dren, who were able to crawl, attended; feveral old women carried crucifixes, others pictures of the Saint, or flags fixed to the ends of long poles; they feemed to have fome difficulty in wielding them, yet the good old women tottered along as happy as fo many young enfigns the first time they bend under the regimental colours. Four men, carrying a box upon their fhoulders, walked before the reft. I afked what the box contained, and was informed, by a fagacious looking old man, that it contained the bones of St. John. I enquired if all the Saint's bones were there; he affured me, that not even a joint of his little finger was wanting; "Becaufe," continued I, "I have feen a confiderable "number of bones in different parts of

Italy, which are faid to be the bones of "St. John." He fmiled at my fimplicity, and faid the world was full of impofition; but nothing could be more certain, than that thofe in the box were the true bones of the Saint; he had remembered them

ever fince he was a child-and his father, when on his death-bed, had told him, on on the word of a dying man, that they belonged to St. John and no other body.

At Novalezza, a village at the bottom of Mount Cenis, our carriages were taken to pieces, and delivered to muleteers to be carried to Lanebourg. I had bargained with the Vitturino, before we left Turin, for our paffage over the mountain in the chairs commonly used on fuch occafions. The fellow had informed us there was no poffibility of going in any other manner; but when we came to this place, I faw no difficulty in being carried up by mules, which we all preferred, to the great fatisfaction of our knavish conductor, who thereby faved the expence of one half the chairmen, for whofe labour he was already paid.

We rode up this mountain, which has been defcribed in fuch formidable terms, with great ease. At the top there is a

fine

fine verdant plain of five or fix miles in length; we halted at an Inn, called Santa Croce, where Piedmont ends, and Savoy begins. Here we were regaled with fried trout, catched in a large lake within fight, from which the river Doria arifes, which runs to Turin in conjunction with the Po. Though we afcend no higher than this plain, which is the fummit of Mount Cenis, the mountains around are much higher; in paffing the plain we felt the air fo keen, that we were glad to have recourse to our great-coats; which, at the bottom of the hill, we had confidered as a very fuperfluous part of our baggage. had a great deal of converfation in paffing the mountain with a poor boy, who accompanied us from Novalezza to take back the mules; he told me he could neither read nor write, and had never been farther than Suza on one fide of the mountain, and Lanebourg on the other. He fpoke four languages; Piedmontese, which is his native language; this is a kind of

I

Patois very different from Italian; the Patois of the peafants of Savoy, which is equally different from French; he alfo fpoke Italian and French wonderfully well; the fecond he had learnt from the Savoyard chairmen, and the two laft from Italian and French travellers whom he has accompanied over Mount Cenis, where he has paffed his life hitherto, and which he feems to have no defire of leaving. If you chance to be confulted by any parent who inclines to fend their fons abroad merely that they may be removed from London and acquire modern languages in the moft economical manner, you now know what place to recommend. In none. where opportunities for this branch of education are equal, is living cheaper than at Mount Cenis, and I know nothing in which it has any refemblance to London, except that it ftands on much the fame quantity of ground. I afked this boy why he did not learn English ?— He had all the inclination in the world.—

"Why don't "French ?"

learn it then as well as you "On attrape le Francois,

"Monfieur, bon gré, mal gré," answered he, "mais Meffieurs les Anglois parlent peu."

When we arrived at the North side of the mountain we difmiffed our mules, and had recourse to our Alpian chairs and chairmen. The chairs are constructed in the simplest manner, and perfectly answer the purpose for which they are intended. The chairmen are strong-made, nervous, little fellows. One of them was betrothed to a girl at Lanebourg, and was to be married that evening. I could not, in confcience, permit him to have any part in carrying me, but directly appointed him to Jack's chair. The young fellow prefented us all with ribbands, which we wore in our hats in honour of the bride. "Are

"you very fond of your mistress, friend?" faid I. "Il faut que je l'aime beaucoup," anfwered he, " puifque, pauvre garçon