There was hereabouts
a large square plot, at one end of which, facing the quay, stood a
handsome private house of brickwork with white stone dressings, that had
been erected by Leon Beauchene, father of Alexandre, the present master
of the works. From the balconies one could perceive the houses which were
perched aloft in the midst of greenery on the height of Passy, beyond the
Seine; whilst on the right arose the campanile of the Trocadero palace.
On one side, skirting the Rue de la Federation, one could still see a
garden and a little house, which had been the modest dwelling of Leon
Beauchene in the heroic days of desperate toil when he had laid the
foundations of his fortune. Then the factory buildings and sheds, quite a
mass of grayish structures, overtopped by two huge chimneys, occupied
both the back part of the ground and that which fringed the Boulevard de
Grenelle, the latter being shut off by long windowless walls. This
important and well-known establishment manufactured chiefly agricultural
appliances, from the most powerful machines to those ingenious and
delicate implements on which particular care must be bestowed if
perfection is to be attained.
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