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, etc., — 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 



