FROM BAVENO TO THE RHONE GLACIER 23 



when the colder northern valleys are overhung with 



impenetrable mist. In four hours you can pass now from 



the Lake of Geneva through the hot Simplon Tunnel to 



the Lago Maggiore. So, hungering for sunshine, we 



packed, and ran in the ever-ready train through to 



Baveno. Thirty years ago we should have had to drive 



over the Simplon a beautiful drive, it is true but we 



should have taken sixteen hours in actually travelling 



from Montreux, and have had to pass a night en route at 



Brieg ! A treacherous gleam of sunshine lasting half an 



hour welcomed us on emerging from the Simplon tunnel, 



and then for eight days the same leaden aspect of sky, 



mountain, and lake as that which we had left in 



Switzerland was maintained. Even this could not spoil 



altogether the beauty and interest of the fine old garden 



of the Borromeo family on the Isola Bella. Really big 



cypress trees, magnificent specimens of the Weymouth 



pine the white pine of the United States, Pinus strobus^ 



first brought from the St. Lawrence in 1705, and planted 



in Wiltshire by Lord Weymouth a splendid camphor 



tree, strange varieties of the hydrangea, and many other 



old-fashioned shrubs adorn the quaint and well-designed 



terraces of that seat of ancient peace. The granite 



quarries close behind Baveno, and the cutting and 



chiselling of the granite by a population of some 2000 



quarrymen and stonemasons, were not deprived of their 



human interest by rain and skies more grey than the 



granite itself. But, at last, we gave up Italy in despair, 



retreated through the tunnel one morning, and an hour 



after mid-day were careering in a carriage along the 



Rhone Valley with jingling of bells and much cracking 



of a harmless whip upwards on a drive of seven hours 



to the Rhone glacier, to the hotel called " Gletsch," staking 



all on the last chance of a change in the weather. 



We passed the enclosed meadow near Brieg, whence 



