All things are here of him; from the black pines, Which are his shade on high, and the loud roar Of torrents, where he listeneth, to the vines Which slope his green path downward to the shore, Where the bow'd waters meet him, and adore, Kissing his feet with murmurs; and the wood, The covert of old trees, with trunks all hoar, But light leaves, young as joy, stands where it stood, Offering to him and his a populous solitude. A populous solitude of bees and birds, And fairy-form'd and many-colour'd things, Who worship him with notes more sweet than words, And innocently open their glad wings, Fearless and full of life: the gush of springs, And fall of lofty fountains, and the bend Of stirring branches, and the bud which brings The swiftest thought of beauty, here extend, Mingling, and made by Love, unto one miglity end. 'Twas not for fiction chose Rousseau this spot, Peopling it with affections; but he found It was the scene which passion must allot To the mind's purified beings; 'twas the ground Where early Love his Psyche's zone unbound, And hallow'd it with loveliness: 'tis lone, Aud wonderful, and deep, and hath a sound, And sense, and sight of sweetness; here the Rhone Hath spread himself a couch, the Alps have rear'd a throne." Hé "In July, 1816, I made a voyage round the Lake of Geneva; and, as far as my own observations have led me in a not uninterested nor inattentive survey of all the scenes most celebrated by Rousseau in his loïse,' I can safely say that in this there is no exaggeration. It would be difficult to see Clarens (with the scenes around it-Vevay, Chillon, Bôveret, St. Gingo, Meillerie, Evian, and the entrances of the Rhone) without being forcibly struck with its peculiar adaptation to the persons and events with which it has been peopled. But this is not all; the feeling with which all around Clarens, and the opposite rocks of Meillerie, is invested, is of a still higher and more comprehensive order than the mere sympathy with individual passion; it is a sense of the existence of love in its most extended and sublime capacity, and of our own participation of its good and of its glory; it is the great principle of the universe, which is there more condensed, but not less manifested, and of which, though knowing ourselves a part, we lose our individuality, and mingle in the beauty of the whole. If Rousseau had never written nor lived, the same associations would not less have belonged to such scenes. He has added to the interest of his works by their adoption; he has shown his sense of their beauty by the selection; but they have done that for him which no human being could do for them. I had the fortune (good or evil as it might be) to sail from Meillerie (where we landed for some time) to St. Gingo during a lake storm, which Route 56.-Clarens-Montreux-Castle of Chillon. added to the magnificence of all around, although occasionally accompanied by danger to the boat, which was small and overloaded. It was over this very part of the lake that Rousseau has driven the boat of St. Preux and Madame Wolmar to Meillerie for shelter during a tempest. On gaining the shore at St. Gingo I found that the wind had been sufficiently strong to blow down some fine old chestnut-trees on the lower part of the mountains."-Byron. Chailly, the residence of Rousseau's friend Madame de Warens, lies above Clarens, at some distance from the road. The house still exists. The swelling hills and vine-clad slopes which form the banks of the lake nearly all the way from Geneva here give place to beetling crags and lofty precipices rising abruptly from the water's edge. The road sweeps in curves round the retired bays at their feet. The village of Montreux is prettier in itself and in its situation than even Clarens. It lies at the foot of the Dent de Jaman, across which runs a path into the Simmenthal (Route 41). It is celebrated as the most sheltered spot on the banks of the Lake of Geneva, and the remarkable salubrity of its climate renders it desirable winter-quarters for invalids who cannot cross the Alps. Very good accommodation may be had in the village inn. Boarding and lodging houses are also to be met with there. The traveller who turns aside from the high-road to the church-yard of Montreux will carry away from that enchanting spot one of the sweetest impressions of his life. The statistical researches of Sir F. d'Ivernois have shown that Montreux is the place in the world where there is the smallest proportion of deaths and of imprudent marriages. The old pastor Bridel, the head of this happy community, is a hale mountaineer, full of the legends and beauties of the country he has wandered over for 149 nearly 80 years, and will give a hearty welcome to the traveller."-R. About 2 miles from Montreux stands the picturesque and renowned Castle of Chillon, on an isolated rock surrounded by deep water, but within a stone's throw of the shore and of the road, with which it commuuicates by a wooden bridge. It was built in 1238 by Amadeus IV. of Savoy, and was long used as a state prison, where, among other victims, many of the early reformers were immured. When Byron, in the Prisoner of Chillou, described the sufferings of an imaginary captive, he was not acquainted with the history of the real prisoner, Bonnivard, prior of St. Victor, who, having rendered himself obnoxious to the Duke of Savoy by his exertions to free the Genevese from the Savoyard yoke, was seized by the duke's emissaries, and secretly carried off to this castle. For 6 long years he was buried in its deepest dungeon, on a level with the surface of the lake. The ring by which he was attached to one of the pillars still remains, and the stone floor at its base is worn by his constant pacing to and fro. Byron afterwards wrote the sonnet on Bonnivard, from which the following lines are taken : "Chillon! thy prison is a holy place, And thy sad floor an altar; for 'twas trod Until his very steps have left a trace Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod, By Bonnivard! May none those marks efface! For they appeal from tyranny to God." At length, in 1536, the Swiss wrested the Pays de Vaud from the hands of Charles V. of Savoy. Chillon was the last place which held out for him; but an army of 7000 Bernese besieging it by land, while the gallies of the Genevese assaulted it by water, soon compelled it to surrender, and Bonnivard, with other captives, was set free. The changes which had occurred during the years of his imprisonment almost realised the legend of the Seven Sleepers. He 150 Route 56.-Chillon-Villeneuve. had left Geneva a Catholic state, and dependent on the Duke of Savoy; he found her free, and a republic, publicly professing the reformed faith. The castle is now converted into a magazine for military stores. A curious old chapel serves as a powdermagazine, and is not shown. Strangers are readily conducted over other parts of it, and (independent of the associations connected with the building) may find something to interest them in its "potence et cachots." The former is a beam, black with age, extended across one of the vaults, to which the condemned were formerly hung. The cachot is an oubliette, whose only entrance was by a trapdoor in the floor above. The dungeon of Bonnivard is airy and spacious, consisting of two aisles, almost like a church; its floor and one side are formed by the living rock, and it is lighted by a solitary window. Byron inscribed his name on one of the pillars, but it is far more lastingly associated with the spot. "Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls; Byron has exaggerated the depth of the lake, which near the castle does not exceed 280 ft. "It is by this castle that Rousseau has fixed the catastrophe of his Héloïse, in the rescue of one of her children by Julie from the water; the shock of which, and the illness produced by the immersion, is the cause of her death." Villeneuve-(Inns: Croix Blanche; Lion d'Or, both indifferent)—is a small and ancient walled town of 1480 inhabitants (Pennilucus of the Romans), situated at the E. extremity of the lake, where the road quits its borders to enter the valley of the Rhone. A diligence awaits the arrival of the steamers to convey passengers on to Bex, where there are good sleeping-quarters. About a mile from Villeneuve lies a small island, the only one in the lake: it is thus mentioned by Byron in the Prisoner of Chillon: "And then there was a little isle, Which in my very face did smile, The only one in view; A small green isie, it seem'd no more, Of gentle breath and hue." The commencement of the valley of the Rhone is dreary and uninteresting. The low ground is a flat alluvial deposit, formed by mud brought down by the river, and still remaining in the state of a barren and unwholesome morass. The encroachments of the land upon the lake even within the period of historical record have been very great. Port Vallais, Portus Vallesiæ of the Romans, in their time stood on the margin of the lake, but is now more than a mile and a half inland; the intervening tract has been gained since. The Rhone itself creeps slowly along, impeded by its windings, and as it were burdened with mud, very unlike the torrent of azure and crystal which bursts out of the lake at Geneva. Upon this plain, at the mouth of the valley of the Rhone, Divico, the first Helvetian chief mentioned in history, defeated, B.C. 107 (the 646th year of Rome), the Roman forces under Lucius Cassius, slaying their general and compelling his army to pass under the yoke. The top of the mountain above Yvorne was thrown down by an earthquake, 1584. Route 56.-Bex-Salt Mines. A good wine now grows on the slope. 2 L'Aigle (Inn: La Croix Blanche)-a village of 1650 inhabitants (Aquileia). Black marble is quarried near this. 1 Bex-(Inns: L'Union, good. It comprises a boarding-house and an establishment of baths, supplied from a sulphureous spring rising in the vicinity, which causes Bex to be resorted to as a watering-place in summer. Guides, horses, and chars-àbanc for excursions among the mountains may be hired here.-L'Ours.) Bex, a village of 3000 inhabitants, situated on the high road to the Simplon, is chiefly remarkable for its Salt-Mines and Salt-Works. Salt has been obtained from brine-springs here since the middle of the 16th century. For a long time they belonged to a merchant family of Augsburg named Zobel, but they are now property of the government of the canton. Down to 1823 the brine-springs alone furnished the salt,and they were gradually failing, when M. Charpentier suggested the plan of driving shafts and galleries into the mountain in search of rock-salt. The result was the discovery of a large and rich vein of the mineral, which has been traced for a distance of 4000 fr. and for a height of 600 ft., varying in thickness from 2 ft. to 50 ft.; and the annual produce of salt is now augmented to 20,000 or 30,000 quintals. Strangers visiting Bex commonly pay a visit to the mines, which are situated about 2 miles off, in the valley of La Gryonne. A steep road, but practicable for chars-à-banc, leads through most beautiful scenery to the entrance of the mines. The salt is obtained either from the brinesprings, six or seven of which, of various degrees of strength, burst forth in different parts of the interior of the mountain, or from the rocksalt, which, after being extracted by the help of gunpowder, is broken into pieces, thrown into large reservoirs, called dessaloirs, cut in the anhydrite 151 rock (sulphate of lime without water) in the interior of the mountain, and there dissolved in water. Each reservoir is usually filled with water 3 times. The 2 first solutions (lessivages) furnish a liquor with 25 or 26 per cent. of salt; the 3rd is much weaker, having only 5 or 6 per cent. The brine, either from the sources or from these reservoirs, containing above 20 per cent. of salt, is conveyed in pipes made of fir-wood at once to the boiling-house (maison de cuite); that which is less strong must be subjected to the process of graduation in the long buildings or sheds, open at the sides, which are passed at Bexvieux and Devins, between Bex and the mines. These evaporating-houses, or maisons de graduation, are filled up to the roof with stacks of fagots of thorn-wood, over which the salt water, after being raised to the roof by pumps, is allowed to trickle drop by drop. The separation of the water in passing through colanders, and its exposure to the atmosphere as it falls, produce rapid and considerable evaporation of the watery particles, while the gypsum dissolved in it adheres, in passing, to the twigs, and crystalizes around them. The water is thus made to ascend and descend several times; it becomes stronger each time, and at length is brought to the condition of saturated brine, fit for boiling in the salt-pans. It will easily be perceived how much fuel is thus spared by not subjecting the weak solution to the fire at first. This short explanation may enable the visitor to understand the process pursued in the mines. The principal mines are those called Du Fondement and Du Bouillet; the latter contains a gallery driven horizontally into the bowels of the mountain for a distance of 6636 ft., 7 ft. high and 5 ft. wide. At 400 ft. from its entrance is the round reservoir, 80 ft. in diameter and 10 ft. deep, excavated in the rock, without any support to its roof. In it the weak water is collected, which requires to undergo the pro 152 Route 56.-St. Maurice. cess of graduation. A little farther on is another irregular reservoir, 7933 ft. in extent, supported by pillars, and destined to hold the stronger brine fit for the salt-pans without undergoing any intermediate process. Many beautiful minerals are obtained from the salt-mines of Bexsuch as very clear crystals of selenite, muriacite, anhydrite, &c. There is a short but difficult path (Route 58) from Bex to Sion by the Bergfall of Les Diablerets. A guide would be required for this journey. A little way above Bex a curious discovery was made, a few years ago, of a warm sulphureous spring in the very bed of the Rhone. It has been enclosed, and employed in supplying medicinal baths, the healing properties of which are attributed to the quantity of azote gas contained in the water. " Journeying upward by the Rhone, That there came down a torrent from the I enter'd where a key unlocks a kingdom: Filling the narrow space."-Rogers. Such is the scene presented to the traveller at the Bridge of St. Maurice, which spans the rapid river with one bold arch, 70 ft. wide, leaning for support (appuyé) on the rt. side upon the Dent de Morcles and on the 1. upon the Dent de Midi, whose bases are pushed so far forward as barely to leave room for the river. The bridge, erroneously attributed to the Romans, is not older than the 15th century, but may possibly rest on Roman foundations. It unites the canton Vaud with the canton Vallais; and a gate at one end, now removed, formerly served to close the passage up and down: a circumstance alluded to in the lines of Rogers. A small fort was erected by the Swiss in 1832, above the road, to defend the pass. Here our route is joined by the road from Geneva along the S. shore of the lake, through St. Gingough. (Route 57.) No one can cross the bridge of St. Maurice without being struck with the change in the condition of the inhabitants of the two cantons. The neatness and industry of the Vaudois are exchanged within the space of a few hundred yards for filth and beggary, equally apparent in the persons and habitations of the Vallaisans. Their physical condition is lamentable; no part of Switzerland is afflicted to a greater extent with the maladies of goître and cretinism (§ 19), and the victims of them shock the traveller's sight at every step. Immediately beyond the bridge, squeezed in between the mountain and the 1. bank of the Rhone, stands St. Maurice-(Inn: L'Union, tolerably good)-a town of 1050 inhabitants, occupying the site of the Roman Agaunum. It owes its present name to the tradition that the Theban Legion, under the command of St. Maurice, suffered martyrdom here by order of Maximian, A.D. 302, because they refused to abjure Christianity. The Abbey, founded in honour of St. Maurice by Sigismond King of Burgundy, contains in its Treasury a museum of ancient art. Here are preserved a vase of Saracenic workmanship, presented by Charlemagne; a crozier of gold, in the shape of a spire, the niches of it filled with figures an inch high, most elaborately worked; a chalice of agate, presented by Charlemagne; another, given by Bertha Queen of Burgundy, and several besides, of a very early date. "The Church was much damaged by fire in the 17th century, but the tower is unaltered, and several Roman inscriptions are built into its walls."-P. On quitting the town we perceive on the right, upon a projecting platform of rock considerably above the road, the Hermitage of Ñôtre Dame des Sex. Lower down on the road is the chapel of Veriolez, raised on the precise spot of the Theban mas |
