FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   >>   >|  
ine service on Sunday the gates of the city are shut, and neither ingress nor egress permitted; fortunately their liturgy (the Calvinistic) is at least one hour shorter than the Anglican. Balls and concerts take place here very often and the young Genevois of both sexes are generally proficient in music. They amuse themselves too in summer with the "tir de l'arc" in common with all the Swiss Cantons. October 3rd. I have been in doubt whether I should go to Lausanne, return to Paris or extend my journey into Italy; but I have at length decided for the latter, as Zadera, who intends to start immediately for Milan, has offered me a place in his carriage _a frais communs_. I found him so agreeable a man and possessing sentiments so analogous to my own that I eagerly embraced the offer, and we are to cross the Simplon, so that I shall behold a travel over that magnificent _chausee_ made by Napoleon's orders, which I have so much desired to see and which everybody tells me is a most stupendous work and exceeding anything ever made by the Romans. As the Chevalier has served in Italy and was much _repandu_ in society there, I could not possibly have a pleasanter companion. He has with him Dante and Alfieri, and I have Gessner's _Idylls_ and my constant travelling companion Ariosto, so that we shall have no loss for conversation, for when our native wits are exhausted, a page or two from any of the above authors will suggest innumerable ideas, anecdotes, and subjects of discourse. MILAN, 10th Oct. We started from Geneva at seven in the morning of the 4th October, and in half an hour entered the Savoyard territory, of which _douaniers_ with blue cockades (the cockade of the King of Sardinia) gave us intimation. The road is on the South side of the lake Leman. In Evian and Thonon, the two first villages we passed thro', we do not find that _aisance_, comfort and cleanliness that is perceivable on the other side of the lake, in the delightful Canton de Vaud. The double yoke of priestcraft and military despotism presses hard upon the unhappy Savoyard and wrings from him his hard-earned pittance, while no people are better off than the Vaudois; yet the Savoyards are to the full as deserving of liberty as the Swiss. The Savoyard possesses honesty, fidelity and industry in a superior degree, and these qualities he seldom or ever loses, even when exposed to the temptations of a great metropolis like Paris, to which they are co
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Savoyard
 

October

 

companion

 

native

 

subjects

 

cockade

 
cockades
 
exhausted
 

Sardinia

 
Ariosto

travelling

 

constant

 
discourse
 

conversation

 

douaniers

 

morning

 

authors

 

suggest

 
started
 
Geneva

anecdotes

 

territory

 
entered
 
innumerable
 

villages

 

liberty

 

deserving

 
possesses
 

honesty

 

industry


fidelity

 

Savoyards

 

people

 

Vaudois

 
superior
 

degree

 
temptations
 

metropolis

 
exposed
 

qualities


seldom

 

pittance

 

earned

 
passed
 

comfort

 

aisance

 

Idylls

 

Thonon

 

cleanliness

 
perceivable