CHAP, xiii.] THE CLOSE. 420 



cannot tell you how I feel the difference between wintering 

 here and at Rome or Naples. The charm of antiquity and 

 historical association is here all wanting ; and though 

 the scenery is certainly very pleasing, and the climate 

 beautiful, and the vegetation exquisite, I fear that 1 shall 

 soon feel a stagnation of interest, which iv minds me more 

 and more it is an exile on account of health UK- rely/ 



There nearly the whole of November was passed, but 

 with no benefit to the invalid. The parching drought 

 of the air irritated his lungs, and brought on one of his 

 attacks. In the last days of November Hy feres was 

 rted to in search of softer air, and though the weather 

 proved unusually severe, yet the change did good. 



To DR. SYMONDS, Clifton. 



'December Ilth, 1867. 



' . . . We have now been fully ten days here at least 

 Alicia and I. The girls we left under the kind care of 

 Mr. and Mrs. Symonds, and they the girls joined us 

 on Monday. Since we came to Hyeres, the weather has 

 been nearly as unfavourable as possible, snow having 

 fallen over all this district as well as over almost afl 

 other parts of Europe. Cold northerly winds have pie- 

 vailed. Notwithstanding this, I certainly impro\<d 

 under the change; that is to say, I found the air much 

 less irritating than at Cannes, and I have no doubt what- 

 ever that this is the case.' Indeed, the iact that we are 

 seventy miles from the snowy Alps sufficiently accounts 

 for this. I had no idea until quite recently that the 

 snowy range so completely predominates over Cannes, 

 and by making a permanent current of N.E. wind, set 

 from their cold summits to the shore of the warm 

 Mediterranean Sea, at once produces that preternatural 

 clearness and dryncss of atmosphere which belongs to 

 ne screen of low wooded hills, which shelters 

 Cannes from the immediate force of the Alpine bl. 

 is not high enough or extensive enough to change the 

 Duality of the air. In r I ' is in a 



