302 Travels in Italy 



interesting. I was eager to view Charmettes, the road, the 

 house of Madame de Warens, the vineyard, the garden, every- 

 thing, in a word, that had been described by the inimitable pencil 

 of Rousseau. There was something so dehciously amiable in her 

 character, in spite of her frailties — her constant gaiety and good 

 humour — her tenderness and humanity — ^her farming specula- 

 tions — but, above all other circumstances, the love of Rousseau 

 have >vritten her name amongst the few whose memories are 

 connected with us by ties more easily felt than described. The 

 house is situated about a mile from Chambery, fronting the 

 rocky road which leads to that city and the wood of chestnuts 

 in the valley. It is small and much of the same size as we 

 should suppose in England would be found on a farm of one 

 hundred acres, without the least luxury or pretension; and 

 the garden, for shrubs and flowers, is confined as well as 

 unassuming. The scenery is pleasing being so near a city and 

 yet, as he observes, quite sequestered. It could not but 

 interest me, and I viewed it with a degree of emotion; even 

 in the leafless melancholy of December it pleased. I wandered 

 about some hills which were assuredly the walks he has so 

 agreeably described. I returned to Chambery with my 

 heart full of Madame de Warens. We had with us a young 

 physician, a Monsieur Bernard, of Modanne en Maurienne, an 

 agreeable man connected with people at Chambery; I was 

 sorry to find that he knew nothing more of the matter than that 

 Madame de Warens was certainly dead. With some trouble I 

 procured the following certificate : 



Extract from the Mortuary Register of the Parish Church of St. 



Peter de Leviens 



" The 30th of July, 1762, was buried, in the bur^nng ground of 

 Lemens, Dame Louisa Frances Eleonor de la Tour, widow of the 

 Seignor Baron de Warens, native of Vevay, in the canton of 

 Berne, in Switzerland, who died yesterday, at ten in the evening, 

 like a good Christian, and fortified with her last sacraments, aged 

 about sixty- three years. She abjured the Protestant religion 

 about thirty-six years past; since which time she lived in our 

 religion. She finished her days in the suburb of Nesin, where 

 she had lived for about eight years, in the house of M. Crepine. 

 She lived heretofore at the Rectus, during about four years, in 

 the house of the Marquis d'Alinge. She passed the rest of her 

 life, since her abjuration, in this city. 



(Signed) Gaime, rector of Lemens" 



