264 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



Matterhorn I heard given to his companion by a tourist probably 

 an upholsterer newly arrived at the Riffel : ' just like a roll of 

 stair carpet, set on end.' The passage, as a whole, is interesting 

 from its complete reversal of the earlier attitude of mind which 

 thought the bolder features of mountain landscapes horrid. It 

 is quite inconsistent with its author's normal point of view with 

 regard to Alpine scenery. But then, consistency is the last thing 

 one looks for or desires in the stimulating paradoxes of Ruskin's 

 thirty-eight volumes. 1 



The lovers of Val Anzasca can well afford to smile at such 

 characteristic petulance. The supreme beauty of the middle 

 portion of the valley lies, it is true, not in the more abrupt in- 

 cidents of scenery, the crags and the defiles that are the delight 

 of the child and the tourist, but in the association of an Italian 

 foreground with a relatively near view of one of the noblest of 

 Alpine summits. Framed between yet high above the folds of 

 forested hillside, the sloping lawns shaded by gigantic chestnut 

 groves, the terraced vineyards that half bury the white hamlets, 

 and the tall campanili that break through the foliage, shines the 

 silver wall of Monte Rosa. Severed from the spectator by no 

 visible base of rocky desolation, such as is too frequent in views 

 of great mountains, it hangs faint as a celestial city in the golden 

 haze of noon, or flushes rose-red in the full light of dawn above the 

 deep shadows of the valley. In contrast to the great critic's 

 disparagement, I may record a fact not to be found in any of the 

 commentaries on the works of a late Poet Laureate. Tennyson's 

 lines entitled * The Voice and the Peak ' were written in the 

 inn at Ponte Grande. He went there at my suggestion after 

 failing to find any inspiration in the scenery of the Upper 

 Engadine. 



De Saussure, if apt to be topographical and little given to 

 fine writing, was not blind to the charm of Val Anzasca. He 

 writes : 



' One need not cross the bridge (the Ponte Grande), but it is neces- 

 sary to walk out on to the bold arch in order to enjoy the view of 

 this beautiful mountain, which presents itself as majestically as Mont 

 Blanc does from Sallanches.' [Voyages, 2130.] 



1 See vol. 35 of the collected edition of Ruskin's works. 



