Another delightful description of the home life at La Grange is given by Lady Morgan, who visited France about this time. She says:— “General La Fayette has not appeared in Paris since the return of the Bourbon dynasty to France. And I should have left that country without having seen one of its greatest ornaments, had not a flattering invitation from the Château La Grange enabled me to gratify a wish, long and devoutly cherished, of knowing, or at least of beholding, its illustrious master. Introduced by proxy to the family of La Fayette, by the young and amiable Princess Charlotte de B——, we undertook our journey to La Grange with the same pleasure as the pilgrim takes his first unwearied steps to the shrine of sainted excellence. “In the midst of a fertile and luxuriant wilderness, rising above prolific orchards and antiquated woods, appeared the five towers of La Grange, tinged with the golden rays of the setting sun. Through the branches of the trees appeared the pretty village of Aubepierre, once, perhaps, the dependency of the castle, and clustering near the protection of its walls. A remoter view of the village of D’Hieres, with its gleaming river and romantic valley, was caught and lost alternately in the serpentine mazes of the rugged road; which, accommodated to the grouping of the trees, wound amidst branches laden with ripening fruit, till its rudeness suddenly subsided in the velvet lawn that immediately surrounded the castle. The deep moat, the drawbridge, the ivied tower and arched portals, opening into the square court, had a feudal and picturesque character; and combined with the reserved tints and fine repose of evening, associated with that exaltation of feeling which belonged to the moment, preceding a first interview with those on whom the mind has long dwelt with admiration or interest. “We found General La Fayette surrounded by his patriarchal family—his excellent son and daughter-in-law, his two daughters (the sharers of his dungeon in Olmütz) and their husbands, eleven grandchildren, and a venerable granduncle, the ex-grand prior of Malta, with hair as white as snow, and his cross and his order worn as proudly as when he had issued forth at the head of his pious troops against the ‘paynim foe,’ or Christian enemy. “Such was the group that received us in the _salon_ of La Grange; such was the close-knit circle that made our breakfast and our dinner party, accompanied us in our delightful rambles through the grounds and woods of La Grange, and constantly presented the most perfect unity of family interests, habits, tastes, and affections.