CeHiyAr R4aA.@ T Er Rus: 
on earth—fome object capable of 
contenting even fancy. 
was who arft of all people pervaded 
thefe fortifications, raiied by nature 
for the defence of her European 
Paradife, is not a‘certained; but 
the great Duke of Savoy has wifely 
left his name engraved on a monu- 
ment upon the firit confiderable 
afcent from Pont Bonvoiiin, as 
being author of a beautiful. road 
cut through the jolid ftone for a 
great length of way, and having 
by this means encouraged others to 
affift in facilitating a paflage fo truly 
defirable, till one of the great won- 
ders now to be obferved among the 
Alps, is the eafe with which even a 
delicate traveller may crofs;them. 
In thefe profpects, colouring 1s car- 
ried to its utmoft point of perfection, 
particularly at the time | found it, 
variegated with golden touches of 
autumnal tints; immenfe cafcades 
mean time burfting from. naked 
mountains on the one fide; culti- 
vated fields, rich with vineyards, 
on the other, and tufted with ele- 
gant fhrubs that invite one to pluck 
and carry them away to where they 
would be treated with much more 
refpeét. Little towns: fticking in 
the clefts, where one would imagine 
it was impoffible to clamber; light 
clouds often failing under the feet of 
the high-perched inhabitants, while 
the found of a deep and rapid though 
marrow river, dathing with violence 
among the infolently impeding rocks 
at the bottom, and bells in thick- 
ly-feattered {pires calling the quiet 
Brevard: to church upon the tieep 
fides of every hill—til one’s mind 
with fuch mutable, fuch various 
ideas, as no other place can ever 
poffibly afford. 
I had the fatisfaftion of feeing 
a chamois at a diltance, and {poke 
/ 
Who he . 
43). 
with a fellow who had killed five” 
hungry bears that made depredation 
on his paftures:. we looked on him 
with reverence as a monfter-tamer 
of antiquity, Hercules or Cadmus} 
he had thd fkin of a beaft wrapt 
round his middle, which confirmed 
the fancy—but our fervants, who 
borrowed from no fictitious records 
the few ideas that adorned their 
talk, told us he reminded them of 
Febn the Baptift. I had fearce re- 
covered the fhock of this too fub- 
lime comparifon, when we ap- 
proached his cottage, and found 
the felons nailed againft the wall, 
like foxes heads or {pread-kites in 
England. Here -are many goats, 
but neither white nor large, like 
thofe which browze upon the fteeps 
of Snowdon, or clamber among the 
cliffs of Plinlimmon. 
Going down the Italian. fide of 
the Alps is, after all, an aftonifhing 
journey; and affords the molt mag- 
nificent fcenery in nature, which 
varying at every ftep, gives new 
impreiion to the mind each moment 
of one’s paflage; while’the portion 
of terror excited eitiier by real or 
fancied dangers on the way, is jul 
fuflicient to mingle with the pleafure, 
and make one feel the full etfe& of 
fublimity.. To the chairmen who 
carry one though, nothing can be 
new; it is obiervabile that the glo- . 
ries of thefe objects have never fad- 
ed—I heard them {peak to each other, 
of their beauties, and the change of 
light fince they had pafled by lait 
time, while a fellow who fpoke Eng- 
lifh as well as a native told us, that — 
having lived ina gentleman’s fervice 
twenty years between London and 
‘Dublin, he at length begged his dif- 
charge, chufing to retire and fnith his 
daysa peafant upon thefe mountains, 
where he firt opened hiseyes upon 
{cenes 
