Went to see the Hotel d'Orsay, to-day.

Even in its ruin it still retains many of the vestiges of its former splendour.

The _salle a manger_, for the decoration of which its owner bought, and had conveyed from Rome, the columns of the Temple of Nero, is now--hear it, ye who have taste!--converted into a stable; the _salons_, once filled with the most precious works of art, are now crumbled to decay, and the vast garden where bloomed the rarest exotics, and in which were several of the statues that are now in the gardens of the Tuileries, is now turned into paddocks for horses.
It made me sad to look at this scene of devastation, the result of a revolution which plunged so many noble families from almost boundless wealth into comparative poverty, and scattered collections of the works of art that whole lives were passed in forming.

I remember Mr.
Millingen, the antiquary, telling me in Italy that when yet little more than a boy he was taken to view the Hotel d'Orsay, then one of the most magnificent houses in Paris, and containing the finest collection of pictures and statues, and that its splendour made such an impression on his mind that he had never forgotten it.
With an admirable taste and a princely fortune, Count d'Orsay spared neither trouble nor expense to render his house the focus of all that was rich and rare; and, with a spirit that does not always animate the possessor of rare works of art, he opened it to the young artists of the day, who were permitted to study in its gallery and _salons_.
In the slate drawing-rooms a fanciful notion of the Count's was carried into effect and was greatly admired, though, I believe, owing to the great expense, the mode was not adopted in other houses, namely, on the folding-doors of the suite being thrown open to admit company, certain pedals connected with them were put in motion, and a strain of music was produced, which announced the presence of guests, and the doors of each of the drawing-rooms when opened took up the air, and continued it until closed.
Many of the old _noblesse_ have been describing the splendour of the Hotel d'Orsay to me since I have been at Paris, and the Duc de Talleyrand said it almost realised the notion of a fairy palace.

Could the owner who expended such vast sums on its decoration, behold it in its present ruin, he could never recognise it; but such would be the case with many a one whose stately palaces became the prey of a furious rabble, let loose to pillage by a revolution--that most fearful of all calamities, pestilence only excepted, that can befall a country.
General Ornano, his stepson Count Waleski, M.Achille La Marre, General d'Orsay, and Mr.Francis Baring dined here yesterday.