The Henson Journals

[55]

Thursday, April 25th, 1929, Paris.

I slept ill last night, and, indeed, spent most of it in reading a novel of Hugh Walpole – 'Jeremy at Crale'. Sight–seeing, and the gratuitous folly of taking coffee after dinner, account sufficiently for my sleeplessness, & consequent lassitude.

The mass and marvel of the Louvre defy description. I was interested to see Veronese's vast canvas, 'The Marriage of Cana in Galilee', since an early draft of the same hangs in Auckland Castle. The sculpture was new to me, for when I visited the gallery years ago I only saw the pictures. It was amazing to see the originals of so many photographs &c. The Winged Victory of Samothrace is (a great thing to say) fully adequate to its immense reputation. For the 'Venus of Milo' I have never felt the admiration which it commonly demands, and no doubt merits. Many of the less famous statues moved me more deeply.

[56]

The collection is so large, that a single visit can but leave on the mind a vague confused impression. One should live for months beside the Louvre, going day by day to visit first one master–piece & then another, until they all gathered distinctiveness in one's mind, & were intelligently appreciated. A whole room was devoted to Groeco–Roman work from Northern Africa, some of it very remarkable indeed. I was interested to see that the mosaic pavements were brought to France by Renan in 1863.

Notre Dame and La Sainte Chapelle seemed to me far more wonderful than when I saw them for the first time with Sir William Anson some 40 years ago. I was struck by the intelligence and information of the Official Guide, who showed us round the cathedral. He had, so he told us, seen most of the English Cathedrals, and he was evidently possessed of considerable knowledge. These superb buildings have a strange power of shaping even their humblest servants.

[57]

I noticed the skill and efficiency with which the police, following the familiar London precedent, regulated the motor traffic in some of the principal streets. But, even when full allowance has been made for this mitigating circumstance, the streets of Paris are really terrifying. The pace of the driving is far more rapid than in London, at least it seemed to me to be so, and there are no 'islands', or hardly any, where the chivvied pedestrian may take refuge. The streets are extremely slippery, adding yet another dangerous circumstance to the sum of peril.

Before going out I changed another of Cook's cheques for £10, receiving for it 1238 francs.

Ella and Fearne, stimulated by the assurance that if they succeeded in recovering the lost note for 1000 francs, they might keep it, insisted on trying to recover it, and were of course wholly unsuccessful. It was too much to expect of human nature to be quite so honest as that.

[58]

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I returned to the Louvre, & revisited the Statues. The Venus of Milo appeared more impressive than yesterday: and I was able to examine more carefully a number of the less famous sculptures.

We had covenanted to meet at the entrance of the Louvre at 11.30 a.m.: but the ladies failed to keep tryst:, and I had kicked my heels in a deepening agitation of mind for 45 minutes before they appeared.

We returned to the Hotel for lunch, and afterwards made an excursion to Versailles. It cost 50 francs apiece, which with 40 francs given to the chauffeur & the conductor made an expenditure of 190 francs. We had tea at Versailles very comfortably (25 francs). Then we returned to our hotel.

We spent more than two hours in contemplating the vast and vulgar vanity of Versailles. The place is huge without being dignified; sumptuous without being magnificent. Of course [59] [symbol] the historical associations could not but make the place arrestingly, painfully interesting. Despotism and ambition, two of the major curses of mankind, have here their chosen home. Louis xiv and Napoleon are the supreme embodiments of both. The insane pride of the one and limitless cruelty of the other are written all over the immense building. If ever the French people should be inclined to return to the arbitrary rule of some individual, Versailles ought to check the folly. Which of the two tyrants – Louis xiv or Napoleon – inflicted the greater injury on the world? It is hard to say. There can be few more suggestive coincidences that that which made the Hall of Mirrors witness the signing of the Treaty which created the German Empire in 1871, and the Treaty which declared its end in 1919. The Chapel in the Palace of Versailles attested a curious version of Christ's Religion. It is said that when the King occupied his Gallery at the West end, the congregation turned their backs on the Altar, & made obeisance to the Sovereign! But God had become but an idealised picture of the Roi Soleil!

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