place of Pilate's banishment and death.]

The cathedral of Vienne was shut, and its external appearance did not
tempt us to make further inquiries; but we were directed to a Roman
temple, which, like that at Nismes, is called the Maison Carree. It can
only boast of the remains of lofty pilasters, and the marks of what was
once an inscription; and the inside being converted into a
paltry-looking palais de justice, will hardly repay the trouble of
waiting for the concierge. We departed from Vienne with too unfavourable
an impression of its dirty inn, and of the place in general, to render
us desirous of spending the night there. The squalid, dispiriting
appearance of the town itself, indeed, forms a strong contrast both to
the fine country in which it stands, and the capital letters which
decorate its name in the map of France. Instead of loitering in its
smoky, desolate streets, while horses are changing, I should recommend
the traveller to walk on and await their arrival at the Aiguille, an old
Roman monument so called, which stands close to the road on the right,
within about a mile of the town. This singular pyramidical relic
commands a beautiful view of the Rhone, winding into the sequestered
vallies at the foot of Mont Pilate; and the variety of coins and other
small relics, found there, indicate the ancient boundaries of the city
as extensive, and comprising both this building and the temple
above-mentioned; The inhabitants, forgetting that a person once set
afloat "in the blue rushing of the arrowy Rhone," would probably find no
grave but the gulf of Lyons, have denominated this building the tomb of
Pilate.

Near Vienne the country of silk-worms begins, every tree almost being a
mulberry; and on the steep hills, which inclose the channel of the Rhone
during two days journey from this town, the celebrated Cote-Roti wine is
chiefly produced. The vineyards are in the highest state of cultivation;
and, as in Burgundy also, the nature and position of the soil seem to
operate as a forcing-wall upon the vines, which had, at this early
season, made immense shoots from their knotty close-pruned stumps. Here
I frequently observed the industrious expedient practised in many parts
of Valencia and Catalonia. On the steepest parts of the hills, terraces
above terraces, of loose stones, are built to secure and consolidate the
scanty portion of earth which would otherwise be washed away from the
roots of their vines by the first