the gardens are well kept, and neat, which I wonder at, the master being a Frenchman. We shall continue our journey the day after tomorrow. I am going to fend this letter to the post.-Don't be surprised at not hearing from me till after our arrival at Turin; not that I shall neglect writing; but, it is possible I may not be lucky enough to find an opportunity of fending a letter from any part of Savoy. I have not forgot that you was defirous I should be very particular in my account of that country: whatsoever I meet with which appears remarkable, or extraordinary, or that has not been noticed by Richard, Lalande, or Keysler, &c. you may depend upon it, shall not escape me; though I should imagine those authors have not omitted any thing of consequence, nor have I the vanity to put my hasty letters in competition with their travels. They made this journey with a view to writing and publishing their observations for the benefit of travellers, and the information of the curious; but we who travel merely for our amusement, and I who write for yours only, if my letters should prove sufficiently entertaining to chase away une partie de vos ennuies, (for I know no expression in our language for that universal complaint, although no nation is more tormented with, the disorder than the English) I shall think my end sufficiently answered, and your approbation will be more grateful to me, than the applause of all the learned doctors of the Sorbonne, I remain, as ever, most affectionately yours, &c. VOL. I. C LET Geneva. W LETTER III. September 25th, 1770. E quitted the neighbourhood of Geneva to-day at noon. Do not expect from me a description of this famous city and republic; I am neither qualified nor inclined to descant upon the merits of their form of government, laws, &c. -nor is the town at all to my taste; I mean its streets, architecture, &c. It is very dirty, and I should imagine trade flourishes prodigioufly by the number of carts and drays with which the streets are crowded. Our host was not unreasonable, and we parted without any dispute. I write this from Friangean. a little village called Friangean, situated in a bottom, furrounded by high mountains. Our inn has a dangerous appearance, but that is all; for the poor people do every thing in their power to oblige us. They have dressed an elegant little supper, confifting of a fine young turkey, a tongue a la daube, two fallads, one of anchovy, the other of lettice; a deffert composed of cheese, biscuits, Maspinerie, almonds in shell, butter churned fince our arrival, and very good wine both white and red. Is not this a sumptuous repast for such a savage place? And what do you think they charge us, including our courier? Only five livres, five sols, French. I dare say you thought Savoy afforded nothing but acorns and goat's whey.-From Geneva to this place, our road has not been absolutely 1 lutely bad, though we have had some rough steps. The mountains, according to their different aspects, produce vines in abundance, corn, buck-wheat, and various kinds of pulse. The Arve winds along the valley, its waters are clear, and foaming in their course break over several large stones and rocks which have tumbled into it from the mountains on each fide. - Do not imagine that we post it here; there is no going fast in fuch roads; fo we have hired an excellent Geneva carriage, with four stout fleek republican horses, and a careful coachman, who boasts with J. J. Rousseau of being a citizen of Geneva; he appears en bon point, is rich, and communicative, has talked to us much about Lord --, who has been admitted, to his great fatisfaction, a citizen of Geneva. Good night. To-morrow we set out early to gain Chamberry. W day LETTER IV. Chamberry, Sept. 26th. E have passed several frightful bridges tofor by the winding of the road round the protuberances of the mountains, you Rumelie. are obliged to cross the Arve incessantly. At Rumelie (a wretched old town) there is a dangerous bridge at present, and an afcent from it to the inn, by no means pleasant on account of its abrupt steepness. But, it seems, they propose foon to build a very good bridge here. The inn belongs to the marquis de T-n, a Seigneur of Turin, and had been the family chateau. I ran through the apartments, which are paved, as well as waste and wild; and at length came to a great faloon, which had no other ornament, or furniture, than the family arms blazoned; not even one grim ancestor in armour to grace its naked walls: -But I fuppose the family pictures are conveyed to Turin. As soon as we poffibly could we took leave of Rumelie. I believe no place in the world, of its fize, contains more beggars; but I suspect them to be the inhabitants of the town, who demand alms in the most importunate and clamorous Aix, manner. From thence we came to Aix, where we em. ployed about an hour in examining its springs and baths. The road is good from Rumelie to Aix, and from thence to Chamberry. Cultivation is not neglected; 1 neglected; on the other fide of Aix the mountains are laboured until their extreme acclivity mocks the peasant's toil. Their corn is still very green, their hay now making; having a bad prospect of grapes this year, they have neglected their vines, whose branches trail in diforder along the ground. From Aix hither, there is no mountain to afcend or descend; fertile plains open themselves out on each fide of the road to a great extent, whose boundaries are mountains covered with snow. Abundance of standard fruit-trees, forming confiderable orchards, and bending under their harvests, the corn growing between them in many places, strike the mind with ideas of plenty, widely differing from those I had formed of Savoy. But it feems this landscape is to have its contrast. -At Aix we made every inquiry, our time would permit of, in regard to the medicinal qualities of its waters. Two of the springs burst out of a rock on the fide of a steep mountain, which are arched over like a grotto. The upper bath, supplied by one of these springs, has a strong fulphureous smell and taste. The spring flows out of a leaden pipe inserted in the rock, in a stream which measures about two inches and a half diameter: it is so excessively hot, that I could not fuffer it to fall upon my hand for a quarter of a minute. M- held his hand repeatedly under it, till at last it swelled, looked very red, and itched. Our guide told us, that a Geneva gentleman, who had but just left the town, and who was so paraC3 lytic |