his final appeal so ineffectual. My own trifling and solitary contribution to his box appeared like the first watery drop bursting forth from the rock to relieve the traveller in the desert, and it drew forth so marked an expression of his acknowledgment that, to escape the gaze of the throng, I was glad to hurry away without waiting to see whether or not the example had proved beneficial to him.

39

CHAPTER IV.

Dauphiny-A first sight of Mont Blanc-Bourgoin-La-Tour-duPin--Pont-de-Beauvoisin-Entrance into Savoy--Pass of La Chaille-Road of the Echelles-Thiebauld-du-Coux-Chambery— Montmelian-Valley of the Isere-Aiguebelle-Goitres-Alpine Scenery-Savoyard Honesty-Mountain streams—Valley of Maurienne Saint Jean-Peasantry-An Alpine Village-ModaneLans-le-bourg.

HAVING

VING completed the requisite arrangements for proceeding on our journey to Milan, among others that of engaging an Italian servant, we left Lyon this morning (July 18th), at half-past two. After crossing the Rhone (over a bridge of twenty large arches and 260 fathoms in length), we traversed a faubourg which of itself is a considerable place. We had entered the confines of the ancient province of Dauphiné; and at Bron we beheld the Savoy Hills stretching their stupendous screen of demarcation before the very path, as it were, of our proposed route; whilst behind and far beyond those vast ramparts, revealed in its peculiar form and by its superior altitude, but still deep in shadow, MONT BLANC appeared, finely contrasted with the silvery sky. As we contemplated these sublime objects, the Sun rose with splendour; and pleasant indeed beyond expression is the sight,

"When first on this delightful land he spreads

"His orient beams on herb, tree, fruit, and flower,

From La Verpillière the road passes through a narrow vale, in which the cheerful look of the meadows, and the fertility of the gently rising grounds, bounded on each side by verdant hills, reminded us of some parts of Gloucestershire. We breakfasted at Bourgoin, where a newly introduced manufactory of crape is carried on, and where some paper mills and other establishments impart a shew of business and industrious bustle to an old and dirty town.* From this point the valley widens, the hills on each side grow loftier as they recede; and the whole landscape amplifies on a scale too extensive and becomes backed by objects too colossal to admit of accurate comparison with any scenery on English ground. In these parts showers had fallen; and the providential results were seen in excellent crops of wheat, barley, hemp, Indian corn, and potatoes, as well as in the promising shew of the vines with which the ridges are covered.

The prospects now become interesting in the extreme. Every time we reach the summit of an eminence, however moderate in height, the country of the Savoyard presents the majestic vision of its eternal barrier. The mountain chains that form the several distances of this magnificent picture, looked like an imposing mass upon mass of clouds approaching to discharge a copious store of welcome rain over the parched-up soil of France. The region around

* Reichard recommends to every admirer of natural rarities, to make an excursion to "the Grotto of Notre-Dame-de-la-Balme, situated three leagues from Bourgoin, and at some distance from the village of its name, between the towns of Amblerieux and Sallettes, about seven leagues from Lyon." The very interesting account which the topographical writer in question gives of this grotto, would have induced us to visit it, had not the extraordinary heat of the weather obliged us to set bounds to curiosity and confine our attention to objects lying within our more immediate reach.

us was indeed most captivating: it bloomed, a garden; but the cottage and the person of (at least) the road-side inhabitant, poverty seemed too palpably to have marked for its own. After we passed Moulins, and even before we got so far, the wear and tear of shoes and stockings appeared to be very inconsiderable among the females of the labouring class. In this part of Dauphiny, however, the stony soil obliges them to have some protection for the soles of the feet, but we see no display of white linen and gay coloured prints, as in the Bourbonnaise and Lyonnaise costumes. At Eclose, the valley again becomes narrow, and the encompassing hills less lofty. My friend imagined himself, for a moment, in the neighbourhood of his favourite Stroud; to the goodly features of which, in all respects (with the superaddition of the vine) the country hereabouts certainly bears a close resemblance. The harvest was in progress. Women as well as men reap the corn, and perform other laborious operations of agricultural economy.

Every now and then the valley opens in front of us, and exhibits the mountain-glories of the land towards which we are travelling. Rescued from their vapoury indistinctness, at our nearer approach, these giant forms proclaim, in the masses of alternate light and shade on the crags and undulations of their enormous surface, that they are, in verity, of most solid and substantial composition. We plainly discovered four graduations of the chain, rising one behind the other. The atmosphere was so clear, and the sun so brilliant, that the glaciers of some of the highest and most remote were perfectly distinguishable. From the foreground of the position of La-tour-du-Pin to the second distance is about two miles-a land of promise

G

plenteous in production, enchanting in appearance. The elevated points in the third line of this grand picture must then have been distant from us at least thirty or forty, and the remotest object a hundred miles. The abruptness of the transition produces an effect of aerial perspective such as no words can describe, even the pencil itself might fail in the attempt to represent it. The air was so rarified by the long continued heat of the weather, that the clouds, far from hanging on the breasts of the mountains, only shewed their fleecy skirts above the tops, over which they remained floating like feathery plumes on the crest of the warrior's helmet. Our view of the uppermost regions of Mont Blanc was unimpeded by a single obstacle. The plenitude of sun-shine settled on his head of snow. Contemplating such a scene, it was with no assumed enthusiasm but with a real sense of visual incapacity to meet the "dazzling deluge,” that in the language of the wrapt poet, I was ready to exclaim

"Visions of glory spare my aching sight!"

While from Fontainebleau to Lyon we found almost the whole vegetable kingdom suffering severely from excessive drought, in the neighbourhood of the mountains we saw corn gradually ripening, clover richly blossoming, and verdure spreading every where in its freshest hue.As we approached Pont-de-Beauvoisin our eyes feasted on scenes that varied their charms at each step. The road leads through a succession of pastures whose vivid green refreshes the sight; of orchards teeming with fruitage; and of plantations whose recesses invite the way-worn traveller to repose on the smooth turf beneath their sheltering branches. The people here grow a great deal of hemp,