#mrsbarlow

6 3/4

12 50/60

my bowels as if still remembering the salts of yesterday – two little loose motions – finished dressing – looking over Mrs Starke’s advice to Travellers till 9 1/2 and also looking at Galignanis Paris guide for the places in the country – 

breakfast at 9 1/2 from then to 10 1/2 at breakfast and read thro’ the paper – wrote the above 3 lines – and went out at 11 –

waited for Mrs and Miss B– Barlow and off with them at 11 1/2 – walked slowly on account of Jane – went direct and got to to the bridge of Neuilly at 1 – loitered there some time sitting on the parapet enjoying the fine air and view – measured the immense stone about the middle of the left hand parapet going from Paris – marked 34 feet long – or about 12 yards English – about 3/4 the length of my umbrella (nearly 28 inches English) thick and as much broad – what an enormous mass! 

walked slowly along the river for a short distance till leaving it a little passed thro’ the village of Puteau and thence to that of Suresnes at the foot of Mount Valerieu or Calvaire – at 2 stopped at a restaurant at Suresnes, and had a hot a hot veal standing pie (30 sols) very good – the addition of bread and knives and forks, and water, and a clean napkin for Tablecloth cost us six sols more – not an Expensive repast –

off from Suresnes at 2 40/60 – walked slowly up to Calvaire – Jane not well – the blood evidently much determined to her head – her face and nose quite red – Got to the top of the hill at 3 1/4 – looked about us for an hour – very fine from this the highest eminence near Paris – at our feet a fine sweep of river studded with white villages – beyond Paris and Montmatre – the steeple of St. Denis in the distance – looking toward the south a deep winding of the river and the villages of Nanterre and Ruel quite near – beautiful valley Towards St. Germain – went into the chapel – a poor-looking one as yet, its plain plastered walls covered with pictures and prints like a common room – they seem to be laying out a good deal of money about the place – several workmen Employed digging the foundation for and building a wall round the top of the hill so as to Enlarge the present precincts – Calvaire is to be removed – too much Exposed – to be put lower down – the cave is rough stone-work – a rough grotto-work of stones thrown together – a bedizened virgin stands on the tomb of our saviour – on the top outside, is our saviour larger as life, on the cross between the 2 thieves – the Convent fronts the East towards St. Cloud – a doric entrance colonnade is evidently only just done – the columns to be fluted one of them being 1/2 fluted and the remainder of the column being marked out for fluting – several workmen in the  interior of the building – sauntered some time in the cemetery, small and which seems well filled already – a fashionable place of burial for the very pious and very Bourbon-proselytes of the day – a Mr Henry Sheldon, of Warwickshire, interred there – 

At 4 1/4 descended the hill, and turned our steps towards St. Cloud which we reached at 5 40/60. across the country – all vines – the people, not many, chiefly women employed cutting the vines (like thin raspberry bushes) down to the ground and freshing up the earth round them – a mere country cart road that we went along – Jane obliged to sit down for a minute or 2 several Times – the brown Bois de Boulogne looked like a barren heath – the banks of the river (where no village) with not a twig to break their uniformity, and like the sides of a brim-full canal – a vine country is at this season particularly unpicturesque – no green to relieve the eye – I wondered where the fodder came from for the cattle – so much light soil turned up looks at a distance arid and barren – entered the shabby part of St. Cloud, by the rue de Mont Calvert – came out upon the place close to the great gate of the Chateau – went to the bureau, au Grand Cerf, close by, took 3 places (15 sols each) in the velocifère, sat waiting under the viranda (a sort of café) of the house, and ourselves and 6 more (5 gentlemen and a lady – one of the party an old Englishman who would talk to Mrs B– (Barlow)) filled the vehicle

were off at 6 10/60 (6 by their clock), and got out at the end of the rue Royale at 7 5/60 – the old Englishman said the French excuse some very liberal who might give a glass of wine worth 2 sols gave the coachman nothing – 2d. (pence) sols each would be enough – he had lived at ‘St. Clew’s’ a year – no place like England – should ‘bid good night to France next August’ – his daughters had learnt French, Italian, and many languages – his ‘wife had gone back in Lady Ranelagh’s carriage – so he was a private gentleman’, and went back in the velocifère – 

Dinner at Mrs B–‘s (Barlow’s) at 7 1/4 – thick pease soup, and vol-au-vent, and salad – not much inclined for dinner (spoilt it at Suresnes) but enjoyed the salad, and ate a great deal of it – almonds and raisins for dessert tea afterwards – sat talking – all of us over the fire till George came at a little after 10 – got home at 10 25/60 – [O one dot, marking discharge from venereal complaint] – very pleasant day’s ramble –

sat up look at the map of the Environs of Paris, and reading Galignani’s Paris guide – think of going next to Montrouge and Arcueil – my birth day – but I did not think much about it –

left margin: Fahrenheit 50 at 7 a.m. 54 at 10 1/2 – 53 1/2 at 10 1/2 p.m. fine mild morning – very fine day – not much sun, cool and pleasant

6 10/60

9 1/2

Breakfast at 8 in the public room – hardly any 1 but ourselves Mrs and Miss B– [Barlow] had only just gone when a gentlemanly enough and intelligent man came and ordered his breakfast near me – he has been all over Switzerland – went to the top of Mont Blanc 2 years ago – Except for the interest of going to the hospice, thinks the Time lost in going to the Great St. Bernard – the new route to the top of Mont Blanc only discovered this summer – a party going up, on coming to an immense crevasse were thus obliged to turn to the left out of the usual route – well for them – they had only just got out of the way when there came down one of the largest avalanches ever known which must have inevitably swept them all into the crevasse – have sounded it, but could find no bottom – it was into this the 3 guides were hurled 6 years ago – certainly the danger of avalanches is now greatly avoided, but there is still danger and Excessive fatigue – (the danger is beyond the grand mulet) – would advise to go no farther then the grand mulet) – fatigue and adventure and view enough in getting so far – did not think himself repaid at the top of Mont B– [Blanc] – he had written a little pamphlet on the subject for the benefit of the guides who went with him – his name Shirwell (Captain) – called here (said Mrs B–‘s [Barlow’]s guide) Captain Mont Blanc – bought the pamphlet at the little book seller’s? and naturalists shop close to the Inn –

all 3 mounted on our mules and off at 8 55/60 from the Union, Chamonix, with our guides Michel Carrier No. [Number] 15, Matthew Balmat No. [Number] 16 (son to the Pierre Balmat who went up with Saussure, and had himself been up 5 times) and Michel Balmat (but the same as the last tho’ no relation) No. [Number] 18 – No. [Number] 17 Engaged constantly by Captain Shirwell who not married, lives with his father and mother at Fontainebleau –

of the 2 hotels at Chamonix, the Union, and the hotel de Londres, the former is the larger and considered the first but the other is said to be equally comfortable – both full of English – somehow, we have no great fancy for the Union – bread made of yeast, dark columns, and not good – dinner cold – no good bread since Geneva –

En passant (opposite the bureau of the guide chef) inquired the name and address of the naturalist, cousin to my guide (Michel Carrier) of whom I bought the amethyst on arriving – direct to him ‘Michel Carrier, marchand naturaliste, à Chamonix’ my guide says he is very clever – would be just the person I should wish to have on an instructive tour among the neighbouring alps –

Rode 17 minutes till 9 12/60 and then dismounted, finding the motion of the mule fatiguing – cross the Arve (plank bridge) pass thro’ the villages of les Tines and Argentière, recross the Arve over another plank, bridge, leave the route (right) across the col de Balme, and make for the Tete noire –

at 11 12/60 pass the boundary stone (a huge mass of rock (right) having a smaller mass seated on the top of it) into the valley of Valorsine – wild savage scenery – clouds along the mountains – Mont Buet envelopped – could not see him – after Mont Blanc, the best view from Mont Buet – should stay at Chamonix 3 days (independent of 3 for Mont Blanc) 1 for Montanvert and the jardin – another for the Breven – another for the Buet – a 4th day would do for seeing the 2 passes of the col de Balme and the tête noir – the former celebrated (said Captain Shirwell for its fine views down into the valleys below –, being all along on the heights – along the latter you are more in the bottoms – a little misty rain on descending into the little village of Trelechent but fortunately the rain held off, the mists cleared and we had a very fine day –

at 12 10/60 2 or 3 cottages – leave Mrs and Miss B– [Barlow] send my mule forward with them, take my guide, and make straight up the hill to see the cascade particularly recommended by Captain Shirwell – the lower and smaller one seen quite well from the road – this higher and finer one very imperfectly seen from the road –

after a warm scrambling along a path only frequented by the peasants, got to the cascade at 12 40/60 – ‘tis a fall of the river Noire down the Montagne de Barbeline du val Valorsine – according to my guide the fall about 150 feet – sun shining – beautiful iris formed by the spray – the water falls from almost the top of the mountain (or of this ledge of the mountain) into a deep cleft – La plus belle cascade qui j’ai encore vu? – left it at 12 3/4 – got into the road again a little beyond where I left it, in 14 minutes –

at 1 20/60 cross new wooden foot or mule bridge (peeled trees laid across the water fasted together with a railing) over river Noire at the other end of which bridge (Pont de Lilla or de-voire) is the boundary stone between the Valorsine en Savoire and the Valais en Suisse – From this bridge begins the most picturesque part of the route – for a considerable distance along the bottom of the valley thro’ a pine wood along the Noire –

at 1 13/60 pass thro’ the fort du Chatelas (according to my guide du Temps des Romains) but apparently a little bit of walling, and a little round tower of common stones without mortar apparently anything but antique –

at 1 20/60 after having again crossed as before wooden bridge over the Noire, began to ascend thro’ a pine forest what is called the tête noire – not long after pass the pierre on vocher des Anglais, a large mass of impending rock bought by Lord Porthington? Lady Guildford and 1 or 2 more on their return from Italy apparently for the purpose of inscribing their names, and a little moralization and dressed as a sort of sister viator to Travellers – a longish inscription I had not time to read leisurely, much less to copy –

at 2 34/60 at the end of what they call the tête noire, a steep, steppy, frightful road for mules, yet Mrs and Miss B– [Barlow] up or down had never once dismounted – I had not given them credit for courage enough to climb up such a path on any legs but their own – but the mules were good – the little bit of road just on turning along the valley of Trient (to the right) called the Mauvais Pas because formerly a narrow difficult track without any guard from the steep, deep, frightful precipice down to the river Trient below is now one of the best bits of the road having been carried a little below the old and being made perhaps as much as 5 feet (English) wide –

got to the Auberge at the little village of Trient at 2 34/60, 5 or 6 minutes after the arrival of Mrs and Miss B– [Barlow] Excessively heated – a bed in one little room – (put on my great coat) Threw myself upon it immediately took 2 or 3 cups of boiled milk, then as many glasses of hot red wine and water while Mrs and Miss B– [Barlow] dined – up at 3 53/60 –

off from Trient at at 4 10/60 – my guide leading my mule, determined to try if I could not walk to Martigny – or how could I get to the Top of Mont Blanc? still a continued steep ascent up traverses for 25 minutes very fatiguing to keep pace with mules that always walk faster up hill than down or on flat ground – the guides had said it was an ascent of 1/2 hour, and we had done it in 5 minutes under the time –

at 4 50/60 see the Rhone and the Valais – went faster than the mules down hill and at 6 20/60 got to the Grande Maison hotel, Martigny (Mrs B– [Barlow] not wishing to go again to the Tour where I had been so worried by bugs) – 5 or 6 minutes before Mrs and Miss B– [Barlow] went immediately to the guide Chef ordered 2 mules and saw the guide we are to have to the Great St. Bernard tomorrow – (no ladies’ saddles to be had at Liddes) –

Dinner at 7 1/2 – very fine day –

7 3/4

10 40/60

Breakfast at 9 in the public room – at 10 1/2, 3 guides and as many mules, and off to the Mer de glace –

at 12 stopt to let the mules drink at the Fontaine des Caillés 1/2 way –

at 12 much Rododendron (rose des alpes) what we saw so beautifully in flower –

at 12 1/2 arrived at the pavilion (maison des plaisirs) at the top of Montanvert – several goats about, and a shepherd there all the day – very arduous ascent – formerly one could only go about 2/3 the way on mules – obliged to walk the rest – about 2 years ago the path made up to the Top – Took all the 40 guides 100 days labour – the pavilion a little room where one Takes refreshments, the provisions one takes up, tho’ there are cupboards there full of bread and wine – magnificent mountain scenery – looking Towards the Mer de Glace (in front of us, and on the east side of the Mer) L’aiguille de Bonchard, then ditto de druis, ditto rectes, ditto du Moine (behind which is le jardin, 5 hours ascent from the pavilion and 3 hours to return), then la petite Jorasse, then the grand ditto, then the Tacul, then the aiguille du géant, ditto des Charmots – ditto du Grepon – the behind one is the aiguille du Bletière – all these are the chain of mountains that one sees round the mer de Glace –

off to it from the Pavilion at 12 40/60 – went above 200 Toises (about 1/4 mile English upon the ice – no idea it was great an Exertion – the iron heels of my boots very slippery – I could scarce keep foot-hold at all in ascending and descending the very steep parts – the mer de Glace Extends 12 lieues in length – consideringly less in breadth just under the pavilion within these 4 years – the large blocks of granite one sees now left bare at the margin called in the country patois moraines – brought away a small piece – called the mer de Glace down to about as far as the Chapeau, a very little knoll with a few (7 or 8) larches upon it, which we afterwards saw in descending le chemin de la figlia down upon the source of the Arveron – called the glacier des bois from where the ice becomes more level, which descends almost close upon the village des bois – gained ground upon it till within this last year or 2 – (but is now losing ground and becoming smaller – one can get very easily to the Chapeau to look down upon the mer de glace) but must there cross it to get to Montanvert – the crystals are found 7 lieues from Montanvert at the very foot of the needles – dangerous going there on account of the stones that fall from the needles – l’aiguille de Druis the finest in the whole chain of alps – One ought to go to the top of Mont Breven (4 hours to ascend and 3 to descend) for the finest view of mont Blanc –

In returning from the mer de Glace at 1 18/60 sat a little while on the Pierre des Anglais, – and then ascended by a longer but much less steep path then we had descended – a Frenchman and his wife and little boy who had breakfasted this morning at one of the Table d’hôte while we breakfasted at the other were dining or eating their provision at the pavilion – we had ours (I took very little) and we all became very cozy – They were going down to the source of the Arveron – we went too – the man at the pavilion was very well satisfied with a franc each of the 2 parties –

off at 2 35/60 – not time to send our mules round – they went down before us – very steep – much worse than the way we had come – quite impossible to go it on mules – wonder how the animals could get down – 1 of the guides led one and the other 2 followed – 1/2 down heard the thunderous fall of an avalanche –

at the bottom of this Chemin de la Montagne de la figlia at 4 10/60 – the fine cascade from the glacier des bois forming the source of the Arveron we had seen almost as well en montant this morning – the fine vault there was under the ice in the month of July now quite destroyed by the heat of the summer – sauntered about admiring the fine view of the Aiguille de Druis, and then down the valley to Prieuré – we found the French man sketching the mer de Glace – we left him sketching along the Arveron, crossed the broad bed of Debris to the other side the valley and set off home at 4 10/60 – I was very hot, so had my mule led, and walked to the end of Prieuré where I mounted merely for the sake of riding up to the Inn where we alighted at 5 1/4 –

Mrs B– [Barlow] foot sore from descending the Chemin de la figlia, and both she and Miss B– [Barlow] very much fatigued – I not fatigued at all – in mounting this morning rode à la califourchon up the roughest and steepest ascents and thus saved both myself and mule Exceedingly –

spoke to my guide seriously about my liking to ascend Mont Blanc next year – too late this year – there had been fresh snow – danger of avalanches – Jane’s guide brother to 1 of the 3 guides who perished 6 years ago – the guides (9 of them) were unwilling to go – knew the danger but Dr. Hamel (a Russian gentleman with him) would go – an avalanche swept them all away, but the 3 guides that were 1st were hurled into a crevasse, and never heard of more – the rest of the party then returned, not having much more than 1/2 way to the top – 1 of the guides that perished was particularly averse to go – he had been up 11 times before – but Dr. H– Hamel persisted – they discovered a new path about a year ago, by which the danger from avalanches is mainly avoided – the danger now is from ‘fausses ponts’, crevasses covered over with snow – these on the glacier beyond the grand mulet – they go all tied together by cords, that if anyone falls in they can pull him out – July the best month this, and perhaps the beginning of August the only time – but one should not go after the fall of fresh snow – 6 guides for 1 person – 9 Ditto for 2 persons – 90/. per guide, and feed them, but 100/. per guide will pay all – ladders, keep, tout compris - 3 days work – I must sleep 1 night under the rock of the grand mulet – The father of Mrs B–‘s [Barlow’s] guide was 1 of the 17 guides with Saussure – (slept 3 nights on the summit and 14 on the grand mulet), and by sleeping in the cold got a rheumatism he never cast, and was never able to walk much afterwards – for some time before he died (only a year ago) could not move a limb in bed – no stranger lady has ever been at the top – but a woman from this valley has – the 1st man who went up (from this valley) went up by himself and was 2 nights at the top by himself – not long before Saussure went up –

to make the Tour of the Alps hereabouts would take one 14 or 15 days – long to steal away next summer and do it –

Last night very cold – hard frost – had spoilt all the potatoes that were just beginning to do well after the rain – great loss to the people – grow corn enough except for finer white bread, and this comes from Salanches and Bonneville – Have no mares (so do not breed mules) buy them young at Salanches – mine cost £15, Jane’s £17. Mrs B–‘s [Barlow’s] £20 – no cretins here – very fast goitres – the valley very healthy – shed the junction of the Arve and Arveron – both streams milky from the white sand (decomposed granite fine as dust, – quite white) brought down from the mountains – huge masses of granite (moraines) near the cascade – granite boulder and debris spread widely over the valley –

Dinner (table d’hôte) from 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 – between 20 and 30 people? – all very respectable looking – did not speak to any of them – came upstairs to write – very fine day –

40 guides. each one pays (on being enrolled) 400 to the Chief guide pour son traitement (for his maintenance – he never leaves his bureau), and afterwards 5 sols for every course or job which goes or is to go towards a general fund for the relief of infirm guides – may be serving guide till 60 – 1st and 2nd class of guides – but all paid the same – only that of the most intelligent a certain no. [number] are called the 1st class – 24 porters these too divided into 1st and 2nd class – rank below the guides, but whenever a guide’s place is vacant, Tis filled up from among the porters – a lady and gentleman carried over the tête noir this morning to Martigny – 6 porters per person –

8 10/60

1

Breakfast at 9 ½ (Mont Blanc almost cloudless at 8 ¼ a.m.) off from Salanches at 11 25/60 –

at 12 10/60 picturesque little hamlet – pass 2 little bridges over dry torrents, and at 12 ¾ handsome stone bridge over the rough, rapid Beanom, and turn right thro’ a grove of alders down a fine romantic gorge To the baths of St. Gervais – the valley of Salanche that we have just left, fertile – good deal of hemp – mountains well wooded – a pretty little hamlet, and immediately at 12 22/60 alighted at the baths – picturesque, grotesque, looking building – build a little every year – can now accomodate 150 people with a chambre de garçon i.e. without fire place 7/. a day – with a good chamber 8/. per day – board and lodging and baths all compris, Except le dejeuner qui se paye à part – on ne donne qui le diner and le souper – servants 4/. a day –

went to see the Cascade de Beaunom, 2 or 3 minutes walk – pretty – on tasting the mineral water in the souterrain find it tepid and like the water at Saint Enach but neither so hot so strong – purgative –

off from the baths at 1. At 1 ½ cross new wood bridge not quite finished, over the Arve, and drove straight down across the valley to the cascade of Chide – the valley is here little else than debris and gravel, and covered with orange-berried rosemary, barberries, juniper, and birch willow – seem to leave the direct road to to Chamonix at 1 37/60, and at 1 40/60 alight, and make our way to the Cascade – Mrs B– [Barlow] Turned back from ½ way – ¼ hour Jane and I getting close to the Cascade – very pretty – the prettiest we have seen – 5 steps of fall, and then runs Down along the bottom – the long step (or chute) from the 2nd to the 3rd step –

in the carriage and off again at 2 10/60 – returned by a different road – thro’ the pretty picturesque little village of Chède – good many vines hereabouts – steep picturesque ascent from the village – soil everywhere very thin – the late rain very much wanted – starved here with cold (said 1 of the villagers of and at Chède) or burnt up with heat –

pass the little lake (like a large watering pond) of Chède, and at 2 ¾ Mont blanc a little free from clouds, the ½ moon seeming resting upon the highest summit –magnificent stupendous mountain –

at 3 cross (no bridges) little torrent – beeches all round us –firs on the next hill (right) – at 3 5/60 cross (no bridge) another such torrent – Mount Blanc very fine – Oaks hereabouts pretty good ones – generally having been lopped –

at 3 10/60 avenue of plum trees thro’ the scattered and very picturesque village of Servoz – then about perhaps a couple of hundred yards without any houses, before coming to the very neat little church at the other end of the village where we stop at the neat looking auberge at 3 1/4 to bait the horses –

we had now come 1/2 way – very fine drive – mountains magnificent – Mont Blanc peeping tho’ the clouds and towering like a giant above all his brother mountains – the range of Mont Blanc alone covered with snow – the rest wooded some to the top – some 1/2 way then rising into huge, hoary, savage peaks –

went to the cabinet de l’histoire naturel – took up Saussure’s voyage among the Alps in 5 4to quarto volumes printed at Neuchatel 1779? bought a brown crystal from the mer de Glace for a seal – 2 fine amethysts at 10/. each, but an oval shape could be of no use to me –

off from Servoz at 4 20/60 – (the postillion had waited for me 10 minutes or 1/4 hour) – and cross wooden bridge over the Arve –

at 4 37/60 cross the Pont le Pellissier wooden bridge over the … and wind up the fine gorge amid firs and birches along the foot of Mont Blanc, the rapid milky greenish river foaming deep below us –

at 5 20/60 housing oats – thin, and short strawed – have just waded thro’ 2 little mountain streams –

at 5 1/2 the picturesque village of Ouches – very neat, pretty little church – great many patches of potatoes –, and corn stubble – wade thro’ 2 more little mountain torrents –

at 5 40/60 little hamlet of Moncouart, and 300 or 400 yards farther hamlet of Les Bossons – beautiful sun shine – orchards, potatoes, hemp, lime, corn stubble – wheat to cart – (have only seen oats and a little wheat), bosquets of alder – firs (larch and spruce) on the hills – cross rough bed of dry mountain stream – 2 or 3 women standing by the road side with 3 little clean glasses on a plate offer us new milk, or cream – lovely evening – cows and villagers tending them while they graze – Arve finely winding – lovely verdant valley in the midst – even – during snows –

at 5 55/60 wooded bridge over torrent – at 6 little wooden bridge over torrent and very neat little hamlet – wheat – in 2 minutes another wooden bridge over torrent and another little hamlet –

at 6 10/60 wooden bridge over the Arve –

at 6 1/2 alight a the Union at Prieure – large hotel – go to the bureau to order guides – 4 cabinets de l’histoire naturel, or mineral shops – go into the one opposite the bureau – buy a very good smallish amethyst for a ring for 1/. – very nice little barrels of honey 4 lbs [pounds] at 6/. boxes of minerals 7/. to 14/. – fine large model of Mont Blanc 11 Napoleons – nice small one 20/. –

Dinner at the table d’hôte from 7 1/2 to 9 1/4 – several people there – several taking tea – a French man and English man who had been at St. Gervais today (we should by all means have seen the Pont du diable 1/2 hours walk from St. Gervais) and the Mer de Glace dined with us – sat talking to them –

came to my room at 9 1/4 – very fine day – From Cluse to Prieure very fine – the mountains everywhere magnificent the villages and hamlets everywhere picturesque – Cluse very finely situated – the best view of Mont Blanc from Bellevue at Sallanche, and Servoz very picturesque – One ought to come to Chamonix this way, and go down to Aosta –

To go to the top of Mont Blanc you alone must take 6 guides, you must take ladders, and charcoal to make a fire – and it will cost you 1200 francs and 2 days time – It would cost 2 people going together 1400 francs – 3 guides have perished in the last 6 years – only 2 gentlemens have gone to the top of Mont Blanc this year – said our 2 gents at dinner –

5

11 1/2

Breakfast at 6 – off from Geneva at 7 20/60 –

at 7 50/60 Chesne, very good village Geneva to Bonneville 6 lieues)

at 8 20/60 little village of Annemasse, 1st village in Savoy, Bonneville to Sallenche 6) and shew our passports –

at 8 50/60 (having passed the village of Vetra at unawares – it must be very inconsiderable) handsome 2 arched stone bridge (1 arch very large the other very small, over the nearly dry torrent Ménoge –

at 9 1/4 picturesque, scattered village of Nangy – the rocks (southwest) over Geneva, remind me of the Elwsig (Lusig) rocks over Langollen – fine open valley all along – roomy for the air to circulate – Mrs and Miss B– [Barlow] complained of the cold – I merely felt the air delightfully bracing – the hills about Geneva to as far as Nangy, remind me of H–x [Halifax] – Everywhere the valley and hills sufficiently wooded –

at 10 picturesque little village of Contamine – the Arve (not much water now – the very broad bed almost all dry) winding beautifully all the well wooded fertile valley – good deal of corn in the valley, and on the hills – good deal of flax drying – young buck wheat – clover – mowing it 2nd time – orchards – good land – hedges generally on each side the road – oaks and willows – a little Indian corn – very few vines since Geneva, near Bonneville –

stopt at the ‘les Balances’ Bonneville (a tolerable little town) at 11 5/60 – came upstairs to write – 1/2 hour before I could begin – had near spoilt all my things – the Table had been just oiled, and not 1/2 wiped – They say the Swiss are on all sides (the protestants who are much cleaner and richer than the Roman catholics) are much cleaner than their neighbours – but, according to the woman who shewed us the cathedral at Geneva on Sunday, the catholic population increases much faster than the protestant – the former has 6 or 7 or even more children per family; –the latter (particularly those in more easy circles) has seldom more than 2 per family – I fancied this kind of management had been principally confined to the higher orders in France –

off from Bonneville (should not like to sleep at the Inn – not very clean, but the people very civil

at 1 25/60 – town, a ville, surrounded by fine picturesque rocky hill partly green, partly bare and hoary – immediately cross the Arve over good stone bridge (at the end left, a new handsome Tuscan column surmounted by a statue of the King in his robes, in honour of Charles Felix King of Sardinia) who visited the town some time ago) and, according to Galignani, enter the valley of Cluse – snow mountains in the distance (left) in front of us – 2 little hop grounds just out of town – cutting line – fertile valley – clover, young buckwheat, Indian corn, potatoes Kidney beans – orchard trees – like a garden – poplars and willows along the road side, and the chief wood hereabouts –

at 1 55/60 stone bridge over little stream –

at 3 10/60 the Arve winding beautifully – Green, wooded hills (right) bare, and savage (left), – snow mountains to the left in front, and pretty little village of Oogu (Vaugi? Vougy) at 3 1/4 – Jane thinks this valley ‘beautiful, lovely – the next to the Rhinthal and the Splugen’ (road from Splugen to Chiavénna) – so far, Jane rather disappointed – tho’ tis a pine valley –

at 2 3/4 little stone bridge over little torrent – at 2 55/60 another such stone bridge over ditto, and fine gorge right, and orchards, and picturesque scattered village of Siongy Scionzier and midway the village

(at 3) good stone bridge over good stream – neat, picturesque church – very fine walnut trees – and 2 or 3 little green hedged paddocks at the end of the village – valley wider, and finer – very pretty – fine just here, tho’ do not see the Arve –

At 3 10/60 narrow one arched, boulder-stone-paved steepish stone bridge over the Arve (ver[y] fine gorge right) and enter the beautifully situated, but rather narrow streeted little town of Cluse – all the women busy dressing hemp – tremendous mountains just above the Town – wind thro’ the town to the right, and Turn along the fine gorge which we just peeped down (right) from the bridge – (between Cluse and the village next before very large apple and pear trees and (2 or 3 of the largest cherry Trees (like fine large forest trees) I ever saw in my life) the gorge (the valley of Maglan) now, at 3 1/4, very fine – the Arve close, right – its waters light-green-white-muddy-blue – its broad bed and the road take up all the breadth of the valley –

at 3 3/4 an auberge? 3 little cannon, and a man wishing to know if we would have them fired to hear the echo among the mountains – another man apparently an aubergiste wanted us to stop to see the Grotte de Balme (vide Ebel. Cluse. page 96.) 1200 feet up the mountain (seemed about 1/2 way up) and 620 ‘pas’ long – said we had quite time enough – could not get to Chamouni tonight – asked what time it would require – ‘vingt minutes pour monter à cheval – la route très bonne’ – observed a zigzag path cut from the bottom of the mountain to the cavern – the mouth 1/2 closed up so that one could not enter without paying – Everything herabouts is done to catch the eye and Empty the pocket of strangers – to have had the cannon fired would have cost us 2/. – valley wider beyond, and beautifully wooded (right), and the mountains by and by wearing into a gradual slope –

at 4 5/60 the picturesque village of Maglan picturesque little good church – good deal of beech wood – the wood of the mountains hereabouts chiefly beech? –

at 4 1/4, little stone bridge over dry little bed of torrent – at 4 1/2 little stone bridge over ditto ditto, and fine ripple cascade (Nant d’ Orli) (i.e. as it were, one long thin line of cascade) left –

at 4 35/60 a board put up on which in large letters ‘Place de’ Echo de Nant d’ Arpenas’ and a man and one little cannon – he wanted much to fire it for us assuring us it was very curious –

at 4 40/60 small stone bridge over dry torrent –

at 4 3/4 stone bridge over the stream from Nant d’ Arpenas, really curious – stopt a few minutes to see it – the water lost in spray Till collected lower down into 8 or 9 ripples forming a little cascade near and down to the bottom – Descends from a little cleft at the Top of the mountain – the jet (not large) projected so far, the rock quite dry underneath it for the first 50 or 60 feet – falls 800 feet – (vide Ebel. article, Cluse) the sun of which we had had but little during the day just made his appearance to shew us a beautiful little Iris round the cascade at the bottom – just beyond the cascade the strata of the rock curious

then

then apparently a jumble – reminds one strongly of the action of water – I have seen instances of this kind before among these Swiss mountains – along the Simplon road, and along the Valais – Low hemp uncut –

at 5 stone bridge over torrent – fine view of Sallanche (right) on the other side the river – bed of river very broad – looking almost dry, tho’ there is in fact a strong broad stream – rosemary hedges full of yellow berries –

at 5 20/60 neat little hamlet or village and neat little church of St. Martin – and Mont Blanc a nice looking little Inn – immediately cross handsome 1 arched narrowing, stupish bridge over the Arve, and at 5 35/60 alight à la Belle Vue, at Sallenche, a picturesque little Town, (very handsome church) at the foot of high finely wooded and grass clothed mountains – not one peep of Mont Blanc –

began to write at 6 – but soon gave up to see the clouds gradually clear off from the mountain – 1st sight of it at 6 ¼ – stupendous – astonishing – worth while to come all the way to see it – capital house for a view of it – had been Twice before today quite clear – stood gazing 20 minutes at the 3 huge summits –

Dinner from 6 35/60 to 8 20/60 – for the 1st ¼ hour gazing at the mountain till clouds hid him again at about 6 50/60 – the setting sun upon him magnificent – 2 hills catching the reflection of the rays from the mountain, seemed as if on fire – Ive stood gazing in mute wonder –

at 8 50/60 music 2 or 3 clarionets – very fairly played – very fine day – not much sun – but warm enough for me –

10 1/2

3 55/60

Breakfast at 11 3/4 – writing – at 3 40/60 all went (in the carriage) to Coligny – (vide Galignani) the former residence of Lord Byron – the house inhabited by Monsieur –– a Swiss who has married an English woman – lovely situation – very nice house –colonnade 2 side below and balcony above – beautiful (perhaps the most beautiful) view of Geneva – perhaps 5 minutes there (did not attempt to go in) in the garden under the house, and off back again at 4 40/60 –

Villa Diodati in Geneva, rented by Byron in 1816

got to the cathedral at 5 1/2 – handsome Gothic pile –, but miserably spoilt inside by benches and galleries, and outside by all sorts of shabby buildings, little shops, etc etc off from the cathedral at 6 –

home at 6 1/4 – Dinner (Table d’hote) from 6 35/60 to 8 10/60 – Madame de Chastellus there – came, and sat with us a little – Mrs B– [Barlow] admired her Leghorn bonnet – she had given 250/. for it at Lyons – it was guessed at 400 valued at this price by a 1st rate marchande) in Paris – It was No. 64 – thought I Mrs B– [Barlow] had better have given 140/. for No. 63 at Milan –

I shall know the value of these things another time – one can never know too much be the subject what it may –

Fineish morning – darkish afternoon – a little rain while we were out –

6 1/4

10 1/2

Breakfast from 8 1/4 to 9 5/60 – then walked up the hill to the cathedral (St. Martin’s) neat and clean, but nothing more than a good church – black marble Table set at the entrance to what we should call the choir, and seats round it, evidently for the people to receive the sacrament sitting – have not noticed this anywhere before – very fine view from the cathedral terrace – 20 minutes away –

then off from Vevay at 9 40/60 – 5 Messieurs Falconet brothers – negociations – of the same family as Falconet the syndic said the woman who shewed the cathedral – Vevay nice, little liveable town –

immediately after being off from the Inn, stone bridge over nearly dry bed of torrent –

at 10 1/4 very steep good village of St. Saphorin – terraces of vines – see no mystles as mentioned by Galignani –

at 11 10/60 the pretty good little ‘bourg’ of Cully –

little village of Villette at 11 25/60 –

at 11 40/60 the pretty good town of Lutry – lake everywhere a beautiful blue – very fine lake – more like a sea – rocks of Meillerie ‘coupés en pic’ in 6 peaks – that side well wooded – this a perpetual vineyard studded with villages and houses – this must look barren in Spring before the vines are green – light, sandy soil –

as a magnificent Expense of fresh water, is not this lake the finest in Europe? as a lake for scenery too Extensive – Como, Lugano, all the Italian lakes? preferable – very poor fruit compared with that of Italy – Except grapes, and these hardly ripe –

at 12 5/60 after mounting steep boulder stone paved hill, Pully, a shabbyish little town. all uphill (steep) – scramble thro’ the town, and then got into the brand new road they are making close by the old one –

alight at the Falcon at Lausanne at 12 40/60 – all went out at 12 55/60 – good town – some life in it – great many English – steep streets – all up hill or down – went about 156 steps to the cathedral – large, handsome, gothic pile – the man who shewed it, said it was the handsomest in Switzerland – full of workmen repairing (rebuilding) the tower? struck by lightning 2 or 3 years ago – several English monuments – that in memory of the 1st wife of Mr Stratford Canning who died (very young) of her 1st child the most conspicuous – a column – her profile likeness upon it – but could not see it well – covered up with scaffolding for fear of being injured –

Mrs and Miss B– [Barlow] hurried back to dinner – I took 25 minutes more, mounted the 236 steps to the top of the great tower, and enjoyed the magnificent prospect – rather thick, or could have seen Mont Blanc – got back to the Inn at 1 50/60 – Time enough for dinner (at the table d’hôte), nothing sent off the Table but the soup – at Dinner till 2 49/60 – very disagreeable sort of hotel – could get no place to sit in but the public room –

off at 3 25/60 – direct to Gibbon’s house, now the property of and inhabited by Monsieur de Molin, banker – the little wooden summer house in which Gibbon wrote his Decline and fall suffered to got to ruin – the lime tree he planted in front of it a fine, large, flourishing tree –

off from here at 3 40/60 – at 4 1/4 handsome stone bridge over almost dry stream – at 4 35/60 fine open valley – good soil – finest liveable part of Switzerland? over the mountains left, in the Extreme distance, a few snowtops faintly seen –

at 5 5/60 Morges, one long, wide, good Street – very handsome church façade of Jonic composite, and Corinthian columns – very nice town – nice walks – 2 good houses (right) just out of the town – for this 1/2 hour past, break in the mountains (left), and see mountains completely covered with snow –

at 5 1/2 large flock of sheep grazing along the lake, the 1st such good flock I have seen – good wide road – generally hedges on both sides –

at 6 1/4 Pont d’ Allaman (‘lieue’ from Rolle) stone bridge over broadish river bed, not much water at present – very pretty hereabouts – shut in by planting (right) –

at 5 50/60 very pretty about Rolle – fine view of the town – at 6 57/60 little stone bridge and on it a milliary marked 5 lieues to Lausanne and 6 to Geneva, and enter Rolle (one long, wide, good street) and alight at the Couronne at 7 –

at 7 1/2 all went out to Madame Becherat and her house of which Miss Gauntlet spoke so highly – found her an elderly, good sort of person very likely to make Miss G– [Gauntlet] comfortable – her apartment really very comfortable – nice garden – nice apartment opening into it – would this suit my aunt? Madame B– [Becherat] takes gentlemens at 5 Napoleons per month ladies at 4 ditto per ditto – woman servant 2 1/2 or 3 Napoleons – perhaps (did not inquire) a man servant at the same – good coach house and stabling – Monsieur B– [Becherat] came – good sort of looking man – younger than his wife – the keep of a horse 1/50 a day – this the price at an Inn – at home i.e. settled would cost (well kept) from 12 to 15 Napoleons a year – very dear at the latter price – might buy a very good – (the best) horse for 20 Napoleons, and a char a banc (if not quite new, as good as new) for 20 Napoleons – when he travelled with Miss G– [Gauntlet] (drove her about in his charabanc) preferred sleeping at villages – paid 3/. per night for bed and supper – these 2 good people walked back with us to the Inn – got back at 9 10/60 – very fine day –

7

1 55/60

Rain all last night, and rainy morning till between 9’ and 10 – fair when we started – Breakfast from 8 1/4 to 9 1/2 –

off from Bex at 9 50/60 – very comfortable Inn, but not cheap – generally full of English – Lady Ross and her daughter there for a fortnight while the rest of of her party went to the Great St. Bernard – Bex a nice little town – good church – hedges on each side the road of sloe, hazel, and sometimes quickweed, etc

at 10 10/60 wood bridge over little stream – 10 1/4 first appearance of the tints of autumn – valley wider – fertile – mountains well wooded – clouds along them – vines, walnuts, Indian corn, etc etc

at 11, Aigle, quite a ville – 2 churches – castle – pretty large town – narrow streets – no good houses – just a the end of the town, cross wooden bridge over stream –

at 11 40/60 picturesque village – at 12 neat little village –

at 12 55/60 1st peep at the lake (of Geneva) –

Lake Geneva, CC BY-SA 3.0

at 12 20/60 stop at Villeneuve to bait the horses– goodish church of pretty good little town – off at 1 20/60 – the lake too Extensive for me, and the mountains on the south side too low –

Castle of Chillon, CC BY-SA 4.0

at 1 40/60 stop at the castle of Chillon, now used by the government as a powder magazine, and a guard mounted – one family living there – very respectable people – the woman shewed us all she could – the prison, oubliette (3 stories deep – into which those were let down destined to die of hunger) one or 2 of the galleries, one or 2 of the rooms (the great hall – kitchen now occupied by this family) and the court in which some of the prisoners were allowed to walk – the prison 45 by 20 of my common paces – the broadeth of the 1st 6 paces of length equally divided (since in the Swiss power) into entrance and a dungeon (right) – lofty – 8 columns supporting 7 moderately pointed arches down the middle of the prison – BYRON cut with a penknife by Lord B– [Byron] himself, on the 3rd column on entering – the prieure Bonnivard chained to the next, or 4th column – perhaps about 18 feet high to the Top of the vaulting – the prison partly cut out of the Sandstone rock – spacious, and light enough, and airy – quite a paradise compared with the cells of the inquisition at Venice –

40 minutes at the castle, and off at 2 20/60 – very pretty drive along the lake – the back-look upon the castle, and Villeneuve, and its lofty steeple, and the dark, high mountains stretching thence close along the lake towards Meillerie, fine –

after passing the pretty little village of Vernet, very soon alighted at the still prettier village of Clarens so celebrated by Rousseau, and when Lord Byron passed 2 or 3 nights – inquired for the house to which his lordship had taken such a fancy – stumbled upon the very spot – a nut-brown, respectable farmer’s wife of about 60 was proud to tell us how she had entertained his lordship and his friend (some foreign baron) – they were caught in a storm on the lake – his lordship would insist upon it, the house must be an auberge, and would go there – the old woman made all comfortable and his lordship was so pleased, said he would go again, and did afterwards go for 2 nights – she said he had paid her well (for the 1st night) – I had the curiosity to ask what he gave her – a Napoleon – we were all taken with the place – the woman said she had cried like a child, when her brother (who has a very nice house close by – rebuilt on the spot on which stood Rousseau’s house) brought her the paper containing the account of his death – he was so good – had une telle manière – never saw anyone who had such a manner – there, said she, is the little sofa on which he sat writing the night he came in from the storm – there had been a young lady to look at his bed, and she had kissed it 20 times – mylady (Lady B– [Byron]) too had been there, but unluckily the old woman (she looks strong and hale and active) was from home – had taken the key of the room with her and Lady B– [Byron] could not see it – the husband a respectable looking farmer – they have a nice little apartment upstairs (au 2nd) for 9 or 10 napoleons a year, now let to an old couple – went up to see it – the old lady, 80, skipped, and danced, and shewed us all her perfect set of teeth, and chatted away delighted to find Mrs and Miss B– [Barlow] were from Paris where she (Swiss) had made money as femme de charge in high French families – was there during the revolution – 55 minutes with these good people who brought us cake (Swiss gauffers, Excellent etc) and offered wine, or anything they had, and did not get off till 3 40/60 having 1st taken the address of Lord B–‘s [Byron’s] friend Françoise Paoli, née Muzigny, Clarens près de Montreux, a pretty looking little town that we had passed at a little distance up the hill, to the right.

Tour de Piel a good village – alight at the 3 crowns at Veveay at 4 1/2 – got out Miss MacL–‘s [Maclean’s] letter (brought with me from England) and went with to Mrs Falconet Faviholme (pronounced Farum), 3 doors below the Inn – not at home – left a line or 2 in pencil to say how glad I should be to see her for a few moments –

Mrs and Miss B– [Barlow] and I then took a little saunter – to the post-office, and the handsome cornmarket supported on Tuscan columns in the grande place, and came in at 6 10/60 –

sat down to dinner at the table d’hote at 6 1/2 – Mrs F– [Falconet] F– [Faviholme] and her sister came immediately – went up and received them in my bedroom where they sat with me chatting for an hour – promised to go to them for a little after dinner if I could – Mrs F– [Falconet] F–[ Faviholme] reminded me a little of Miss MacL– [Maclean] she is Tall, and thin, delicate looking, quiet, and ladylike, and seems a nice woman – ditto but in a less degree her sister –

then went down to Dinner – people are so long here at the Table d’hôte, I had time enough to get all I wanted and make a good dinner and left the table with the rest at 8 1/4 – then immediately went to the Falconets – 5 brothers, so each for distinction adds the name of his wife to his own, and thus my friends friend is madame F– F[alconet] F– [Faviholme] chatted – drank tea, and sat with them till 9 40/60 – Mr Falconet Faviholme apparently an amiable good sort of man – a Swiss gentleman, I suppose, in manners – but not a thorough bred English man – yet very civil and attentive, and walked back with me – very fine day – not much sun, and Mrs and Miss thought it cold –