Identifier: castleschateauxo00mans (find matches)
Title: Castles and chateaux of old Burgundy and the border provinces
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Mansfield, Milburg Francisco, 1871- (from old catalog)
Subjects: Castles
Publisher: Boston, L. C. Page & company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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t of Grenoble, provedto us. There is nothing else quite in its class,and its chateau is a wonderfully chiselled ser-mon in stone, as its portal and fagade demon-strate readily enough to the most casual ob-server. A most curious emblem is here to benoted. It is worthy of being added to thosecarved porcupines and salamanders of LouisXII and Frangois Premier. In this case it isa mythological, or traditional, figure, halfwoman and half snake, and possessed of twotails. It is a most unpleasant architecturaldecoration and perpetuates the mythical char-acter of a local legend. One is glad to knowthat it is not an emblem personal to the familyof the present owner. Some kilometres to the south is the TourSans Venin, one of the ancient wonders ofDauphiny, though it is little more than a singleflank of wall to-day. The natives, skepticalwhen they first heard the tale of Eoland thePaladin, built the edifice of which this wallformed a part, and built it of wonderful stone, La Grande Chartreuse 255
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256 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy or earth, warranted to chase away reptiles andvermin. Imagination, no doubt, played its part,but one can readily enough accept the proper-ties as desirable ones for a building materialto possess. Saint Donat, still further down the valley,has hardly a memory for one save that he re-members having heard of it in connection withthe rather merry life of Diane de Poitiers. To-day it is nothing but a no-account little Dau-phinese village. It is not even a railway junc-tion. It has however an old mill built up outof an old rendezvous de chasse where the fickleDiane had more than one escapade. Like manyanother old ruin of Dauphiny the Chateau deSaint Donat is reminiscent of the local mannerof building. It is nothing luxurious, but mass-ive, and, withal, a seemingly efficient strongholdfor the time in which it was built, or would havebeen had it. ever been called upon to serve itspurpose to the full. It seems a fatal destinythat a chateau should be no

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