The King, being desirous to give
the Queens and his whole Court
the pleasure of some uncommon
Feasts, in a Place adorn'd with
all the Delights that can make a
Country-Seat be admired, chose
for that purpose Versailles, four Leagues from
Paris. 'Tis a Seat which might be call'd an
inchanted Palace, so much have the imbellishments
of Art seconded the Care nature has taken
to render it perfect: It is every way charming,
every thing smiles both on the inside
and outside of it: Gold and Marble there dispute
for Beauty and Lustre, and tho' it has not
the vast Extent which there is in all his Majesty's
other Palaces, yet all things therein are
so polite, so well contrived, and so perfect, that
nothing can equal them. Its simmetry, the
richness of its Furniture, the beauty of its
Walks, and the infinite number of its Flower-Pots,
as well as of its Orange-Trees, render
the Neighbourhood of that Place worthy of
its singular Rarity; the sundry kinds of Beasts
contain'd in the two Parks and the Menagery,
wherein are several Courts in the Figures of
Stars with Ponds for the Water-Fowl, together
with great Structures, join Pleasure to Magnificence,
and form an accomplish'd Palace.
