_Lyons, October 13, 1739._ We have been to see a famous monastery,
called the Grand Chartreuse, and had no reason to think our time lost.
After having travelled seven days, very slow (for we did not change
horses, it being impossible for a chaise to go post in these roads), we
arrived at a little village among the mountains of Savoy, called
Echelles; from thence we proceeded on horses, who are used to the way,
to the mountain of the Chartreuse. It is six miles to the top; the road
runs winding up it, commonly not six feet broad; on one hand is the
rock, with woods of pine-trees hanging overhead; on the other, a
monstrous precipice, almost perpendicular, at the bottom of which rolls
a torrent, that sometimes is tumbling among the fragments of stone that
have fallen from on high, and sometimes precipitating itself down vast
descents with a noise like thunder, which is made still greater by the
echo from the mountains on each side, concurs to form one of the most
solemn, the most romantic, and the most astonishing scenes I ever
beheld. Add to this the strange views made by the crags and cliffs on
the other hand, the cascades that in many places throw themselves from
the very summit down into the vale and the river below.
This place St. Bruno chose to retire to, and upon its very top founded
the convent, which is the superior of the whole order. When we came
there, the two fathers who are commissioned to entertain strangers (for
the rest must neither speak to one another nor to anyone else) received
us very kindly, and set before us a repast of dried fish, eggs, butter,
and fruits, all excellent in their kind, and extremely neat. They
pressed us to spend the night there, and to stay some days with them;
but this we could not do, so they led us about their house, which is
like a little city, for there are 100 fathers, besides 300 servants,
that make their clothes, grind their corn, press their wine, and do
everything among themselves. The whole is quite orderly and simple;
nothing of finery, but the wonderful decency and the strange situation
more than supply the place of it.