OF THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 



countries of France and Savoy ; your way is then along the plain, for 

 three or four miles towards the mountains which surround it, and which 

 rise so high, and so steep, and so without any apparent opening, that 

 you cannot fancy where the road will lead to. At last when you come 

 close under them, you find that an enormous notch, as it were, has been 

 cut down into them from top to bottom, just wide enough to leave room 

 for a roaring mountain torrent, which comes hurrying down, and 

 presently falls into the Guiers Vif. 



This torrent is called the Guiers Mort (dead Guiers), as the name of 

 the other means living Guiers. Up the banks of the former you must 

 make your way in the deep notch before mentioned ; so deep, indeed, 

 that in winter the sun can hardly be seen over the tops of the cliffs, 

 and so narrow that there is only room for the chafing torrent and a 

 narrow road, or rather track, cut through the wood along its side. The 

 trees all the way are magnificent, chiefly pines and beech, and they 

 grow to an enormous size. You proceed through this sort of scenery for 

 seven or eight miles, ascending all the way, and in some places the track 

 is very steep, and is cut in zig zags, to render the ascent more easy ; for 

 you are now going up towards the source of the dead Guiers, and the 

 ground appears to rise to you, and so rapidly, that the stream cornea 

 down in a succession of waterfalls, and the track is now extremely steep. 

 At last, when you have ascended to a great height, you find an opening 

 in the mountains on your left hand, where another little torrent comes 

 down into the Guiers, and this is not such a mere notch as the glen up 

 which you have been toiling ; but is wide enough to have some pasture 

 in it, and the green open fields look quite refreshing amidst the dark 

 masses of wood around them. Along this opening you ascend some 

 distance, and then, just at the head of this little valley, under high walls 

 of cliff rising abruptly out of the pines, is the Monastery of the Grande 

 Chartreuse. It is a very large pile of buildings, like one of our colleges, 

 enclosing an oblong square, or rather cloister, the length of which is 

 six hundred and seventy-two French feet. You first are shown into a large 

 out building, where you leave your horses, and where you are met by 

 a lay brother, who conducts you to the stranger's room of the monastery. 

 Here you may have any sort of needful refreshment except meat, for the 

 monks are of the Carthusian order, which is very strict, and forbids the 

 use of meat. The lay brother then attends you round the building. The 

 cells of the monks are ranged along the sides of the great cloister, with 

 little mottos from scripture, or from some religious book, painted outside 

 the doors. Each cell includes two rooms and a sort of closet for books, 



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