Cross the Alps 299 



politicians only in any country: but dyeing, and buttons, and 

 scissors, and commerce, are calculated to please the many, and 

 consequently to give reputation to those who build on such 

 foundations. Dine with Mr. Trevor, and continue to find in him 

 an equal ability and inclination to answer such of my inquiries as 

 I took the liberty of troubling him with. In the evening he intro- 

 duced me to Count Granari, the secretary of state for home 

 affairs, that is the prime minister, under an idea that he had an 

 intention of introducing 'Spanish sheep: he was ambassador in 

 Spain, and seems, from his conversation, well informed concern- 

 ing the Spanish flocks. This minister was called home to fill his 

 present important situation to the satisfaction of the people, who 

 have very generally a good opinion of his abilit}' and prudence. 

 To-morrow I leave Turin: I have agreed with a vetiurino for 

 carrying me to Lyons across Mont Cenis in a chariot, and allowed 

 him to take another person; this person he has found; and it 

 is Mr. Grundy, a considerable merchant of Birmingham, who is 

 on his return from Naples. 



20th. Leave Turin; dine at St. Anthony, like hogs; and 

 smoked all the dinner like hams. Sleep at Suza, a better inn. — 

 32 miles. 



215^ The shortest day in the year, for one of the expeditions 

 that demand the longest, the passage of Mont Cenis, about which 

 so much has been written. To those who from reading are full 

 of expectation of something very sublime, it is almost as great a 

 delusion as to be met with in the regions of romance : if travellers 

 are to be believed, the descent rarntnassant on the snow is made 

 with the velocity of a flash of lightning; I was not fortunate 

 enough to meet with anything so wonderful. At the grand 

 croix we seated ourselves in machines of four sticks, dignified 

 with the name of traineau : a mule draws it, and a conductor, 

 who walks between the machine and the animal, serves chiefly 

 to kick the snow into the face of the rider. When arrived at the 

 precipice, which leads down to Lanebourg,^ the mule is dismissed 

 and the rammissing begins. The weight of two persons, the 

 guide seating himself in the front, and directing it with his heels 

 in the snow, is sufficient to give it motion. For most of the way 

 he is content to follow very humbly the path of the mules, but 

 now and then crosses to escape a double, and in such spots the 

 motion is rapid enough, for a few seconds, to be agreeable; they 

 might very easily shorten the line one half and by that means 

 gratify the English with the velocity they admire so much.'^ As 



* Lans-le-Bourg. 



