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The costume of the gens de peuple in the German quarter of the city is of a somewhat heavier character. We saw an interesting couple, in their nuptial habiliments. The newly married woman wore a flaming red gown with long sleeves of the same colour and black cuffs; a yellow stomacher enriched with a large circlet of white, in which was worked the initials I. H. S. and a cross over the central letter; a black silk apron; a green ruff round her neck; and a high cylindrical cap of many hues on her head. The happy man appeared in a corbeau-coloured coat and tight pantaloons of formal cut, vermillion waistcoat and lappets, and broad silver buckles to his shoes; whilst a bouquet of flowers and a polished buckle, both of extraordinary size, adorned his high crowned hat.

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CHAPTER XVII.

Rural Notices--Ranz-des-Vaches--Canton of Berne--City of BERNE--Cathedral--Steiguer's Monument--Promenade of the Terrace-Wentzaple's Fall-Great Hospital--Museum—Bear's Ditch-Hotel-de-Ville-Great Clock-New Gate building-Target Ground-Garrison-Arsenal-Church of the Holy Ghost-Imposture of the Dominicans-The Great Street-Lower Town-View from the heights of the Altenberg-Costume-Employment of Convicts-Country Seats-Farms-Distillation of KirschwasserThun-Voyage on the Lake of Thun to Neuhaus-Walk to Unter

seen.

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sun-rise (August 8th) we continued our journey. The sky was bright-the breeze invigorating-the scenery delightful. The first two miles of our route, being chiefly on the ascent up a deep hollow-way, cut through the redstone rock, we accomplished on foot; and many a look back did we take on the little capital just quitted. The general view of Fribourg, in approaching that city from Berne, bursts upon the sight so suddenly, and is in itself so remarkable, that it cannot fail to strike every one with forcible interest. Our morning ride lay along a road upon which, but for the constant succession of hill and dale that retards his progress, the traveller would bestow his unqualified praise. The country exhibits such extraordinary fertility and such varied loveliness, that were it not for the rugged rocks, the peaks and glaciers, which stamp the alpine impress on its horizon, we might readily imagine ourselves in the most favoured spots of our own island.

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The fields are inclosed either with hedges or with a neat kind of burdle-work. Timber is abundant and large. Fruit trees, lining the road on both sides, are also planted in such numbers as to give every small field the appearance of an orchard. The crops of wheat and barley were luxuriant, and the harvest appeared to be every where commenced. Near the village of Wunewyl, we first noticed a valuable species of grain called in German Dinkel, and in French Epeaute, which is cultivated both by the Fribourgeois and Bernois: it makes the whitest and best of flour, and is used for confectionary and pastry of the first quality. The ear is bearded like barley, but the kernel resembles that of wheat.* The farmers mow their corn of every description. They use an appendage to their scythes which renders the operation slow, but the result of it is very neat. It is a frame-work, consisting of four or five curved splines or teeth of wood, affixed to the staff under and parallel with the scythe; and the corn falling at each stroke into this sort of cradle, the husbandman lays it with great exactness on the ground.Their oxen and horses are fine animals, and mostly in prime condition. The staple materials for building are wood and tiles; and we passed many new structures still most religiously conformable in every respect to the peculiarities of the old stile. Their high-pitched and overhanging roofs slanting down the sides from a considerable height to within eight, seven, six, or even five feet of the ground; and the carved galleries, tier above tier, (like the stern of an antiquated line-of-battle ship) before the windows of the domestic gable-end, give them a very

* The Dinkel Wheat comes to the greatest perfection in Wirtemberg,

curious appearance. We entered one of these farm-houses, and, though now considerably to the north of the Gruyere hills,* we saw a fine dairy of cows in the stable, and the master, with his servants, busily employed in manufacturing cheese of that name; some tending the furnace where the milk is boiled, others pressing the cheeses in the vats, or carefully turning them in the spacious store-room.

At the village of Ekersried, where we stopped to breakfast, a family-group of peasants, resting on their way (as they told us) to La Val Sainte,† made us their salutations in a manner which bespoke so much good nature, that we entered into conversation with them, and quickly persuaded one of their female vocalists to sing us a mountaineer ditty, in the idiom of the canton of Fribourg. It was the famous Ranz-des-Vaches, which Rousseau‡ calls "cette air si chèri des Suisses." Its commencement is slow and heavy; but the burthen is in a quicker movement and a more lively strain. The melody is ordinary enough, and the words are uninteresting; yet the character

* Gruyère ; a small town of Fribourg. It is on the pasturages of Mollesson, and in the vallies of Bellegarde, which surround the town, that the cheeses of this name are manufactured; they are the best and most noted in the country. Their superiority (I was assured) consists in the quality of the plants on which the cows feed, and is in no respect ascribable to the manner in which it is made.

+ La Val-Sainte, in the bailiwick of Corbières, canton of Fribourg, was formerly a Convent of Carthusians, founded in the thirteenth century. It has been magnificently rebuilt in the present century; and this fine house serves now as a place of seclusion to a community of the Order of Citeaux called Feuillans; an Order which observes exactly the same discipline as that of the famous Abbey of La Trappe, founded in France by the Abbé de Rancé. The porter of the cloister furnishes the visitor with an account of the sort of life that is led in the Monastery of La Maison Dieu,

Val Sainte.

+ Dictionaire de Musique.

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being that of unmeasured simplicity and mournful wildness, its effect is by no means destitute of influence over even a stranger's feelings. The lively and profound sensation which it generally produces on the natives of Switzerland, when at a distance from their country, proceeds no doubt mainly from the power of early habit. Throughout the canton of Fribourg, the numerous couplets of this Ranz-desVaches are sung at all rustic festivals, but particularly at those of the Vintage, which, by all accounts, is the most interesting period of the year. A lady of the Pays-de-Vaud told me that, many years ago, she had heard the Minister of the French chapel at the Hague, publicly forbid both

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