80 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



way grew pleasant when it became known to thee 

 that* ears not unacquainted with the gossip of thy 

 beloved town were at hand to listen. And the fact is, 

 that to the critic who writes, the liveliest impression 

 which remains of that marvellous pass is not of the 

 lovely woodland ways in which it commences, nor 

 of the wonderful desolation of the loftier heights, 

 nor even of the dizzy slope of the descent towards 

 Leukerbad, bewildering to look at, and dangerous to 

 tread, but of the two men who talked and walked 

 and looked Edinburgh, who uttered gossip refreshing 

 to hear, and were as easy to be identified as if they 

 had carried the emblems of their profession, like the 

 number of a regiment, on their dusty tourist-hats. 

 Though the names of our dear compatriots are un- 

 known to us, do not we cherish their cheerful recol- 

 lection in our hearts 1 In fact, Switzerland is, as we 

 have already said, a geographical expression to the 

 wandering English and, in addition, a place where 

 people make acquaintance with their country-folks; 

 for as for human features, unless Alpine horns, black 

 velvet bodices, and wood-carvings may be regarded 

 in that light, the country, as generally seen and 

 understood, has none. 



But it is otherwise on the other side of the Alps. 

 There the cortege moves more slowly, the traveller 

 lingers longer, and he is self-contained indeed who 

 does not link himself somehow in human association 

 with something Italian. This is all a long digression 



