depression of the 'eighties and 'nineties it was difficult to let farms, with the result that large parts of Essex and other counties became derelict, this is far from the case to-day. Readers of Lord Ernle's books will be aware that the history of British agriculture is one of alternations between prosperity and deep depression, the latter periods being marked by the same features, of which the laying down to grass of the less productive soils has been the most noticeable. The long period of artificial prosperity enjoyed during the Napoleonic Wars was followed by years of acute depression, while values were being readjusted just as they are to-day. Then during the 'fifties, 'sixties, and early 'seventies came, what has been called, the golden age of British agriculture. In the middle 'seventies we began to feel the full blast of foreign competition, having enjoyed a natural protection due to high freights and inadequate surplus production abroad till then, notwithstanding the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. Over twenty years of severe depression followed, but from 1900 up to the time of the war there was a slow but steady recovery, the industry having adapted itself to new conditions. This adaptation, however, meant low production, as we discovered in 1914. A similar adaptation may take place to-day with profit to the farmer, but with as low or even lower production, and with diminished employment on the countryside and wages for the labourer which nobody can contemplate with satisfaction, even though they may be rather larger than their cash value suggests.

This is the problem which the nation has to face, and on its solution will depend to a large extent the future character of our people. Are we to become a completely or an almost completely, industrialised State, dependent to an unnecessary and dangerous degree on imports of food from abroad; or are we to keep on the land as many people as possible, and to extract from our soil every ounce of food that it will produce?

ARTHUR G. BOSCAWEN.

Art. 9.-CHANTILLY AND ITS MUSEUM.

1. Chantilly et le Musée Condé. Par Gustave Macon. Paris: H. Laurens, 1910.

2. Chantilly in History and Art. By Louise M. Richter. Murray, 1913.

TWENTY-FIVE miles north of Paris, the train from Calais passes along a great viaduct, spanning the well-wooded valley of the little river Nonette, a few miles above its junction with the Oise. To the right, the traveller becomes aware of a fine stretch of forest, enshrining two or three large private houses and a great château by a lake; and, as he sweeps past the station, he notices a curious enlargement of the line and the platforms. It is Chantilly, and those wide platforms are for the accommodation of the thousands of Parisians and cosmopolitans who crowd the little place on race-days. For more than two centuries Chantilly has been the home of horses; the Grandes Écuries, built for the Condés about 1720, and still standing though not used, have accommodation for 260, and trainers, jockeys, and training-grounds fill or surround the little town. I fear I am not competent to deal with this, the most popular aspect of Chantilly; I leave it to others, only recording with some pride a detail I learned from French people on the spot-that in August 1914, when the Germans were close by, not one of the English lads attached to the training stables left his post. We may turn to the other great attraction of Chantilly, the Château, with its park and museum, asking no better guide than the Conservateur, M. Gustave Macon, whose book is named above. It is in every way an admirable volume, and is the chief source, so far as the history of the place is concerned, of the book of Mrs Richter, though in that, as might have been expected from the previous writings of this lady and her husband, the pictures and other works of art have been independently and intelligently examined. Both these books are richly illustrated with photographs.

The present Château is quite modern, having been built for the Duc d'Aumale, between 1875 and 1882, by the distinguished architect Honoré Daumet. Much of M. Macon's volume is spent on describing the vicissitudes

of the Château, built originally at an unknown date, reconstructed at the end of the 14th century as a strong fortress, and twice or three times transformed, pulled down, and rebuilt. Plates after the celebrated engraver Du Cerceau show us how it appeared in the 16th century, transformed by an architect of genius, Pierre Chambiges; others, one and two centuries later, how Louis XIV's architect, Mausart, wished to alter it, and what splendid work was done in the surrounding buildings by Jean Aubert, who built the magnificent stables in the days of Louis XV. The stables remain; so does the park, beautified in a formal way by the prince of landscapegardeners, Le Nôtre. But of the old Château itself nothing remains but the site and the foundations. The building as we see it is a fine adaptation, in the style of the French Renaissance, of old plans to new purposes. On two sides it seems to rise actually out of the water, on a solid foundation of rock, for centuries ago the Nonette, which once overflowed at random through a marshy valley, was confined in a series of artificial lakes, the chief of which washes the very walls of the Château. But, new as is the actual building, the whole place teems with history, and nobody can enjoy it properly without at least some faint inkling of its past. This we can obtain from M. Macon, whose summary makes the big political significance of Chantilly alternate with details of estate management and with lively stories of guests received and fêtes given during a brilliant century and a half-from the days of Anne of Austria to those of the Revolution. Then came a long period of eclipse, to be succeeded by a period of new life, when at the call of a new descendant of the Bourbons and the Condés, Henri Duc d'Aumale, fifth son of King Louis-Philippe, the new castle arose, to be filled with fine pictures, statues, tapestries, and books, and ultimately to be bestowed, through the Duke's patriotic generosity, on the Institute of France, in trust for the French people.

The early history of Chantilly is obscure: as M. Macon says, 'Les enfants n'ont pas d'histoire.' Let it suffice to say that the name is Latin, that Livy mentions a Lucius Cantilius, and that it is supposed that a General or a Publicanus of the name settled here during the Roman occupation of Gaul and founded the town. Eight or ten

centuries later, when Seigneurs and Abbeys divided the supremacy of the country, we hear of agreements and disputes between the Lord of Chantilly and the Abbey of St Leu, protected by the neighbouring Bishop of Senlis; then, in the twelfth century, of a Seigneur of Chantilly on whom was conferred the title of Bouteiller' -Chief Butler-to the King. The title became a surname, and subsisted for several generations, while as to the place itself it is curious to learn, from many records, that at that time and for some centuries its chief value lay in its excellence as a hunting-box. Nearly all the quarrels between the early Seigneurs and their monkish neighbours arose out of disputes about game-who should have the right to hunt la grosse bête' (stags, wild boars, and even wolves), and whether 'le menu gibier' (chiefly rabbits!) should be free to both parties. Long afterwards the Kings of France, from Francis I to Louis XV, went to Chantilly for sport as regularly as our Royalties go to Norfolk or the Highlands. Meantime the power and wealth of the Seigneurs, and the extent of their domains, increased rapidly. The Bouteillers died out, to be succeeded by the bourgeois family of the D'Orgemont (1386), who rebuilt the Château on foundations which still exist, making of it 'an imposing fortress with seven towers.' They were an able and powerful family, but after a century male heirs failed, and by a legal 'donation' of 1484 the last D'Orgemont gave Chantilly to his nephew by marriage, Guillaume de Montmorency, head of one of the first families in France.

From that date, Chantilly has been linked with two great names, those of Montmorency and Bourbon-Condé. Guillaume became the father of a famous son, 'Le Grand Connétable,' who, because his godmother was Anne of Brittany, received the name of Anne, which has to this day been a stone of stumbling to young learners of French history. He became one of the great soldiers of his time, playing a large part in the expeditions of Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I, with the last of whom he was taken prisoner at the battle of Pavia. Released, he brought about the Treaty of Madrid between Francis and Charles V, one of the conditions of which was, after the quaint fashion of those days, that the

French King should marry the Emperor's sister, Éléonore. Of course the owner of Chantilly was immensely enriched by this success, and the first use that he made of his great wealth was entirely to rebuild the Château. His architect was the Pierre Chambiges already mentioned, 'fils d'un célèbre "maçon," et déjà renommé luimême.' Thanks to the famous engraver Du Cerceau, the ground plan and two elevations have been preserved, and are reproduced in M. Macon's book. They anticipate the modern building in the general plan, but the elaborate details have a grace which no modern work can rival; in fact, no finer example of French Renaissance architecture exists than what this 16th-century building must have been. No wonder that the Constable's brother-inlaw, the Comte de Laval, wrote to him after a visit, 'My brother, I have seen Chantilly, the most beautiful place I have visited during the last ten years. I have seen your tapestries and your furniture, and I only wonder that you do not haunt the place more frequently.' This was in 1530, when it was still unfinished. Chambiges worked at the Château for two more years, and stayed in the neighbourhood much longer, employed on the Cathedral of Senlis (which is only a few miles away), and at the private chapels, no less than seven in number, which the piety of the Grand Constable caused to be built in and around his park. And the interior was in equally good hands. The furniture, as well as the foundation of the Library, was entrusted to the famous Grolier, whose name is still revered by all bibliophiles; and commissions were given to all the leading French artists of the day, such as François Clouet, Bernard Palissy, and Leonard Limousin. One letter of special interest to us in England is given from 'Le commandeur de Dinteville,' in Rome-and it deals with the purchase of medals and pictures for Chantilly. The writer is seemingly the principal figure in Holbein's great picture of The Ambassadors,' which after remaining for over a century in the Dinteville Château at Polisy, passed into the possession of various owners until, in 1891, it was purchased from Lord Radnor for our National Gallery.

The Montmorency family ruled at Chantilly all through the horrible religious wars, but the male line died out in 1632, when Henri de Montmorency, who had