1803.] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LETTERS «uritten during a late EXCUR- 
SION through FRANCE to GENEVA. 
(Concluded from page 506, wol. vix.) 
LETTER VIII.—Chalons, Dec. 25, 1801. 
HRISTMAS-Day! Of this feltival 
C we have been re-minded a hundred. 
times by knots of young men and old, 
women, boys and girls, all very neatly 
drefled, and drefled too with a regularity, 
or rather with an uniformity of ornament 
which induced us, in the firft of the morn- 
ing, to imagine that the feveral little parties 
belonged to fome public {chools, hofpitals, 
or other charitable inftitution. In the 
courfe of the day, however, we have met 
fo many of thefe gay groups in their way, 
we gueis, to or from high-mafs, that it 
feems more reafonable to attribute this 
uniformity to fafhion than enforcement. 
The dark-brown gipfey faces of the fe- 
males are encircled by a fnowy cap tied 
under the chin, and their bofoms concealed 
by a handkerchief of rival whitenefs; their 
gowns are almoft invariably either of a 
dark-blue or a bright-red colour, and are 
decorated with yellow, or with iight-blue 
ribbons, which come over the fhoulders, 
cro{s each other at the back, windround the 
waift, and finifh with fome little ornamen- 
tal arrangement in front: all of them wear 
flat-crowned hats with an immenfe peri- 
phery of verge. Astothe men, there is 
nothing very peculiar in their drefs; many 
of them indeed wear thofé azure, Rhdéne- 
coloured waiftcoats and breeches, which 
we frequently faw in the neighbourhood of 
Swifferland, and which gave fome little 
uniformity to their appearance. Every one 
we have feen today has been extremely 
neat; and as we are apt to aflociate with 
perional neatnefs—and not without reafon 
—the ijea of chearfulnefs and comfort, we 
have not had fo delightful a treat for many 
a day as thefe poor people have juf fur- 
nifhed us with—But to my journal— 
Yefterday we were thirteen hours in the 
carriage, and, after having eaten a hearty 
dinner, and drank a bottle of Bourgogne, 
IT was fo unconquerably fl-epy, that the pen 
would have fallen out of my hand, had I 
attempted to ufeé it. I fhall {carcely behave 
much better to you now: it is near nine 
o'clock, and we have ordered the poft- 
- Matter to let our horfes be hameffed b 
four in the morning, fo that it will be 
prudent to retire early, although I do not 
at prefent feel the flighteft difpofition, 
‘This being the cafe, on entering the tem- 
ple of Sleep—in humbler words, before I 
go to bed, I fhall not omit to propitiate 
the prefiding Deity, by repeating that 
beautiful invocation which was intended to 
’ »Monrsyy Mac. Noa, 97. 
travellers have aflumed. 
An Excurfion through France to Geneva. 9 
have been placed under a ftatue of Somnus : 
Somne veni,quanquam certiflima mortis imagoy 
Confortem cupio te, tamen, efie tori! 
Huc ades, haud abiture cito: nam sic fine vita 
Vivere quam fuave eft, fic fine morte mori. 
Once more to my journal: will you 
excufe thefe flighty digreflions? Severe 
as the froft has been, the meridian fun 
has continued to bear fuch great power 
as to have melted vaft quantities of 
fnow, which again have been regularly 
frozen in the night. Too thefe rapid alter 
nations of heat and cold, we are indebted 
for fome fingular fcenery of a very roman- 
tic nature: during a ride of almott fixty 
miles, fromGeneva toNantua, the fides of the 
rocks were covered with ftalactites of ice, 
forty, fifty, fixty feet high, varying in 
breath according to circumftances. A 
whimfical mixture was thus produced of 
the fublime, the beautiful, and that inter- 
mediate fomething, the picturefque: the 
{cenery, taken ez maffe, did, and ever mutt 
belong unqueftionably to the fublime; 
nothing can deftroy the character of fubli- 
mity which is impreffed on thefe dark prim- 
eval rocks, over-hanging the deep valley 
at their feet. But where the {pray of the 
tumbling torrent had been arrefted by froft, 
ten thoufand luftres of the chafteft brilli- 
ancy {parkled for one fhort moment in the 
fun, and prefented a fairy-work of excel- 
ling beauty. Sometimes, to finifn the con- 
trariant character of this {cenery, a bounded 
view appeared of wildnefs, intricacy, and 
abruptnefs, equally remote from the fub- 
lime and beautiful, which ftriétly belonged 
to the picturefque. 
As we re-traced our fteps from Geneva 
as far as Bourge, I fhall take the opportu- 
nity of correcting one cr two trifling mif- 
takes in the account which I gave you of 
the road, for I fhould be forry to be fuf- 
pected of availing myfelf of a certain li- 
cence, which, to their utter difcredit, fome 
Le Lac de Cerdon 
is not fo large, nor fo deep below the road, 
as it appeared to us when we travelled on 
its banks by adufky moon-light; nor is 
the road up Mont Cerdon fo dangerous in 
reality as it appeared to us before. Ap- 
prehenfive of the rapidity of the defcent, 
I determined to walk: R—, after the pof- 
tillion had fecurely locked one of the wheels, 
defcended very fafely in the carriage, two 
of which might pafs each other in. almoft 
any part of the road; my politenefs, how- 
ever, were I inone of them, would hardly 
carry me fo far as to make an offer of the 
wall to the other. On this fubjeé& only 
was my account exaggerated: fo romantic 
a fpot I never beheld, or a gulf move fear 
ful to look down. } 
. On 
