situated on the left bank of the Rhone. In the arcade of the Bourg du Four, and at the upper part of the passage of the Barrières, there are still some vestiges of Gondibald's gates; and several pieces of architecture still standing-for instance, the Tour Maitresse are identified with the later works of Marcossay.

The principle of increase, however,-for cities wax, in certain circumstances, as naturally as trees -was not destroyed even by so firm a ligature as the present walls; and Geneva, since it could not extend itself laterally, grew upwards. The mode of packing a population, one layer on the top of another, was doubtless introduced by the necessities of war. The smaller the circumference, the more easy the defence; and kings, when building ramparts, never dream of the laws of population. It is curious to notice the unteachability of legislators. In London itself, which the English say is the very emporium of intelligence, it would be hard to discover whether they are at this moment busier pulling down streets that have been found to be too narrow, or erecting others of precisely the same width.

The Genevese have never had time to study architecture. Involved from the earliest ages in a series of wars and revolutions, they were well satisfied to be able to huddle together in any way for protection, and to draw their walls around them like a wet cloak. To-day they expend their mental activity in clock-making and similar arts, and in buying and selling by retail. The watches of Geneva

are much prized in the east of Europe; and we believe a considerable number of those that find their way to England, under the name of French watches, are of Geneva manufacture, slightly altered at Paris.

The only building in the whole town which has any claim upon the traveller's attention is the Temple, par excellence, formerly the cathedral church of St. Peter. This edifice is said to have been begun, towards the close of the tenth century, by Conrad the Pacific, and finished in 1024 by the Emperor Conrad, successor of the house of Burgundy. It stands in the place of an ancient cathedral of the sixth century; itself rising from the ruins of a primitive church destroyed in the second conflagration: these ruins occupied the site of a Roman temple of the sun; and antiquarian ken reaches no farther. The form is that of a Latin cross, elongated from east to west, the two arms surmounted by square towers or belfries, and a third tower, covered with tin, rising between, of the same height as the others. The north tower, apparently the most ancient of the three, contains the great bell, called Clemence, which is twenty feet in circumference round the base. A single blow struck on this bell announces daily the precise instant of noon, determined by a sun-dial placed on the western front of the temple. The façade is modern, and is a very handsome portico of six Corinthian columns of grey marble. The interior is in the heavy Gothic style of the iron ages, before the admixture of the

THE RHONE AND THE ARVE.

23

Arabesque, and is as bare of ornament as Protestant piety could desire, Calvin having carried off and melted the very barrels of the organ.

If there is not much to interest within the town, beyond the walls of Geneva all is enchantment. To the south-west is the confluence of the Rhone and the Arve, where the traveller watches curiously the meeting of two streams of different colour and character, which are seen to run together, yet scarcely jostling on the way. The one is still the blue Rhone, and the other the yellow Arve, at the distance of a league from their first union; but time, habit, and the accidents of travelling, conquer any antipathies, and at length, melting insensibly in the arms of her lover, the coy Arve yields up her identity. And indeed her reluctance does not seem to have been unnatural; for, like the goddess in mythological story, she appears to have been caught up from the flowery plains for the purpose of being hurried into hell itself. The Perte du Rhone, where the river plunges into an abyss and disappears, is about eleven leagues from Geneva, and forms one of the most remarkable spectacles to be seen even in this region of natural wonders.

From the heights of St. Jean, in the immediate vicinity of the town, a very fine view is obtained of the course of the Rhone, and that of the Arve, and of Geneva itself, with the country to the south. Opposite St. Jean, on the left bank of the river, is La Batie, a hill which also affords some beautiful prospects. Its woods, however, were cut down by

the Austrian sappers in 1814; and their melancholy remains, together with the ruins of an old castle, give an air of desolation to the scene. Mount Salève is only a league and a half from the town, and the Voirons only two leagues. On the latter, under its most elevated point, called Mount Calvary, are seen the ruins of the convent of Notre Dame des Voirons, in a situation where one thinks of turning hermit out of pure sadness. If Mount Jura is taken into the account-from the loftier peaks of which is seen the chain of the Jura and that of the Alps as clearly as the imperfection of the human vision allows -together with the walks on the banks of the lake, and a sail on its bosom, it may be concluded truly that Geneva is a perfect paradise of poets and painters.

Being ourselves neither the one nor the other, we left Geneva without much regret, except at parting with our Savoyard. We saw him nod familiarly and joyfully to several acquaintances in the streets. They were little boys-the same that he had played with forty years ago! We would have cheerfully sacrificed all the fame we mean to make by writing these travels, to have been able to follow him into his village.

CHAPTER II.

THE VALLEY OF THE RHONE.

THE traveller who sets out from Geneva, to cross the Alps by the great pass of the Simplon, may choose between two routes as far as St. Maurice, on the frontiers of the Valais. One of these follows, on the Savoy side of the lake, the old road through Thonon and Evian, constructed by Charles Emanuel III. in the hope of renewing the commerce of the country, which had been ruined in the wars of the sixteenth century. At the Tour Ronde, this road dwindled into a little path, pressed together by the terrific cliffs which plunge almost vertically into the lake. Here began the more important labours of the French engineers; and the scenery described so graphically by Rousseau, in the Nouvelle Héloïse, has been survived by the description.

In the sides of these cliffs, called the Rocks of Meilleraie, a highway has been carried, twenty-five. feet broad. Seen from the lake, which is said to be

D