bought, by a very singular kind of contract, of which there was noexample in that country, a small estate of about sixty acres, which theysold me for about twice as much as it would have cost me at Paris; butpleasure is never too dear. The house was pretty and commodious, and theprospect charming; it astonishes without tiring: on one side is the lakeof Geneva, and the city on the other. The Rhone rushes from the formerwith vast impetuosity, forming a canal at the bottom of my garden,whence is seen the Arve descending from the Savoy mountains, andprecipitating itself into the Rhone, and farther still another river.A hundred country seats, a hundred delightful gardens, ornament theborders of the lake