The most picturesque feature of the garden was, however, the village or hamlet, and it is here the life of the Trianon centered in the time of the Queen. The houses with which the hamlet was comprised were situated on the farther shore of a small artificial lake; and were divided into two groups separated by a running stream. The first group was made up of the "Queen's House" and its connected "Billiard Hall," and the "Mill": the second originally comprised five buildings;--a "Gardener's Lodge," a "Poultry House," a tower, called "Marlborough's Tower" with a "Dairy" attached to it, and, at some distance from these, a "Farm House" with its dependencies. We have preferred in the description to adhere to the names by which these buildings were originally called rather than to adopt the more fanciful nomenclature given to them later by an imaginative German, Dr. Meyer, who visited France in 1796 and who invented the story that the Queen, playing at rural life, had entrusted the King with the rôle of the farmer, while she became the farmer's wife and the Count d'Artois the huntsman, the Comte de Provence the miller, and the Cardinal de Rohan the curé of this tiny community. In accordance with this unfounded tale the Queen's house has been nicknamed the "Maison du Seigneur," the poultry house the "Presbytère" and so forth,--and these nicknames have clung to them ever since. [Illustration: PLATE XXX "QUEEN'S HOUSE," PETIT TRIANON] The simplicity of the buildings of the hamlet makes it unnecessary to describe them in detail. They were erected during the years 1783, 1784 and 1785 from designs by the architect Mique. The exteriors were covered with stucco to represent old brick, weather-worn stone and worm-eaten wood, and all of them, with the exception of the "Queen's House" which was partly covered with tiles, were roofed with thatch. The "Queen's House" and "Billiard Hall" were connected by a rustic gallery, painted olive-green. The former contained a dining-room and some private apartments. The "Billiard Hall," as its name implies, was mainly occupied by a billiard room over which were sleeping chambers. [Illustration: MANTELPIECE STANDISH HALL] The "Mill" was at one time furnished with a mill-wheel and actually and practically used to grind grain for the inhabitants of the tiny village. The "Gardener's House" has been demolished. The "Poultry-House" was at one time used for the care of fowls and pigeons of which the Queen had a large number. [Illustration: PLATE XXXI "DAIRY" AND "MARLBOROUGH'S TOWER," PETIT TRIANON]