THE BUET 183 



' The Alpine travels of our Bourrit are in reality only descrip- 

 tive : this man, Precentor in our cathedral, has talent for music and 

 in painting, but he is no physical student or naturalist, and his imagina- 

 tion is always effervescent. Still we must give him due credit for his 

 enthusiasm and his pluck.' 



Contrasted with the in every respect wider intellect of de 

 Saussure, the man of philosophic mind, who wrote with the 

 calm and measured precision of a man of science, the aristocrat 

 with the finest house in Geneva for his home and ample means at 

 his disposal, Bourrit makes no imposing figure. He was a natif 

 that is, a plebeian by birth. Gifted by nature with a fine voice 

 and some artistic talent, he obtained at an early age an appoint- 

 ment as Precentor in the cathedral choir. He added to his 

 income by setting up as a painter of miniatures. But when he was 

 twenty-two a visit to Les Voirons, one of the lower heights near 

 Geneva, revealed to him his true vocation. He fell in love with 

 the Alps, and at the same time he made the convenient discovery 

 that there was at Geneva a better market for mountain landscapes 

 than for portraits. Bourrit obviously had in more senses than one 

 the artistic temperament. He is recorded to have been on 

 several occasions reproved for unpunctuality and petty irregu- 

 larities by the cathedral authorities. We find him often borrowing 

 or asking for payments in advance from de Saussure, whose 

 Voyages he helped to illustrate. He even got into needless 

 trouble over the accounts of the subscription he had helped to 

 raise in Germany for Balmat, after the latter 's ascent of Mont 

 Blanc. Art, however, soon became with Bourrit only a profitable 

 adjunct to authorship. His mission in life was to be the door- 

 keeper in the temple of Jupiter Penninus, the showman to introduce 

 the ' visitors to the glaciers ' to their ' agreeable horrors.' In the 

 summer months he was always to be found either at his house in 

 Geneva or at hand in his chalet at Chamonix. In the case of any 

 person of distinction he was delighted to furnish an itinerary, or 

 even personally to conduct his tour. In 1773 he wrote to a 

 friend that Lord Chesterfield, 1 ' a Mylord of fine figure and great 

 wealth,' who was studying at Geneva, had offered him fifty louis 

 in advance to accompany him to Chamonix. 



1 The fifth Earl of Chesterfield, the godson and successor of the author of the 

 famous Letters. A supplementary volume of letters addressed to his godson by 

 the fourth Earl was edited by Lord Carnarvon. 



