The Palais Soubise in Paris, the ancient home of the Guises, and the home of the Prince de Soubise, a favourite of Louis XV. and a devoted friend of Madame de Pompadour, is happily extant. The Prince de Soubise took for his second wife, his cousin, Anne Julie Charbot de Rohan, so celebrated for her beauty and her intrigues. The embellishments at the Hôtel de Soubise were begun by them in 1704 and continued by their son, the Duc de Rohan, who died in 1749, and the decorations of this mansion are considered among the triumphs of the “_élégances raffinées_” of the Eighteenth Century. Germain Boffrand, a pupil of Mansart, is responsible for the interior architecture. The two floors in which the Prince and Princess had their apartments were laid out identically. The Prince occupied the _rez-de-chaussée_, or ground-floor, consisting of a bedroom, a _Salon oval_ and ante-chambers, etc. The bedroom communicated directly with the _Salon oval_ and the many windows and glass doors of the latter opened upon a formal French garden. The decorations of these rooms were in the pale grey tone known as _gris de lin_. There were no bright colours and no mythological pictures of love and gallantry. The panels were laden with beautiful wood carvings, and in the upper part between the archivolts of the doors and windows were eight allegorical groups representing the arts and sciences. Music, Justice, Painting and Poetry, History and Fame were painted by Lambert Sigisbert Adam; and Astronomy, Architecture, Comedy and the Drama by Jean Baptiste Lemoine.