arabes qu'en Arabie,"

[They were wretched imitations of some of the Persian and Arabian
tales, in which everything was distorted, and rendered absurd and
preposterous.]

as Hamilton says; and he, in compliance with her taste, and his own, soon
put the fashionable tales to flight, by the publication of the 'Quatre
Facardins', and, more especially, 'La Fleur d'Epine'. Some of the
introductory verses to these productions are written with peculiar ease
and grace; and are highly extolled, and even imitated, by Voltaire. La
Harpe praises the Fleur d'Epine, as the work of an original genius: I do
not think, however, that they are much relished in England, probably
because very ill translated. Another of his literary productions was the
novel called Le Belier, which he wrote on the following occasion: Louis
XIV. had presented to the Countess of Grammont (whom he highly esteemed)
a remarkably elegant small country house in the park of Versailles: this
house became so fashionable a resort, and brought such constant visitors,
that the Count de Grammont said, in his usual way, he would present the
king with a list of all the persons he was obliged to entertain there, as
more suited to his Majesty's purse than his own: the countess wished to
change the name of the place from the vulgar appellation of Le Moulineau
into that of Pentalie: and Hamilton, in his novel, wrote a history of a
giant, an enchantment, and a princess, to commemorate her resolution.
It has however happened that the giant Moulineau has had the advantage in
the course of time; for the estate, which is situated near Meudon, upon
the Seine, retains its original and popular designation.

About the year 1704, Hamilton turned his attention to collecting the
memoirs of his brother-in-law, the Count de Grammont, as we may