_20th._--I can hardly tell how, but true it is that my time for writing is wonderfully curtailed, although in reality I have so little to do. The journeys to and from town occupy much time; and now that we are, as it were, settled, people have taken to visiting, so that we have frequently dinner company, which forbids all attempts at nocturnal writing. Sunday is my quietest day in general, although not always. To-day I passed my morning in strolling about the park of the chateau, the village, &c. Our scenery is too flat to be very pretty, although the chaussées on either side of us, with their fine elms, are noble avenues. These are the roads from Pierrefitte and Garges, which unite near St Denis. There are several spots in the park affording interesting peeps in the direction of Paris. Having a clump of picturesque trees in the immediate foreground, the level verdant carpet stretches away until bounded by the rich masses of foliage of elms bordering the chaussée, above which tower the light spires of the Abbey of St Denis; farther on, an opening in the avenue allows the eye to range over the naked plain of St Denis, bounded in the extreme distance by the heights of Montmartre and Belleville, with the dome of St Genevieve rearing itself in the gap between. Except such peeps, our view is everywhere confined by the foliage and the rising ground extending all round our rear from Garges to Pierrefitte. Water, or the want of it rather, is a great drawback on the scenery about the district: true, there are two or three muddy rivulets, such as the Rouillon, La Vieille Mer, Crouy, &c., but they are too insignificant and too much encased to aid in any way the scenery. Yesterday, when I called at the Hotel du Nord, I was surprised at meeting Lady Frazer, her brother, and two sisters (Dr James and the Misses Lind). The festival of our patron saint was celebrated last Thursday with much merriment and conviviality, and it was very pleasing to see the familiar and confident manner in which our people mingled in the amusements of the day, and the cordiality with which they were treated by the villagers. The favourite (indeed, the principal) game played by the young men was one resembling our trap-ball, with this difference, that instead of a trap, the ball was made to rebound from a large sieve placed on the ground, and propped upon one side so as to present an inclined surface. In the evening a most animated dance was kept up in the park until a comparatively late hour. Angélique was the distinguished belle of the evening, and by far the best (as she was the stoutest) _danseuse_, although they all dance well. As I saw her swinging through the figure, “Cutty-sark” came forcibly to my recollection, and mentally I exclaimed “weel done,” &c. We were at mess when M. Bonnemain called to announce that all was ready, but that he had forbidden the commencing until the sanction of M. le Commandant was obtained.