The moat was filled up and the terraces taken away when Stanislas Leczinska, the exiled King of Poland, received the castle from his father-in-law Louis XV., and lived there contentedly for eight years. Madame Berthier, the widow of Napoleon’s Chief of Staff, cut down all the old trees in the twenty square miles of forest belonging to Chambord, thus robbing its surroundings of the dignity given by great trees, while perhaps giving the park the aspect which it bore in the days of François I. The long straight roads bordered with Austrian pines go straight through the park southwards to the little town of Bracieux on the Beuvron. It has a quaint market-house on posts and a good deal of half-timber work with herring-bone brickwork, but otherwise the place is uninteresting, and need not delay one on the road to Cheverny. The Sologne, through which the route goes, is a very peculiar strip of sandy marsh-land dotted over with innumerable lakelets and covered with a network of rivers. It was until recent times considered a hopelessly unprofitable waste, suitable for nothing at all but sport. Drainage and careful cultivation have shown, however, that the vine will produce good harvests, and strawberries and vegetables are also cultivated with such success that the peasant of the Sologne is now prosperous and contented. That the sporting qualities of the district have not yet been destroyed is proved by the frequency with which one hears the sound of the horn across the watery levels, and sees the very excited hunting folk clattering through the village streets and along the highways and byways. Turning to the left in the village of Cour Cheverny, and to the right at a fork just afterwards, one reaches the village of CHEVERNY Opposite the curious little church, with its Norman door and wide wooden verandah sheltering a few mendicants, is the entrance to the Château. _It is open to visitors from April 1 to October_, and not during the other months of the year, as it is the home of the present owner, the Marquis Henri Hurault de Vibraye, who is a descendant of that Philippe Hurault de Cheverny whose son built the present château in 1634. This Philippe Hurault had been Chancellor under Henri III. and Henri IV., and died in 1599 in the house destroyed when the existing one was built. The corridor and dining-room are decorated with paintings on Cordova leather illustrating the life of Don Quixote. Jean Mosnier, of Blois, born in 1600, was the artist who painted all the pictures in the château. A beautifully carved stone staircase leads to the upper floor, where one can see the Salle des Gardes--a splendid room in perfect condition--decorated with armour, paintings, and rich tapestries, and the Chambre du Roi, with its old bed and more tapestry. The tomb of Chancellor Hurault is in the chapel in the château, and others of the family are buried in the church (already mentioned) outside the gates of the park.