Country Life

The wisdom of Voltaire

EARS ago, in a happy London interlude, we lived in Covent Garden, above Rules. Over the pavement opposite, fixed to the brickwork at the back of the Vaudeville Theatre, a plaque stated that Voltaire had lived in Maiden Lane. It was 1728, and he was in England to escape enemies in France; on his return to Paris, he further outraged

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