The Days of a Man 



C1905 



Glorious 

 Chamonix 



Miirren 

 and Berne 



in kind, having been also executed by the firm of 

 Salviati in Venice. Between Bourg d'Oisons and 

 Besan^on rises the exquisite, snow-crowned peak of 

 La Meije, one of the most beautiful in all the Alps, 

 and, beyond it, the picturesque summits of La Grande 

 Ruine and La Grande Chartreuse, little known to 

 devotees of Switzerland, though scarcely inferior in 

 charm to the Oberland. From Albertville in Pied- 

 mont we came back to glorious Chamonix, one of my 

 former haunts. As Dr. Schobinger, a Swiss friend, 

 said: **Not all the vulgar people who come to Cha- 

 monix can ever make Chamonix vulgar." 



We next moved on to scenes yet more familiar, at 

 Zermatt. Thence after a few days we climbed the 

 Gemmi, and, descending to Kandersteg and Inter- 

 laken, walked up the valley of Lauterbrunnen to the 

 noble heights of Miirren. On **the terrace at Berne" 

 with its inspiring view, I recalled the following lines 

 from Matthew Arnold's poem, of which I have always 

 been fond: 



The clouds are on the Oberland, 

 The Jungfrau snows look faint and far; 

 But bright are those green fields at hand, 

 And through those fields comes down the Aar, 



And from the blue twin-lakes it comes, 

 Flows by the town, the churchyard fair; 

 And 'neath the garden-walk it hums, 

 The house! — and is my Marguerite there? 



From picturesque Lausanne we ascended by the 

 scorned funiculaire to the heights of Glion, celebrated 

 by Arnold in "Obermann Once More," an indirect 

 tribute to the distinguished philosopher, Senan- 

 cour: 



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