THE ENVIRONS OF SALZBURG--HELLBRUNN, ITS UNIQUE FOUNTAINS
AND GARDENS--THE CASTLE OF ANIF--THE GAISBERG--THE
KAPUZINGERBERG--THE MOZART-HÄUSCHEN--THE
MÖNCHSBERG--SALZBURG CHURCHES
In the neighbourhood of Salzburg there are several beautiful castles
erected by various holders of the See. Amongst them the charmingly
situated Leopoldskron, lying to the south of the Mönchsberg,
overlooking a lake covered in early summer with a profusion of water
lilies and other water plants, and embracing a magnificent prospect of
the environing mountains. The drive to Leopoldskron is one not to be
missed. As one passes along the magnificent avenue, or _allée_, of
trees, through flower-bedecked fields, and with the fresh air from off
the river and mountains perfumed by the carpet of blossoms which lies
stretched on either side of the road, one is able to realize to the
full the rural charm which surrounds the historic and busy town just
left behind.
[Sidenote: HELLBRUNN AND ITS FOUNTAINS]
But a little distance further, on the other side of the Salzach, is
Hellbrunn, once an Archiepiscopal and now an Imperial possession. It
is surrounded by a large deer park, and owes its origin to the
Archbishop Marcus Sittich in 1613. It is pleasantly situated, and was,
according to tradition, the retreat and pleasure palace of its
founder, who was of a far more social and lively disposition than
Archbishops, even in that somewhat lax age, were supposed to be, and
here he installed his favourites. In the chateau itself there are some
fine state apartments, in one of which are some interesting frescoes
by Mascagni, Franz von Sienna, and Solari the younger.
But the gardens and unique fountains and "waterworks," which are laid
out and planned in the style so popular during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, are the great attractions of Hellbrunn, not only
to the foreign visitors, but on Sundays especially to the Salzburg
folk, and those of the neighbouring villages who flock in thousands to
the chateau. In the gardens of Hellbrunn one finds the same velvety
turf that so generally distinguishes those of other castles in this
fertile valley of the Salzach; whilst in the ponds, lakes, fountains,
and "trick" waterworks--invented by the Archbishop, so it is said, to
amuse his favourites during his enforced absences upon his
ecclesiastical duties and affairs of State--one has something quite
out of the ordinary.
Indeed, probably in no other garden in the world do unsuspecting
visitors run such risks of a soaking or impromptu shower baths as at
Hellbrunn. Jets start suddenly (at the turn of secret taps by the
custodian, who seems to take a cynical delight, bred of many
experiences, in the visitor's discomfiture) from rockeries, from the
corners of plaster columns, from the mouths, finger-tips and eyes of
statues, from the foliage of trees, from roofs of grottoes, from the
edges of the very paths along which one is unsuspectingly walking,
from, it appears, the very ground beneath one's feet. One is lured
into a grotto to admire a statue or to "see something" which may or
may not actually exist, only a moment later to find one's exit blocked
by a curtain of water, which pours down from the outside rocks above
the entrance. This lifts and one makes a dash for liberty, only to be
assailed by jets of water converging or spurting across the path one
has to follow. Visitors seat themselves upon a marble bench a few
moments later, and a whole battery of jets plays upon the unfortunate
sitters, or are so arranged that, whilst not actually playing upon
them, to escape without "running the gauntlet," for the amusement of
the more discreet or knowing onlookers, is impossible. On fine Sundays
when there is usually a great crowd of visitors at this favourite
out-of-town resort, which boasts of an excellent restaurant, there is,
of course, plenty of fun when the jets begin to play for the lucky
folk who have "been there before."
Along one path leading from the chateau to the lawns and fish-ponds,
the latter of which are crowded with huge carp and other fish, some of
which are reputed to be as old as Hellbrunn itself, there are set in
niches a number of figures, blacksmiths, armourers, millers, and the
like with their anvils, forges, and mills worked by a tiny runlet of
water. And not far from these is the famous mechanical Theatre, also
worked by water power, with its organ, and some hundred and fifty
figures in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century costumes, which give
quaint performances, depicting a busy town, dancers (these latter very
amusing with their pirouettes and posturings), soldiers, fighting,
jousts, etc. Of the water grottoes that known as the Neptune--with, it
is said, five thousand jets--is the largest, and there are also the
Rainbow, Fairy, and Orpheus grottoes, each one bringing into play some
fresh piece of mechanical or other ingenuity.
In the deer park is situated the famous Monatsschlösschen upon a
wooded knoll, from which a fine view is obtainable. This building was
erected (some say for a bet) within a month's time by Archbishop
Marcus Sittich. There was at the time a popular belief that he was
assisted in the accomplishment of what was, at all events in those
days, a wonderful feat by Satan himself.
[Illustration: MOUNTAIN PASTURES]
The Stone Theatre near by is also worth seeing. It has a naturally
formed stage and auditorium, upon the former of which in ancient times
pastoral and other plays were performed for the amusement of the
Archbishops and their friends.
[Sidenote: ANIF AND THE GAISBERG]
The Castle of Anif, which is reached by a pleasant road from Hellbrunn
in about twenty minutes, is well worth a visit. It is a most charming
chateau dating originally from the second decade of the thirteenth
century, of late years restored in Gothic style by the owner, one of
the Counts Arco-Steppberg. It is built in the centre of a lake, and is
surrounded by a well-wooded and beautiful park, and is of great
interest as a well-preserved survival of the fortified domestic
architecture of other days. It is beautifully furnished, and contains
many finely decorated rooms, and a valuable art collection.
The return to Salzburg through the fields at sunset is a delightful
experience. To the back and to the left of one are the towering
mountain summits tinged with the Alpine glow which turns their rocky
peaks almost blood red, and their snow-fields a deep rose pink. And
right ahead stands up, mystic-looking as some fairy fortress in the
waning light, Hohen-Salzburg, its roofs and walls reddened and given
the tints of nacre, and its windows shining like the open doors of
furnaces. A never-to-be-forgotten picture.
Both the Gaisberg, up which there is now a funicular railway, and at
whose foot Aigen, with its interesting Church and Castle acquired by
the family of Prince Schwarzenberg in 1804, lies, and the
Kapuzingerberg should be visited by all who have the time, and for
whom a wide and pleasant prospect of mountain ranges, valleys, and the
Salzach, threading its silvery way dividing the city and flowing
northward and southward through the valley, has attractions.
The Gaisberg is ascended from the little village of Parsch, reached by
tram from the city. The railway takes one through beautiful scenery in
about an hour to the summit of the mountain, which is so favourite an
excursion with the well-to-do Salzburgers, and from which such a
beautiful prospect is spread out at one's feet. To the north one can
catch glimpses of the undulating foreground of the Alps and shining
lakes; whilst Salzburg now more than 4000 feet below looks almost
insignificant, and like a toy town set in the midst of a green plain
through which winds a thin, silver line, the Salzach. In the far
distance is the magnificent range of the Alps, in which stand the
Watzmann, 9050 feet; the Dachstein, 9990 feet, with its rocky
pinnacles catching the sunshine, and its glaciers and snow-fields
gleaming white, whilst in the further distance through the deep-cut
gap formed by the Lueg Pass one sees the fields of eternal snow on the
Hohen Tauern glinting at one, and on a quite clear day one can catch
glimpses of the white peaks of the Grossglockner, 12,660 feet and the
Wiesbachhorn, 11,900 feet, across the desolate-looking Steinerne Meer.
The prospect has been compared, but somewhat loosely we think, to that
from the Rigi. But, whether we think it finer or less fine, we can
agree that in one respect the view and interest of the scene is not
exceeded by its Swiss rival--the wonderful changes of light and shade
which come and go over the landscape between the hours of sunrise and
sunset, during which Nature seems to work with a brush full of the
most delicate colours and uses them as no human artist could hope to
do.
From the Kapuzingerberg, which is only half the height of the
Gaisberg, the view is not so extensive, but it is well worth climbing
to see. On the way up one obtains most beautiful peeps of the city
from two distinct points; whilst from the summit one gets a panorama
which will satisfy all save those who have made the Gaisberg ascent
first. The way up is, after a long flight of steps about two hundred
in number, through a most delightful beech wood, where one is tempted
often to stop to rest or to admire some vista of the valley or town
seen through a framework of feathery, green branches. There are, too,
on the Kapuzingerberg several interesting buildings. The first to be
reached is the Church of the Capuchin Monastery built in the last year
of the sixteenth century by Archbishop Wolf Dietrich. A beautiful old
garden is attached to the Monastery, from which one has a fine
prospect of the town and surroundings. Alas! it is only open to men,
and thus by monkish custom women are shut out of one more "earthly
paradise."
[Sidenote: THE MOZART MEMORIAL]
But to music lovers and many others who ascend the Kapuzingerberg the
Mozart-Häuschen, situated in a charming little garden near the
Monastery, will be the chief object of interest. This memorial to the
master was presented to the city by Prince Camillo zu Starhemberg, and
was completed in June, 1877, being thrown open to the public six weeks
later, on July 18th, on the occasion of the first musical festival.
This cottage, which formerly stood in the courtyard of the so-called
old "Freihaus" in Vienna, has an added interest from the fact that in
it was composed the opera "Die Zauberflöte."
The furniture, it should be noted, is not the original but a clever
and exact copy of the articles comprising it. The former is in the
collection of Prince Starhemberg. The top step of the cottage is,
however, said to be "veritable." In the cottage are kept a great
number of wreaths with ribbon streamers, embroideries, etc., which
have been sent by admirers of Mozart's genius. Also some beautiful
tablets of embossed metal commemorating the first musical festival
held in 1877. There is also hung in the cottage the picture "Mozart at
the Spinet" by the Italian artist Romaco, a photograph of the only
portrait of the composer painted from life which is known to exist,
which was the work of Doris Stock of Dresden in 1787; and the pictures
of the various performers in the operas given at Cassel. The bust,
which stands outside the cottage, is the work of the well-known
sculptor Edmund Hellmer, of Vienna, and was the gift of Baron Schwarz.
As one stands in the garden, with its pleasant prospect, quietude, and
beautiful flowers, one cannot but feel that few more suitable spots
could have been selected for a memorial to a musical genius of
Mozart's nature. Far better is it, indeed, than some more pretentious
place nearer the haunts of men.
[Sidenote: ON THE MÖNCHSBERG]
The Mönchsberg and a walk along its ridge should not be missed by any
one who has a little time to spare whilst at Salzburg. The explorer
will be well rewarded for his toil. One is apt to estimate the
Mönchsberg by its Hohen-Salzburg end, which so dominates the city. It
is difficult, indeed, from down below in the narrow streets to believe
that some 300 feet above one lie not only woods and tree-shaded walks,
but even green, flower-bedecked fields. The most direct and
interesting way up the Mönchsberg is by the Sigmund Haffnergasse and
Hofstallgasse bearing to the left of the Fischbrunnen, and thence over
the Mönchsbergstiege. On reaching the top of the flight of steps the
way lies in the direction of Hohen-Salzburg as far as the passage
leading into the Nonnthal and to Leopoldskron, then one climbs to the
left, and after a little distance reaches the beautiful view point
known as Konig Ludwig-Fernsicht, or King Ludvig's Lookout.
The prospect from here is wonderfully wide and beautiful, embracing as
it does the villas on the other side of the town, and the villages and
farms of the valley with their picturesque background of mountain
ranges, including nearer in the Göll and Untersberg.
[Illustration: HOHEN-SALZBURG AND THE NONNBERG]
To the left and on the way along the ridge to the fortress is situated
the beautiful villa of the famous singer Bianca Bianchi, and from the
projecting bastion in the same direction one obtains a fine view of
the town below, and valley of the Salzach. Both in the direction of
Mülln to the right, and of Hohen-Salzburg to the left, there are
many fine views as one takes one's way either by shaded paths or
through the fields which lead to the Bürgerwehrsöller, where there is
an ancient watch-tower on the slope of the hill from whence one has a
wonderful panoramic view of the city and its environs. From the
opposite end of the rampart one obtains a widely extended prospect
towards Reichenhall, Marzoll, Maxglan, and the Bavarian plain, which
is not easily surpassed from the neighbourhood of any other town of
the size in western Austria.
One can then either descend to the Marketenderschlössl through the
beautiful woods by one of the well-kept paths, and thence reach Mülln,
or retrace one's steps, and walk right along to the Hohen-Salzburg end
of the Mönchsberg, from whence by entering the fortress and descending
by way of the Nonnberg one obtains a fine view of the other portion of
the Salzach valley in the direction of the Gaisberg, Hellbrunn, and
Anif.
On the Nonnberg, so called from the Benedictine Convent built upon it,
stands the fine Gothic Chapel founded in the first year of the
eleventh century and beautifully restored in the fifteenth. In it is
much fine stained glass, a winged altar piece of great interest; and
there are also some interesting frescoes in the old tower.
Unfortunately the cloisters are seldom if ever shown to visitors; they
are the oldest now existent in the principality, and it is said even
in the Austrian empire, dating as they do from the commencement of the
eleventh century. They are charming and picturesque, and well worth
the trouble which it is generally necessary to take in order to obtain
permission to see them.
In Salzburg there is such a wealth of interesting buildings and places
that to describe all one has seen or can see there is no space.
Perhaps of those remaining to which reference has not yet been made,
most people visit the house in which Mozart was born, situated in the
narrow, picturesque old Getreidegasse; the Franciscan, formerly the
Parish Church; the Church of St. Peter, with its ancient and
picturesque burial-ground beneath the shadow of the towering fern- and
flower-clothed Mönchsberg, and the Caroline Augustus Museum. There
are, of course, also the Dreifaltigkeits Kirche, with fine frescoes
and carvings, and the University Church, both worth a visit.
To Mozart's birthplace, along the quaint and narrow Getreidegasse with
its beautiful old signs of wrought-iron work projecting from the shop
fronts on either hand, come hundreds of English and American visitors
annually. Now the house is also a Mozart Museum, with much of interest
for admirers of the composer, antiquarians and students. In the
birth-chamber itself one finds a most valuable series of family
portraits, including some of Mozart's wife, Constance Weber; also
those of his landlord and his wife, Lorenz Johann and Maria Theresa
Hagenauer. There are also the "scores" of many of his operas, and
other compositions, records of the Mozart family; and perhaps most
interesting of all the small clavichord or spinet, and the grand piano
or reiseclavier, which was a present from his brother Karl, on which
he used to play.
In the family sitting-room there are many interesting relics of the
composer's father, mother, and other relatives, including Mozart's own
pocket-book-diary, a large number of fragments of compositions, which
from one cause or another were destined never to be completed, many
letters of the family, copies of Mozart's three first published pieces
printed in Paris, and several pictures of the house in the
Rauhensteingasse, Vienna, where the composer for some years lived and
ultimately, on January 5, 1791, died. Salzburg has well-honoured her
famous son's memory by the several memorials of him within her gates,
including the fine though simply conceived bronze statue in the
Mozart-Platz which cost nearly £2000, and was erected by voluntary
subscriptions in 1842. By the foundation of the Mozarteum or "Society
for the Cultivation of Mozart," not only is the memory of the great
composer kept green, but the support of the School of Music of the
same name is ensured. Thus the city of his birth, which did him (as is
so frequently the case) but little honour during his lifetime, has
nowadays become the centre of enthusiasm for his works. Festivals of
his music take place during the summer months, at which not only the
famous and beautiful Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra takes part, but
also the most celebrated conductors and artistes.
Although Salzburg had been the residence of other famous musicians and
composers, it is Mozart and his genius which dominates the ancient
city's musical life, and proves so attractive an element to musicians
and music lovers who visit it.
[Sidenote: SALZBURG MUSICIANS]
Michael Haydn, too, composer of much fine church music, was a resident
in Salzburg and has a rather commonplace monument erected to his
memory in St. Peter's Church. The latter is in the Romanesque style,
founded in the middle of the twelfth century, and badly restored in
the middle of the eighteenth, and is of great interest to the
antiquarian and student of architecture. The portal consists of seven
arches which gradually diminish in size, and are inlaid with strips of
white and red marble. The very remarkable archings which strike one
directly one has entered the building are portions of the original
church. On a small altar near the vestry is a well-carved statue of
the Virgin, said to be the work of one of the Archbishops, of about
the end of the twelfth century, although there appears little real
evidence in support of the suggestion.
The frescoes in the nave, representing scenes from the Crucifixion,
painted in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, are worth study.
In Salzburg considerable store is set upon the monuments in the
church, but few rank high as works of art, although marking the graves
or being memorials of distinguished and historic persons connected
with the city's life in the past.
The beautiful though ruinous cemetery of St. Peter, which, with its
crumbling tombs of the great dead, interesting and quaint mural
tablets, and arcaded vaults belonging to some of the most important
and famous Salzburg families, lies at the foot of the Mönchsberg, is,
as well as the most picturesque, the oldest cemetery in Salzburg. It
is difficult to exaggerate the interest and charm of the spot; always
still, although set in the midst of a city, and within a few hundred
yards of the principal and busiest thoroughfares. That it possesses a
wonderful and mysterious attraction for tourists we can testify; and,
indeed, we would almost go as far as to say that one meets more
English and American visitors in this peaceful corner of the city than
in any other spot on the southern side of the Salzach.
The celebrated Monastery of St. Peter, founded by St. Rupertus in
(about) 582, was, until the first decade of the twelfth century, the
residence of the bishops and archbishops of the diocese. The present
building was erected during the reign of Archbishop Max Gandolph
during the period covered by the years 1661-1674. It can be visited,
and the library is full of the most interesting and valuable MSS.,
early copper plate engravings, and consists of about 45,000 volumes
and some 250 illuminated and other MSS., chiefly upon parchment.
Several of the latter and some of the early printed books are
practically priceless. The Librarian is always delighted to exhibit
the treasures under his charge, and in him we found (as doubtless will
all intelligent bibliophiles) a kindred spirit, and a most interesting
cicerone.
[Sidenote: THE MUSEUM]
It is almost impossible in Salzburg, especially if one would really
know something of the past life of the principality, and the city, to
follow that excellent rule of avoiding museums. In the Salzburg
Carolino-Augusteum Museum one finds so much that brings vividly before
one other times and other customs. Although started but three-quarters
of a century ago the Museum has already become a repository of the
deepest interest, much frequented by students of all types, the
antiquarian and the man of science. It was due to the initiative of
Vicenza Maria Süss, one of the leading town officials at the period of
its foundation in 1834. The work which he began was well continued and
supplemented by that of Jost Schiffmann, the well-known Swiss painter,
and an enthusiastic committee, largely to whose credit must be placed
the excellent arrangement of the art and other sections of the
collection.
One of the most interesting and unique features of the Museum is the
suite of rooms furnished accurately and entirely in the style of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; of these one of the most charming
is the "Hunting Room" with its fine oak presses, pretty recessed
window, and trophies of the chase. In the Hall of Antiquities are many
interesting relics of the Roman occupation of the country, and also in
the Lapidarium. A most excellent idea took shape in the Hall of
Industry, where are collected together many excellent specimens of
various "masterworks" of iron, woodcarving, etc.
The Music Room contains some of the most valuable musical instruments
of the last three centuries, including spinets, violins, and others,
some of these priceless. In the Armoury are relics of deep interest of
the terrible Peasants' War, including wooden cannon, crude swords
beaten from scythes, executioners' swords, curious and cumbersome
firearms, and some of the lances used by the Landsknechte.
The Costume Room has many attractions for lady visitors, who linger
not only to admire the fashions of the past, but to inspect the
embroideries which came from the industrious and skilful fingers of
past generations of women, "old" with the dignity, grace, and charm
which the "new" woman so sadly lacks.
On the same floor are the interesting Mediæval Kitchen, with its
ancient and carefully kept copper and other utensils glinting at one
from their hooks in the half-gloom of the recesses; the Ladies'
Chamber, with its charming oriel, stained-glass window, colour of life
of the period, and air of repose; the study, to show one the
environment old-time students loved; a fine state-room; and a
beautiful Renaissance Hall.
After these vivid reconstructions of the past one passes somewhat
regretfully to the higher floor and prehistoric things. The priceless
Celtic helmet, found in the Pass of Lueg, interesting though it is,
seems "lifeless" in comparison with what one has just seen; as do
somehow Roman statues and arms, and similar objects. And one needs the
beautiful and richly ornamented panelling, oriels, and similar objects
of the final room to bring back colour into things.
To visit and study this deeply interesting collection leaves one with
a very good idea of the evolution of culture, science, and art during
the last five centuries of the principality's history, one's knowledge
of native art being easily further extended by a visit to the
Kunstlerhaus near the Karolinenbrucke. Salzburg has produced at least
one great artist in Hans Makart, who by common consent is esteemed one
of the most vivid and brilliant colourists of his day.
In some of the villages near Salzburg, as also during "fair" times and
festival times in the city itself, one is able to witness some of the
quaint, picturesque, and dramatic peasant dances for which the valley
of the Salzach has some reputation.
[Sidenote: A PEASANTS' BALL]
We were especially fortunate whilst recently there in witnessing not
only peasant dances such as we have referred to, but also a peasant
ball.
Amongst the dances specially notable was a variety of "Gaillarde," and
"Allemande," a type of the dance known as "Siebensprung," where the
male performers make a series of seven different movements with
hands, elbows, knees, feet; and then almost touch the floor with
their foreheads whilst their female companions pirouette around them.
The "Allemande," with its graceful twirling and twisting, and
interlacing of the arms, and graceful bending of the bodies of the
dancers, showing off the lines of the women's figures, is especially
picturesque.
Then came types of other and more local dances, in one of which the
women pirouetted round and round the room until scarcely able to
stand, their short skirts gradually seeming to become inflated like
balloons, and ascending inch by inch until knee high, when suddenly
the dancers paused, their skirts fell, and with a sharp twirl and
swish the latter were wound around their lower limbs in plastic folds.
Then there was a pretty dance commencing with a figure of the
"Allemande," and proceeding to a courtship in pantomime, in which the
women peered shyly at their partners between the circle formed by the
interlaced arms, and ending by the men stooping, and whilst continuing
a waltz step, suddenly seizing their companions round the knees and
lifting them breast high, all the while continuing to circle the room
in a "springy" rather than a gliding waltz.
Then followed a still more dramatic dance-play, in which the whole
story of a peasant courtship from early days until the wedding was
depicted in pantomime, with half a dozen characters beside the happy
pair. Most of the performers were not only graceful and finished
dancers, but were possessed of distinct dramatic gifts. The folk
songs, accompanied upon rather weird instruments consisting of
shepherds' pipes, guitars, fiddles, horns, and what, until it was put
together, appeared to be a collection of short pieces of gas pipe of
various lengths or strips of metal, were intensely interesting and
musical.
What struck us perhaps more than anything else, save the actual
dancing and singing, was the charming manners of the women, and the
perfect manners of the men. Peasants though they were, there was a
complete absence of coarseness or roughness in general behaviour, in
place of which one had perhaps a rather grave courtesy. And when at
last it occurred to some of the men that perhaps the "foreigners"
might like to dance, they approached the ladies of the party with a
striking grace and courtesy of manner. The Salzburg girls, too, in
their pretty costumes were just as gracious and charming as English
girls of the upper middle class, when asked to favour some of the
English men of the party with a dance. The scene was made even more
kaleidoscopic in effect when at last the sombre evening dress of the
latter mingled with and formed a foil to gay kerchiefs, snowy white
bodices worn under a type of bolero jacket of the women, and the green
and bright brown waistcoats and short knee breeches of the men. Across
some of the waistcoats, which were many of them fastened with silver
buttons, jangled quite a collection of coins, exhibiting (so we were
told) the financial position of the wearer, so that any girl might
know what a suitor or possible suitor was worth! We hope that no young
man ever puts upon his waistcoat a single silver krone piece more than
he is entitled to. But if very much in love to what deception of this
kind might he not stoop? And mercenary indeed must be the maiden who
would not in the end pardon his offence, which was so warm a tribute
to the power of her charms.
[Illustration: SALZBURG MARKETWOMEN]
[Sidenote: IN THE MARKET]
Even nowadays a good deal of "costume" can at times be found in the
Market, which, surrounded by old-time building and dominated by
Hohen-Salzburg, is very picturesque with its tiny stalls--some shaded
by huge umbrellas--and buxom market women in short skirts, gay
kerchiefs, and sometimes in types of the peasant costumes prevailing
in the immediate district. As a general rule the market folk are good
models both for artists and amateur photographers, though some of
the younger women coquettishly pretend that they object to be
photographed, whilst all the while they are desperately anxious to
come into the picture.
To leave this fascinating old-world town, where so much of the most
beautiful in modern ideas stands side by side with ancient things,
without a visit to some of the charming and interesting places in the
immediate district--lovely lakes rivalling the deep-blue sky above
them in the tint of their waters; peaceful valleys, where pure air
invigorates scented by passage through pinewoods and across
flower-decked Alpine pastures; wonderful peaks covered with that
eternal weight of glorious snow, and bound about in some cases by the
immemorial fastnesses of environing glaciers--should be impossible.
Our only regret is that neither space nor the scope of the present
volume permits of some description of the beauties which we have
visited and which lie so close at hand; indeed, almost within call of
the beautiful city set in a valley, and surrounded with majestic and
lofty mountains, the lower slopes of whose wilder peaks are softened
by pine forests, and fertile upper pastures.