The _Maison Carrée_, of all the buildings of antiquity I have yet seen,
is the one which has most successfully resisted the numerous assaults
of time, weather, Vandalism, and the not less barbarous attacks of
those into whose merciless hands it has afterwards fallen. In the early
part of the Christian ages it was converted into a church, and
dedicated to St.-Étienne the Martyr; and in the eleventh century it was
used as the Hôtel-de-Ville. It was then given to a certain Pierre Boys,
in exchange for a piece of ground to erect a new hôtel-de-ville; and
he, after having degraded it by using a portion of it as a party-wall
to a mean dwelling he erected adjoining it, disposed of it to a *Sieur
Bruyes, who, still more barbarous than Pierre Boys, converted it into a
stable. In 1670, it was purchased by the Augustin monks from the
descendants of Bruyes, and once more used as a church; and, in 1789, it
was taken from the Augustin monks for the purposes of the
administration of the department. From that period, every thing has
been done for its preservation. Cleared from the mean houses which had
been built around it, and enclosed by an iron palisade, which protects
it from mischievous hands, it now stands isolated in the centre of a
square, or _place_, where it can be seen at every side. Poldo
d'Albenas, a quaint old writer, whose book I glanced over to-day,
attributes the preservation of the _Maison Carrée_ to the fortunate
horoscope of the spot on which it stands. His lamentations for the
insults offered to this building are really passionate.

The _Maison Carrée_ is not square, though its denomination might lead
one to suppose it to be so, being nearly eighty feet long, and only
thirty-eight feet wide. Elevated on a base of cut stone, it is ascended
by a flight of steps, which extends the length of the base in front.
The walls of the building are of a fine white stone, and are admirably
constructed.