182 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1839, 
satisfactory progress. The distance by post between 
Lyons and Avignon is one hundred and sixty-seven 
miles, but including all the turnings of the river it 
must be much more ; however, at six o’clock and a 
quarter the spires and battlements of Avignon, lighted 
by the setting sun, were in sight, and a beautiful sight 
they were as we drew near. The wall of the city, built 
by Pope Innocent VI. in the twelfth century, is still 
perfect, and very pretty, the architecture being what 
I should have thought Moorish (judging from pictures 
merely); the numerous spires of this very ecclesiasti- 
cal town rising above it; the huge rocky elevation next 
the river, —the site of the ancient fortress, and of 
old temples, churches, etce., — and not least the ruined 
bridge of very ancient date, that still throws its beau- 
tiful arches half across the river, the lovely Italian 
landscape around, so fresh and green, the distant 
mountains encircling the whole, made it altogether as 
delightful a scene as one could wish to behold. But 
you must know that I am now in the region of the 
olive and myrtle, and have in the short space of three 
days concentrated, as it were, the pleasure we experi- 
ence in watching the gradual approach of summer. 
The season is said to be later than usual at Paris; 
it is like April in New York, —a few warm days, but 
the evenings all chilly and most of the days raw and 
unpleasant. The horse-chestnut trees of the Tui- 
leries were just bursting their buds; but every hour 
since, and particularly to-day, I have noticed little by 
little the advance. Here nearly all the trees have 
assumed their foliage, — that pure and delicate vernal 
foliage which we always so much admire, but which 
you enjoy very much to come upon in the way I have 
done, instead of waiting week after week, with every 
