The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-02-19


HAMPTON COURT PALAcE-M. AssoLAUT
CARDINAL WOLSEY-HIS RISE AND
FALL-PICTUREG GALLERIES, PARKS AND
GARDEN s-THE LAND LAWS, RENT
TROUBLES, ETC.
Our visit to Hampton Court occurred in
the month Of June, when the party consisted
Of ten or twelve very agreeable persons,
among them DR.. A. T. Bledsoe, Mr.. and
Mrs. F, 7. Tremlett, Sir Henry de Hoghton,
Lady Eardley, and three French gentle
men, one Of them being M. Assolaut, the
vivacious correspondent Of the Courier du
DimGacze, whose letters from England
during the Exhibition of 1862, created so
much amusement ia Paris and so much ir.
ritation in London.
NJ. Assolaut is good specimen OF a
Frenchman, gay, witty, frivolous, sarcastic,
sardonic. His pictures of the English. like
all drawn by his countrymen, are exagger-
ated until they become ludicrous, and while
no one could read them without laugh, it
appeared simply ridiculous that John Bull
should take them so much to heart as he ap-
peared to do. Not only the Times, but all
the other daily papers belabored him soundly
for his pains. NJ. Assolaut is fine flaueur,
or snapper up of unconsdered trifles,"
full of anecdote, and one of those travelling
companions who shorten the longest jour-
ney. He kept us in a continual laugh and
emerged from the train at Hampton Court
covered with dust and applause. A word as
to NJ. Assolaut may appropriately find a
place here. Born in Aubusson Grouse 10
1927, he finished his collegiate career about
the year 1850. He was now, such was his
scholarship, appointed to professorship in
the University of France, where he was
successfully engaged for some years. A
fendness for adventure led him to abandon
| his trust and travel in Central America and
| the United States. On his return to France
| he contributed to the 'sRevue des DeuI
Mondes," an article upon the adventurer,
"Walker and the Americans" and two
rather successful novels. 1t was thought
that while in Central America, he took part
with the Fillibusters. In 1858 he published
what was called tune fantasia Americaine,'
under the title OF ",Scenes de la uie DIES
Etats Unis,' and since many other books,
biographical, historical and fictitious. His
most recent work, published about this
period, was entitled "Histoire dan Etu
diant.' For some unexplained reason
Mons. Assolaut could not get on comfortably
with the English but found himself entirely
at home with Americans. His whimical
ridicule Of j ohn Bull was exceedingly droll
and amusing. He would stop at times and
express in a comical way his respect for
| America and the Americans, an admi-
ration and respect which he declared was
based on the great qualities of both country
and people. When told that the Amer
leans were English, only born in another
hemisphere, he dssented and declared that
though made up of all peoples. the Ameri-
cans were more Celtic than Teutonic, and
that Brother Jonathan, with all his eccen-
tricities and grotesqueness, was decidedly
ahead of John Bull. John Bull, he said, even
before the conquest, was made up of Britons,
Romans, Saxons, Picts and Danes, and had
no right to call himself an Anglo Saxon
In fact, said Assolaut, there is no such race
as Anglo Saxons and never was. He re-
marked that when it was customary to de-
nounce. King William as foreigner, Defoe
wrote "The true born Englishman," in
which he instructs his countrymen as to the
mongrel races which had conspired to form
that 'svain, ill-natured thing, an English~
man, and showed
Atrue-born Englishmans contradiction
In speech an irony. in fact fiction;
metaphor invented to express
A man akin to all the universe.
In serio comic vein he ran over list OF
the boosted privileges of the English, and
said they were all legacies left them by
Frenchmen. 1t was to the Norman Kings
that England owed trial by jury, the ameli-
Grafton of the condition of the vassals by
laws curtaiing the powers of the old bar
ons, the equalization of taxes by which
lords and commons paid alike the sum-
moning OF the first House of Commons that
forced King John to sign Magma Charter.
Here Twas the commencement OF English
nationality, said he, for before this period,
English history was mere history OF ele-
ments, of their collisions and OF the pro-
cesses of their fusion.
At this point young man, OF the
cockney type, not however OF our
party, who had listened to .the discus
sion in uneasy silence, began to show
signs of fight, and it required all of Mr..
Tremlet's clerical authority, and the a plonab
of Sir Henry de Hoghton to keep the peace.
At the next station We were glad to see
this lard.complexioned youth, with fierce
grey eyes, piano-key teeth, elongated legs
and eooseberry mustache, leave the car
riage.
The French are the most racy and delight
full of conversationists, and NJ. Asselaut
shines among his own people. in the salons
of Paris. Yet even he is not likely to rival,
in this direction, his great countrywoman
Madame de Stael, who is represented as SO
fascinating that those who listened to her
were not aware Of thunderstorm.
, To the politeness. the manners and the
accomplishments of the fashionable world,
Nj. Assolaut adds thorough knowledge oil
, men; is indeed a man Of the world, il not
the spoiled child, whose caprices have
ALWAYS been laws, and who must when a
! child have broken the playthings he was
, refused. 1t is possible, therefore, that he
, was s'b,ttering us'' at the expense OF John
Bull, or he may have been amusing himself
! with both at one and the same time. Sli
Henry de Hoghton was too much occupied
with bis Irritation with Lady Eardley to pay
attention to the Frenchman, who certainly
diverted the rest Of the party no little. DR.
Bledsoe, who gave the witty Gau small credit
: for sincerity in his pronounced American
preiudices, directed many heavy shot at him
: which struck with telling effect. NJ. Asso
laut is man of middle height, handsome
,, features. dark complexion. calm black eyes
thick wiry mustaches hanging like those Of
s a Tartar. His voice is sweet and muslcai
and when he smiles bis face assumes an all
| Of benevolence.