. Castles and chateaux of old Touraine and the Loire country. g decayed in the least. On thetower which flanks the little door where onemeets the concierge and enters, there are un-mistakable marks of bullets and balls, which arevolutionary or some other fury left as me-mentoes of its passage. Considering that Chambord was not a prod-uct of feudal times, these disfigurements seemout of place; still its peaceful motives couldhardly have been expected to have lasted al-ways. The southern facade is not excelled by theelevation of any residential structure of anyage, and its outlines are varied an
. Castles and chateaux of old Touraine and the Loire country. g decayed in the least. On thetower which flanks the little door where onemeets the concierge and enters, there are un-mistakable marks of bullets and balls, which arevolutionary or some other fury left as me-mentoes of its passage. Considering that Chambord was not a prod-uct of feudal times, these disfigurements seemout of place; still its peaceful motives couldhardly have been expected to have lasted al-ways. The southern facade is not excelled by theelevation of any residential structure of anyage, and its outlines are varied and pleasingenough to satisfy the most critical; if one par-dons the little pepper-boxes on the north andsouth towers, and perforce one has to pardonthem when he recalls the magnificence of thegeneral disposition and sky-line of this mar-vellously imposing chateau of the Eenais-sance. Frangois Premier made Chambord his fa-vourite residence, and in fact endowed Pierre ,Nepveu — who for this work alone will be con-sidered one of the foremost architects of the. Chambord 105 French Renaissance — witli the inspiration forits erection in 1526. A prodigious amount of sculpture by JeanCousin, Pierre Bontemps, Jean Goujon, andGermain Pilon was interpolated above thedoorways and windows, in the framing thereof,and above the great fireplaces. Inside andout, above and below, were vast areas to becovered, and Frangois allowed his taste to havefull sway. The presumptuous Frangois made much ofthis noble residence, perhaps because of hislove of la chasse, for game abounded here-abouts, or perhaps because of his regard forthe Comtesse Thoury, who occupied a neigh-bouring chateau. For some time before his death, Frangoisstill lingered on at Chambord. Marguerite andher brother, both now considerably aged sincethe happier times of their childhood in Tou-raine, always had an indissoluble fondnessfor Chambord. Marguerite had now becomeQueen of Navarre, but her beauty had beendimmed with the march
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherbosto, bookyear1906
