ABSTRACT
I HAVE been to visit a chateau about a league from Orleans; part of which was built by the celebrated Lord Bolingbroke, and in which he passed some years of his exile, with his wife, the niece of Madame de Maintenon. Before the windows of the chateau rises a beautiful small river, called le Loiret, which, after a winding course of three leagues, through a charming country, falls into the Loire. The grounds of this chateau are in some parts formed into long alleys, shaded by venerable trees, in others spread into lawns, through which the clear 162Loiret pursues its way. Lord Bolingbroke probably found this retirement well adapted for philosophical contemplation, and had there sufficient leisure to “Expatiate free on all this scene of man, A mighty maze, but not without a plan.”
