sion of vineyards, cultivated in the French mode, and exhibiting an infinite number of poles, forty or fifty feet in height, erected to break the violence of hail-storms and to shield the vines. It is a most unpoetical species of imagery. The shore of the lake towards its head is indented with rugged promontories and deep bays. Upon one of the latter, stands the hamlet of Clarens, consisting of some thirty or forty houses, hidden under the rocks, and looking out upon one of the most romantic regions imaginable. Behind it rise steeps hung with woods, intermingled with ranges of naked crags. We climbed an eminence to look at an old chateau, erected in the 15th century, and to search for the localities, consecrated by the genius of Rousseau. The former was not worth examination, except as a conspicuous object in the landscape; and not a vestige of the latter is to be found. A peasant at work in a garden pointed out the site of Julia's Bosquet, which was demolished by the monks of St. Bernard, and the ground appropriated to the cultivation of the vine. As the produce went to cheer the traveller amidst the snows of the Alps, the fraternity are pardonable for disregarding the minor considerations of taste and sentiment.

The information furnished by the aged Swiss agreed precisely with a minute description in a note to the Third Canto of Childe Harold, which the old man could never have read ; and the concurrent testimony of the two authorities was therefore as satisfactory, as either the nature or importance of the subject required. On the brow of the hill is a small buryingground, where the forefathers of the hamlet repose. A grave was opened, and the bier stood at its side. The decrepid and toil-worn peasant appeared as if he were ready to drop in, and be at rest. He told us that thirty or forty of his neighbours had emigrated to Vevay, on the banks of the Ohio, and that he had frequently read letters from them, descriptive of the country and of their own prospects. He shook his head at the idea, that the wine of the new world will ever equal the produce of the Pays de Vaud.

Our excursion was continued to the old Castle of Chillon, which was built by the Dukes of Savoy, in the 13th century. Commanding the pass of the mountains from the Valais to the Vaud, it has often been the scene of war, as well as the prison for state criminals. It rises out of the water, under a high and romantic cliff, thickly mantled with ivy. It formerly stood upon an island; but the moat has been choaked up,

though a draw-bridge and an iron gate still lead to its portals. The enormous structure is a mixture of stone, stucco, and wooden galleries, crowned with half a dozen rude Gothic towers. A female, who resides in one corner of the fortress, led us into the gloomy dungeons, which are nearly on a level with the water of the lake, and which are guarded from its irruptions by a massive wall. Narrow grated windows admit a dim light. The roof is supported by columns, springing out of the native rock. An iron ring is attached to each of the pillars, to which the prisoners were chained. The names of many visitants are inscribed upon the rocks; and among the rest, is that of Lord Byron. To indulge the propensities of scribblers, a sort of black-board has been placed against one of the columns, as a tablet, with a printed historical sketch of the castle pasted upon its top.

We climbed to the battlements, and had a wide view of the lake, the mouth of the Rhone, and the mountains rising on either hand. An islet, but just large enough to contain a fisherman's hut and a tuft of trees, emerges from the waves, between Chillon and the opposite shore. The wooden galleries of the Castle are shattered and seem ready to drop by their own weight. A small garrison is still kept up in the fortress, and the gate bears the arms of the Canton of Vaud -"Libertè et Patrie."

Having thus made the circuit of the lake, we returned to Vevay, and rode thence to Lausanne, a distance of ten or twelve miles by land. The route is extremely hilly, leading through a series of small villages, comprising what is denominated the Vinoble of the Vaud, or artificial vineyards, banging in terraces from the rocks, which rise from the water's edge to the heights above. Originally the whole district was little else than declivities, composed of naked crags, which Swiss industry has converted into a continuous garden. The soil has actually been created, not upon the locality itself; for it was brought from another kingdom-from Savoy, in boats across the lake--and deposited in the cradles, which had been hewn from the cliffs. Such was the expense of the work, and so productive has it been rendered, that the vineyards will now sell for three thousand dollars the acre! Immense quantities of wine are here made. We ate of the grapes, which are delicious, possessing a much higher flavour than those which ripen in the shady bowers of Italy. The peasantry were in the very midst of the vintage, and seemed

happy in permitting strangers to share in the fruits of their industry. They brought rich clusters to us, and presented them with a charming simplicity of manners and kindness of heart. They seem to make a frolic of labour and of life, severe as their toils are. The females bear many burdens. I have seen them staggering under panniers and large wooden buckets, which would hold a bushel or more, strapped to their backs. Such hardships have left little delicacy of form, feature, or complexion. Their straw hats are the most oddly shaped things imaginable, pointed at top with a sort of neck and bulb, serving for a comfortable handle.

Climbing the long precipitous hill, which leads from Ouchy to Lausanne, we entered the capital of the Canton de Vaud, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and took lodgings at the Lyon Hotel. One of our countrymen from Maryland, with his accomplished and amiable family, happened here on a similar errand with ourselves.

A valet de place was immediately engaged, to conduct us to such objects in the town, as most deserve the notice of the tourist. Our first visit was of course to the house, where Gibbon composed his immortal work, the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. His name is indissolubly connected with the hills of Lausanne, and has imparted to them no slight degree of celebrity. Such is the charm, which genius, however depressed and obscure, can diffuse over inanimate nature. His retreat relies solely for its interest, on the influence of association, and on the splendid view it affords of the lake and distant mountains. The apartment, or more properly out-house, which he occupied, is not more than ten feet square, possessing not a trace of him, or a feature worth copying. It is at present used as a dirty work-shop, itself an image of "decline and fall.” Beautiful as the garden is, shaded with spreading elms and acacias, it is difficult to fancy the grave and pompous historian here seated at his labours, wading through folios of barbarous Latin, and constructing from such rude materials, his lofty, harmonious, and polished periods; as the statuary hews the inimitable forms of gods and men from savage rocks and the roughest quarries.

We walked thence to the Cathedral. It was more fatiguing to climb the terraces, leading to its foundations, than to ascend to the ball of St. Peter's at Rome. The site of Lausanne is a miniature image of the Swiss mountains. Its

principal and most frequented streets are so precipitous, that it is almost impracticable to pass them with carriages. Even the carmen are compelled invariably to lock their wheels, in sliding down the declivities. For this purpose they use a large flat stone, fastened by an iron chain. It is the most uncomfortable town of its size, I have ever seen, with the exception perhaps of some parts of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. To infirm and asthmatic persons particularly, it must be a severe effort to go to church, requiring all the zeal and strong sense of religious duty, by which the rigid protestants of the Vaud are actuated.

The Cathedral is a Gothic structure, rearing its towers and steeples to such an ærial height, as to form a conspicuous object from all parts of the lake and its shores. Its interior is handsome, but without any of the splendour of Catholic churches. It contains many sepulchral monuments, in the style of the old English tombs. Great men and women here

lie in state.

Towards evening we had a charming, though solitary walk, upon the public promenade, crowning one of the eminences, planted with forest trees, and furnished with seats for repose, where the visitant may sit and look off upon some of the most splendid scenery in the world. But with all its charms, this hill seems to be but little frequented. The inhabitants of Lausanne are too active and industrious, to lounge upon parades. They are as brisk, busy, and bustling, as the air of their own mountains; and industry never permits the blood or intellect to stagnate.

Lausanne has a population of 12,000. It has been several times destroyed by fire, and has undergone a full share of those civil commotions and revolutions, by which the Swiss mountains have been agitated. It was subject to Bern till 1803, when it became the capital of the independent Canton of Vaud. Its buildings are substantial, neat, and comfortable; its climate serene and healthy; and the prices of living comparatively low; rendering it in all respects an eligible resi dence, to which the English, who are keen-sighted in looking out for the good things of this world, have resorted in great numbers. London papers of a late date were found at the reading-room, and the windows of booksellers are filled with English publications. The town has a great number of useful institutions-hospitals, colleges, academies, and schools, such as an intelligent and active people would natu

rally introduce and maintain with vigour. But none of them possess any striking peculiarities, which in this stage of my work would justify me in entering into detail.

LETTER XCVI.

RETURN TO GENEVA-SKETCH OF THE CITY-VIEW FROM THE WATER-ASPECT OF THE STREETS AND BUILDINGS-HOTEL DE VILLE--LEGISLATIVE HALLS-POLITICAL STATE OF SWITZERLAND-CATHEDRAL-REMINISCENCES OF CALVIN

MUSEUM--BOTANIC

GARDEN-DEFENCES OF THE CITYCOLLEGE-LIBRARY-HOSPITAL-ATHENEUM-PANORAMA

OF SWITZERLAND-BIRTH-PLACE OF ROUSSEAU-EXCURSION TO THE JUNCTION OF THE RHONE AND ARVE-DEPARTURE FROM GENEVA-JURA ALPS-LAST VIEW FROM THEIR SUMMITS.

October, 1826.-On the morning of the 18th, we left Lausanne and embarked at Ouchy, on board the steam-boat Leman for Geneva. In the course of the passage, I saw repeatedly the image of Mont Blanc, reflected from the placid bosom of the lake. The mirror was so perfect, that the patches of naked rock were distinguishable from the glaciers. Lord Byron has cited this phenomenon, as very remarkable. But why should it be so considered? A line drawn from the surface of the water, across the intervening country, would intersect a large frustum of the cone; and surely it is no miracle, that an object so conspicuous and strongly marked, as the peak of a mountain, brought within a short apparent distance by its magnitude, should be reflected as perfectly, as the humbler hill or plant upon the shore.

Geneva does not appear well in approaching it from the lake. In neatness and beauty it will bear no comparison with its namesake in the United States, situated upon a lake scarcely less romantic. The backs of large old ware-houses, together with heaps of lumber and wood piled upon the wharves, intercept the view of the better parts of the city, and form but a sorry termination of a voyage, which in its progress exhibits so much splendour of scenery. Though the water at the outlet is shoal, it retains its purity even to the docks, being motionless and unagitated by tides. For miles the bottom was distinctly seen.