Chambery 301 



evil felt; but the hand of despotism may be more heavy. In 

 several places the view is picturesque and pleasing: enclosures 

 seem hung against the mountain sides as a picture is suspended 

 to the wall of a room. The people are in general mortally ugly 

 and dwarfish. Dine at La Chambre; sad fare. Sleep at 

 Aguebelle.-7-3o miles. 



24//?. The country to-day, that is to Chambery, improves 

 greatly; the mountains though high recede ; the valleys are wide 

 and the slopes more cultivated; and towards the capital of 

 Savoy are many country houses which enliven the scene. 

 Above Mai Taverne is Chateauneuf, the house of the countess of 

 that name. I was sorry to see at the village a carcan or 

 seigneural standard erected, to which a chain and heavv iron 

 collar are fastened as a mark of the lordly arrogance of the 

 nobility and the slavery of the people. I asked why it was not 

 burned with the horror it merited } The question did not excite 

 the surprise I expected and which it would have done before the 

 French Revolution. This led to a conversation by which I 

 learned that in the haut Savoy there are no seigneurs, and the 

 people are generally at their ease, possessing little properties, 

 and the land, in spite of nature, almost as valuable as in the lower 

 country, where the people are poor and ill at their ease. I 

 demanded why. Because there are seigneurs everywhere. What 

 a vice is it, and even a curse, that the gentry instead of being 

 the cherishers and benefactors of their poor neighbours, 

 should thus, by the abomination of feudal rights, prove mere 

 tyrants. Will nothing but revolutions, which cause their 

 chateaux to be burnt, induce them to give to reason and humanity 

 what will be extorted by violence and commotion? We had 

 arranged our journey to arrive early at Chambery, for an oppor- 

 tunity to see what is most interesting in a place that has but 

 little. It is the winter residence of almost all the nobility of 

 Savoy. The best estate in the duchy is not more than 60,000 

 Piedmontese livres a year (£3000), but for 20,000 livres they live 

 en grand seigneur here. If a country gentleman has 1 50 louis d'or 

 a year, he will be sure to spend three months in a town; the 

 consequence of which must be nine uncomfortable ones in the 

 country, in order to make a beggarly figure the other three in 

 town. These idle people are this Christmas disappointed, by the 

 court having refused admittance to the usual company of French 

 comedians; — the government fears importing among the rough 

 mountaineers the present spirit of French liberty. Is this 

 weakness or policy.'' But Chambery had objects to me more 



