- Account of this most remarkable Antiquity. Roman Tower. - St. Pancras. The Sexagenarian's Account of a Dutch House- On the Road to the Hague.- Arrival there. The Palace in the Town and in the Wood. - The Museum. The Sexagenarian's Account of the Palace; of the Festival in honour of the King's Birthday; of his Majesty; and of various interesting Anecdotes respecting him. -The Sexagenarian meets with a Dutch sities. Warriors. Political Eminence. - Their Heroes. - Their Heroines. Anecdotes of the latter.-Siege of Haarlem.-Legends.— Winter Scenes in Holland. Great Splendour Sands at the Brille. Company on Board. — A Cockney. A Dutch Doctor. A French Lady. Poetry Discussed. · The Sexage- narian's Account of his Passage from Rotter- dam. The Dutch Physician, &c. Arrival THE MOUNTAINS AND LAKES OF SWITZERLAND, ETC. LETTER XXVI. TO A. J. KEMPE, ESQ., F.S. A. One of the Party sets out for the Flegère. - A Record of the Expedition. - Adieu to Chamouny. Pont Pelissier.-The Alpine Horn.—Rain. The Glen. Cascade. The Baths of St. Gervais. The Mont Blanc. Sallenches. The Again at St. Martin. Return to -- Peasantry. Geneva. A Disaster on the Road. Th Pharmacien. An Adventure. Geneva. An Adieu to one of the Party. The Sexagenarian's Remarks on the Diversities of Religion in Switzerland. - His general Observations on Mountains and Lakes as connected with Religious Feelings. My dear Brother, On the morning after our expedition to the Mer de Glace, my nephew, mounted on a mus and accompanied by my guide, Michel, set off, at a very early hour, to ascend the Flegère, whence may be seen by far the finest view of Mont Blanc, and the whole group of granite pinnacles and peaks that surround L'Aiguille Verte with so much sublimity. The state of the atmosphere, on the previous evening, led me to prophesy what would be the result of this expedition; but my nephew was anxious to make the attempt; and so he toiled up the mountain, as far as the Croix de Flegère (whence Mr. Barker made his panoramic view of Mont Blanc), and, when there, the only satisfaction he received was that of seeing the dense clouds which hung around it totally obscuring every object in every direction. After waiting till all hope of the morning's clearing up became extinct, he purchased for me a box of specimens of the rocks and minerals of Mont Blanc; and with this he toiled down the mountain, completely wet through, and once more joined us at the inn. We prepared to return to St. Martin, in order to reach Geneva on the following day, as on the Tuesday morning my nephew was to start for Paris. Whilst at breakfast we amused ourselves with looking over the books containing the travellers' names, and many whimsical verses and sentences they had written in memory of their arrivals and adventures at Chamouny. Mr. Brockedon had inserted a warm panegyric on the inn, its host and hostess another traveller had recorded how ill he was taken whilst in the house; and my nephew wrote and entered in the books the following impromptu on his late disappointment, as a warning to travellers who might be similarly circumstanced: On Sunday (pro pudor!) Of a pitiless cloud, And a drenching of rain, I got nought by my pain; My twelve francs were expended, And so my trip ended. MORAL. Ye tourists all, by me take warning, And stay at home on Sunday morning. |