Note 95 — Chapter XXXIV

“The ground on which this palace stood,” observes Croker, “shelved down from the Strand, where the principal entrance was to the river. The principal floor and state rooms were probably on the level with the entrance on the Strand side, but must have been a story above the ground on the river side; and this story was probably the vaulted apartments which Bassompierre mentions. It seems odd that he should think the vaulting a peculiarity worth mentioning, as the ground floor of the Tuileries and the Louvre, in which he passed most of his life, were vaulted; but vaulted domestic apartments were probably then, as now [1819], extremely rare; and the singular and magnificent effect of vaulted rooms, furnished for the purpose, must have struck a person of Bassompierre’s taste.”