Rosembray,--an estate lately purchased by the Duc de Verneuil, with
the money which fell to him as his share of the thousand millions
voted as indemnity for the sale of the lands of the emigres,--is
remarkable for its chateau, whose magnificence compares only with that
of Mesniere or of Balleroy. This imposing and noble edifice is
approached by a wide avenue of four rows of venerable elms, from which
the visitor enters an immense rising court-yard, like that at
Versailles, with magnificent iron railings and two lodges, and adorned
with rows of large orange-trees in their tubs. Facing this court-yard,
the chateau presents, between two fronts of the main building which
retreat on either side of this projection, a double row of nineteen
tall windows, with carved arches and diamond panes, divided from each
other by a series of fluted pilasters surmounted by an entablature
which hides an Italian roof, from which rise several stone chimneys
masked by carved trophies of arms. Rosembray was built, under Louis
XIV., by a "fermier-general" named Cottin. The facade toward the park
differs from that on the court-yard by having a narrower projection in
the centre, with columns between five windows, above which rises a
magnificent pediment. The family of Marigny, to whom the estates of
this Cottin were brought in marriage by Mademoiselle Cottin, her
father's sole heiress, ordered a sunrise to be carved on this pediment
by Coysevox. Beneath it are two angels unwinding a scroll, on which is
cut this motto in honor of the Grand Monarch, "Sol nobis benignus."

From the portico, reached by two grand circular and balustraded
flights of steps, the view extends over an immense fish-pond, as long
and wide as the grand canal at Versailles, beginning at the foot of a
grass-plot which compares well with the finest English lawns, and
bordered with beds and baskets now filled with the brilliant flowers
of autumn. On either side of the piece of water two gardens, laid out