MR. LOWTHER, TO JOHN ARNOLD, ESQ.
(HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW) IN LONDON.
BOLOGNA, MAY 5-16.
I will now, my dear brother, give you a circumstantial account of our
short, but flying journey. The 20th of April, O.S. early in the morning,
we left Paris, and reached Lyons the 24th, at night.
Resting but a few hours, we set out for Pont Beauvoisin, where we arrived
the following evening: There we bid adieu to France, and found ourselves
in Savoy, equally noted for its poverty and rocky mountains. Indeed it
was a total change of the scene. We had left behind us a blooming
spring, which enlivened with its verdure the trees and hedges on the road
we passed, and the meadows already smiled with flowers. The cheerful
inhabitants were busy in adjusting their limits, lopping their trees,
pruning their vines, tilling their fields: but when we entered Savoy,
nature wore a very different face; and I must own, that my spirits were
great sufferers by the change. Here we began to view on the nearer
mountains, covered with ice and snow, notwithstanding the advanced
season, the rigid winter, in frozen majesty, still preserving its
domains: and arriving at St. Jean Maurienne the night of the 26th, the
snow seemed as if it would dispute with us our passage; and horrible was
the force of the boisterous winds, which sat full in our faces.
Overpowered by the fatigues I had undergone in the expedition we had
made, the unseasonable coldness of the weather, and the fight of one of
the worst countries under heaven, still clothed in snow, and deformed by
continual hurricanes; I was here taken ill. Sir Charles was greatly
concerned for my indisposition, which was increased by a great lowness of
spirits. He attended upon me in person; and never had man a more kind
and indulgent friend. Here we stayed two days; and then, my illness
being principally owing to fatigue, I found myself enabled to proceed.
At two of the clock in the morning of the 28th, we prosecuted our
journey, in palpable darkness, and dismal weather, though the winds were
somewhat laid, and reaching the foot of Mount Cenis by break of day,
arrived at Lanebourg, a poor little village, so environed by high
mountains, that for three months in the twelve, it is hardly visited by
the cheering rays of the sun. Every object which here presents itself is
excessively miserable. The people are generally of an olive complexion,
with wens under their chins; some so monstrous, especially women, as
quite disfigure them.
Here it is usual to unscrew and take in pieces the chaises, in order to
carry them on mules over the mountain: and to put them together on the
other side: For the Savoy side of the mountain is much more difficult to
pass than the other. But Sir Charles chose not to lose time; and
therefore lest the chaise to the care of the inn-keeper; proceeding, with
all expedition, to gain the top of the hill.
The way we were carried, was as follows:--A kind of horse, as it is
called with you, with two poles, like those of chairmen, was the vehicle;
on which is secured a sort of elbow chair, in which the traveller sits.
A man before, another behind, carry this open machine with so much
swiftness, that they are continually running and skipping, like wild
goats, from rock to rock, the four miles of that ascent. If a traveller
were not prepossessed that these mountaineers are the surest-footed
carriers in the universe, he would be in continual apprehensions of being
overturned. I, who never undertook this journey before, must own, that I
could not be so fearless, on this occasion as Sir Charles was, though he
had very exactly described to me how every thing would be. Then, though
the sky was clear when we passed this mountain, yet the cold wind blew
quantities of frozen snow in our faces; insomuch that it seemed to me
just as if people were employed, all the time we were passing, to wound
us with the sharpest needles. They indeed call the wind that brings this
sharp-pointed snow, The Tormenta.
An adventure, which any-where else might have appeared ridiculous, I was
afraid would have proved fatal to one of our chairmen, as I will call
them. I had flapt down my hat to screen my eyes from the fury of that
deluge of sharp-pointed frozen-snow; and it was blown off my head, by a
sudden gust, down the precipices: I gave it for lost, and was about to
bind a handkerchief over the woolen-cap, which those people provide to
tie under the chin; when one of the assistant carriers (for they are
always six in number to every chair, in order to relieve one another)
undertook to recover it. I thought it impossible to be done; the passage
being, as I imagined, only practicable for birds: however, I promised him
a crown reward, if he did. Never could the leaps of the most dexterous
of rope-dancers be compared to those of this daring fellow: I saw him
sometimes jumping from rock to rock, sometimes rolling down a declivity
of snow like a ninepin, sometimes running, sometimes hopping, skipping;
in short, he descended like lightning to the verge of a torrent, where he
found the hat. He came up almost as quick, and appeared as little
fatigued, as if he had never left us.
We arrived at the top in two hours, from Lanebourg; and the sun was
pretty high above the horizon. Out of a hut, half-buried in snow, came
some mountaineers, with two poor sledges, drawn by mules, to carry us
through the Plain of Mount Cenis, as it is called, which is about four
Italian miles in length, to the descent of the Italian side of the
mountain. These sledges are not much different from the chairs, or
sedans, or horse, we then quitted; only the two under poles are flat, and
not so long as the others, and turning up a little at the end, to hinder
them from sticking fast in the snow. To the fore-ends of the poles are
fixed two round sticks, about two feet and a half long, which serve for a
support and help to the man who guides the mule, who, running on the snow
between the mule and the sledge, holds the sticks with each hand.
It was diverting to see the two sledgemen striving to outrun each other.
Encouraged by Sir Charles's generosity, we very soon arrived at the other
end of the plain. The man who walked, or rather ran, between the sledge
and the mule, made a continual noise; hallooing and beating the stubborn
beast with his fists, which otherwise would be very slow in its motion.
At the end of this plain we found such another hut as that on the
Lanebourg side. Here they took off the smoking mules from the sledges,
to give them rest.
And now began the most extraordinary way of travelling that can be
imagined. The descent of the mountain from the top of this side, to a
small village called Novalesa, is four Italian miles. When the snow has
filled up all the inequalities of the mountain, it looks, in many parts,
as smooth and equal as a sugar-loaf. It is on the brink of this rapid
descent that they put the sledge. The man who is to guide it, sits
between the feet of the traveller, who is seated in the elbow-chair, with
his legs at the outside of the sticks fixed at the fore-ends of the flat
poles, and holds the two sticks with his hands; and when the sledge has
gained the declivity, its own weight carries it down with surprising
celerity. But as the immense irregular rocks under the snow make now
and then some edges in the declivity, which, if not avoided, would
overturn the sledge; the guide, who foresees the danger, by putting his
foot strongly and dexterously in the snow next to the precipice, turns
the machine, by help of the above-mentioned sticks, the contrary way,
and by way of zig-zag goes to the bottom. Such was the velocity of this
motion, that we dispatched these four miles in less than five minutes;
and, when we arrived at Novalesa, hearing that the snow was very deep
most of the way to Susa, and being pleased with our way of travelling, we
had some mules put again to the sledges, and ran all the way to the very
gates of that city, which is seven miles distant from Mount Cenis.
In our way we had a cursory view of the impregnable fortress of Brunetta,
the greatest part of which is cut out of the solid rock, and commands
that important pass.
We rested all night at Susa; and, having bought a very commodious
post-chaise, we proceeded to Turin, where we dined; and from thence, the
evening of May 2, O.S. got to Parma by way of Alexandria and Placentia,
having purposely avoided the high road through Milan, as it would have
cost us a few hours more time.
Sir Charles observed to me, when we were on the plain or flat top of
Mount Cenis, that had not the winter been particularly long and severe,
we should have had, instead of this terrible appearance of snow there,
flowers starting up, as it were, under our feet, of various kinds, which
are hardly to be met with anywhere else. One of the greatest dangers, he
told me, in passing this mount in winter, arises from a ball of snow,
which is blown down from the top by the wind, or falls down by some other
accident; which, gathering all the way in its descent, becomes instantly
of such a prodigious bigness, that there is hardly any avoiding being
carried away with it, man and beast, and smothered in it. One of these
balls we saw rolling down; but as it took another course than ours, we
had no apprehension of danger from it.
At Parma we found expecting us, the bishop of Nocera, and a very reverend
father, Marescotti by name; who expressed the utmost joy at the arrival
of Sir Charles Grandison, and received me, at his recommendation, with a
politeness which seems natural to them. I will not repeat what I have
written before of this excellent young gentleman; intrepidity, bravery,
discretion, as well as generosity, are conspicuous parts of his
character. He is studious to avoid danger; but is unappalled in it. For
humanity, benevolence, providence for others, to his very servants, I
never met with his equal.
My reception from the noble family to which he has introduced me; the
patient's case, (a very unhappy one!); and a description of this noble
city, and the fine country about it; shall be the subject of my next.
Assure all my friends of my health, and good wishes for them; and, my
dear Arnold, believe me to be
Ever yours, &c.