MALMAISON, Le, a village 7 m. w. of Paris, with many historical souvenirs. The name is derived from the fact that it was a favorite resort of robbers in the 9th c., whose depredations in the neighborhood gave their place of sortie the name mala mauseo. In the 13th c. it was but a part of a farm; in the 14th it was attached to the property of the abbaye St. Denis. Occupied succe,ssively by families of little note during succeeding cen turies, it happened to be purchased in 1798 by the widow Josephine Beauharnais, who paid about $32,000 for the property. The charms of her society there attracted not only the gen eral Bonaparte, but much of the most elegant society of France in 1798-99. The place WU tastefully improved, and became the meeting place for poets, authors, politicians, and the military celebrities of the day. Some of the most beautiful and fascinating women of France aided Josephine to make it one of the centers of a society which song,ht to repro duce the courtly manners of old France, with the advent of the new military era of Napoleon, who here wooed the future empress. It was largely through her fine tact in making powerful friends at Malmaison that Napoleon was enabled to make the c,oup d'etat in 1799 which made him first consul. After her marriage Josephine continued to embel lish the park with g,ardens, summer-houses, grottoes, waterfalls, lawns and parterres and farm and shepherd cottages; and the chateau was greatly iraproved in many ways and made interesting by a library and the choicest works of art and materials for pleasure, until it finally became a little palace. After Josephine became empress 3Ialmaison was
little occupied, until the divorce in 1809, when she retired to it, and kept up a little court. Alexander of Russia visited her there just before her death in May, 1814. After Napo leon's return from Elba he went to visit the scene of his first love, and two rnonths later, after the defeat of Waterloo, he passed five days there with Hortense de Beauharnais, ex-queen of Holland. The propertv then reverted to her son, Eugene de Beauharnais. In 1826 it was purchased by a Swedish banker, Haguerman; in 1842 by queen Maria Christina of Spain for 500,000 francs; and in 1861 by Louis Napoleon for 1,500,000 francs, and by him improved and restored to much of its ancient beauty.
Among the paintings most interesting at Malmaison is a portrait of Josephine by her daughter Hortense; and one of Bonaparte at 3Ialmaison by D'Isaby.
lICALKES'BURY, a market t. and parliamentary borough of England, in the co. of Wilts, 20 m. n.n.w. of Devizes, and 96 m. w. of London. Pop. (1871) of parliamentary borough, 6,879. It returns one member to the house of commons.
Malmesbury is a very ancient and interesting tovvn. Here, according to William of Malmesbury, a monastery was founded before the year 670. The abbey afterwards became a cloth-factory. The remains of the abbey-church, partly early Norman, and partly decorated English, may still be seen. There are several other relics of antiquity in the place.