EDUCATION AND THE RIVIERA (1772-81) 329 



find Madame de la Rue at home, and she insists on showing me her 

 apartment, her pictures, her cat, and her dogs, and all with a flow of 

 words and a shrill voice which made me feel sea-sick over again. Im- 

 patient to get back and write to you I find the house full of people : 

 but at last I am left free.' 



De Saussure had a fall on the marble staircase of his hotel 

 and hurt his leg. Bad weather came to add to his vexations . The 

 long-suffering of his companion, who would have preferred to wait 

 for sunshine, was a further trial. ' Pictet puts up with anything, 

 nothing makes him impatient ; his patience makes me impatient.' 

 However, de Saussure had his way, and the travellers rode off in 

 rain and waterproofs and were at once rewarded by the return of 

 sunshine . 



At this date, before the road was made, a trip along the Riviera 

 di Ponente was no light matter even in fine weather. This is how 

 de Saussure prefaces his account of the journey : r 



' Few travellers make the transit by land ; it is only practicable 

 on foot or on horseback, and even on horseback it is dangerous in many 

 places, where the only track is a narrow and slippery ledge cut in 

 terraces overhanging the sea.' [Voyages, 1355.] 



Dante's reference to the villainous character of the old horse - 

 track has often been quoted. But it is perhaps not generally 

 realised that the poet's description held good till the beginning of 

 the nineteenth century, when the great road Napoleon had begun 

 was at last finished. Li 1780 the carriage road ceased a few miles 

 beyond Genoa. The travellers accordingly started on horseback, 

 leaving their luggage to follow them by sea in a felucca. They 

 were often forced to dismount and lead their horses, the party 

 got separated, one of the horses was for a time lost, the inns were 

 abominable, and they often preferred a mattress on the floor to 

 venturing in the beds. De Saussure gives a lifelike sketch of the 

 inn at Spiotorno : 



' I went down by chance into the kitchen, where I saw a picture in 

 the style of Teniers : our old and hideous hostess, who, by the light 

 of a small lamp with untidy hair and black and wrinkled hands, was 

 pounding on a block the scraps of meat which were to form our supper.' 



At last the party reached Nice, found their felucca arrived, and 

 embarked to make a fresh set of deep-sea temperature observations. 



