Centred around a group of friends assembled in the park of the Chateau de Versailles, who recount stories to each other, the work also affords a good guide to Versailles during the last years of Madame de Pompadour’s influence. There is something semi autobiographical about this novel when the author leaves Paris, due to some matter of ‘très-grande importance’ and decamps to Versailles. He at first feels it is something more parochial than the city of Paris, however after wandering through the gardens he falls into the company of some new friends who in the evening entertain each other with stories. For us the novel is an entry into the atmosphere and delights of Versailles at a time of transition when Louis XV ordered the building of the Petit Trianon for his long-term mistress, Madame de Pompadour. The BL copy was cited in that Victorian masterpiece of bibliography the ^gUnion Catalogue of Books on Art^g p. 2055, correctly identifying the works importance as a descriptive guide of this seat of political power. Huerne de la Mothe was a lawyer by profession, but was disbarred after the publication of his defence of the actress Mlle Clairon following her excommunication. His writings (including the ^gEssais de jurisprudence^g as well as the offending ^gLibertés de la France contre le pouvoir arbitraire de l’excommunio^g) were burnt, and he turned to writing fiction, under Londres and Amsterdam imprints. The present work is the first of two novels, and was frequently reprinted under the title ^gHistoire nouvelle de Margot des Pelotons^g.