The Hotel de Cluny which is almost adjoining, is also an object highly meriting the attention of the observer.  It is one of those edifices of the middle ages, of which there are so few remaining.  In 1505, in the reign of Louis the Twelfth, this curious building was erected by Jacques d’Amboise, Abbot of Cluny, on the site and with a part of the ruins of the Palais des Thermes.  There is a richness about the architecture and the ornaments around the windows, that is particularly striking; the chapel is most highly interesting, and in it was married Princess Mary, the widow of Louis the Twelfth, and sister of Henry VIII, to the duke of Suffolk, as also James V of Scotland to Magdalen, daughter of Francis I. Having at length become the property of M. Sommerard, all the value of his acquisition is duly appreciated, and he has formed within this curious and beautiful edifice, a collection of specimens of the middle ages, which are arranged chronologically; he is the author of a most interesting work on the subject which may be procured upon the premises.  The stranger will find a visit to the Hotel de Cluny one of the most gratifying of any he can bestow, and on writing to M. Sommerard, he may be certain of procuring admission.  Following the Rue St. Benoit, we arrive at the Theatre du Pantheon, Rue St. Jacques, opened in 1832; it is partly formed by the church St. Benoit anciently that of St. Benedict built in 1517, much famed during the ligue, where the assassination of Henri III was applauded by Jean Boucher in his sermons.  The performances are vaudevilles and melodramas.  Highest price two shillings, lowest six-pence.

We now re-enter the Rue de la Harpe, and notice the Royal College St. Louis, originally founded by Raoul Harcourt in 1280; the present building was erected in 1675, but part of the ancient edifice exists, the greater portion of the structure was built in 1814; and the college opened in 1820.  There is a chapel attached, and at the lower end a gateway, formerly the entrance to the College de Bayeux, founded in 1308, which bears an inscription to that effect, and probably of the same date.  A very few steps bring us to the College de la Sorbonne, built on the site of a school founded by Robert Sorbon in 1253; it is filled with historical associations, the church and all about it has a very gloomy appearance, it is cruciform and of the corinthian order, surmounted by a dome the interior of which is painted by Philippe de Champagne.  The tomb of Cardinal de Richelieu, in the southern transept, is the chef-d’oeuvre of Gerardon.  The college is a plain building of sombre aspect, but the accommodation for the professors is on a handsome scale; the lectures delivered are all gratuitous.