and make their own cloth with it. We saw many females employed in spinning it into yarn. The little town of Pont-de-Beauvoisin stands partly in France and partly in the Duchy of Savoy. At this place our baggage was leniently examined, and our stop limited to about half an hour. The Douaniers of his Sardinian Majesty compelled my friend to pay a duty, not a very heavy one, on a piece of English broad cloth. They were also very strict in their search after religious books, particularly a prohibited volume called "The Holy Scriptures."

Here the Pope's Church" doth mightily prevail:

"She parcels out the BIBLE by retail;

"But still expoundeth all the people have,
"To keep it in her power to damn and save;
“Lest, making narrower search, they find, tho' late,
"That what they think the priest's, is their estate;
"And, taught by " will produc'd," the written word,
"How long he has been cheated on record,
"Each man, who plainly sees the title fair,

"Should claim his part and put in for a share.”

There happened to be a market held at Pont-de-Beauvoisin, which gave us an opportunity of seeing a tolerably numerous assemblage of the peasantry; and a more swarthy race both of males and females than the generality there congregated, I never beheld. I took a momentary occasion, whilst our trunks were undergoing the custo

"Not only are all the Editions of the Scriptures, which may have been published by the Bible Societies in the vulgar tongues of Roman Catholic States, prohibited absolutely and universally; but in one of the latest additions to the Index, (a single sheet printed in 1820, and containing the works to be prohibited since the date of that index in 1819), are three separate editions of the New Testament, in Italian; two of them from the Vulgate, by Martini, Archbishop of Florence, one printed at

mary ordeal, to look into the church that stands on the Savoy side, a respectable clean edifice, and from its reviving coolness as opposed to the noon-tide radiance, an agreeable retreat. The pictures were out of the common. order of those that decorate the village churches. It appears by the uniform answer made to our inquiries, that the Savoyards consider themselves in a much worse condition than their French neighbours.

Soon after quitting this frontier town we entered an amphitheatre of mountains, crowned with foliage to the very tops. The exuberance of vegetation at this season seems universal, and mitigates the surrounding horrors of rocks, caverns, precipices, and torrents; whose overwhelming prevalence must, in Winter's icy reign, render this a dreadful abode. Here the vines, instead of being supported with sticks as in France, are trained along posts, rails, and such trees as come within their line, which gives them a less formal appearance. Our first repast in Savoy was partaken in one of the most romantic spots that can well be imagined. Having brought with us from Lyon a small basket of provisions; (and the shade of some widespreading chesnut trees inviting us) we ordered the postillion to stop, sent our servant to the civil folks of an adjacent cottage to fill a water bottle at their pure spring,

Leghorn, none of them stated to have a single heretical note, but all alike prohibited, as unfit to be read. The prohibitory clause is as follows: The Pope having recited the condemnation of the New Testaments in question, proceeds" Itaque nemo cujuscunque gradus et conditionis prædicta opera damnata atque proscripta, quocumque loco et quocumque idiomate, aut in posterum edere, aut edita legere, vel retinere audeat, sub pœnis," &c.66 Therefore let no one, of whatever rank and condition, presume in any place or in any language whatsoever, hereafter to publish, or if published to read, or retain the aforesaid condemned and proscribed works, on pain of, &c."-See Sir R. Inglis's speech in the House of Commons, May, 1825.

and seating ourselves on the velvet moss enjoyed the meal al fresco. Close behind us at the side of the ridge of Rochers was a steep coteau of vines, with the vine-dressers at work. On our right a boundless view into France. In front and far extending to our left were wooded hills of towering altitude, tremendous crags, and cascades bounding from them into the deep, extensive, verdant dell below.

Continuing our ride in this extraordinary countrysometimes ascending, sometimes descending places equally precipitous, we are carried along a broad and admirable road of which the expense to the Sardinian Government must have been prodigious, it being in many parts cut through the living rock. The varieties and contrasts of scenery from the entrance of the Pass of La Chaille to the village of Les Echelles are indeed almost without end and without parrallel. With unlocked wheels we go downhill at a full trot by the edge of abysses so hideously profound, that but for the sense of protection imparted by a well-raised parapet, they would affect the nerves even of the thoroughly initiated voyager. With a perpendicular and oftentimes a projecting line of cliff, several hundred yards above our heads, we look over and see the torrent of the Guiers, which flowing from the elevated regions of the Grande Chartreuse, forms in reality a considerable and impetuous stream; but now seems dwindled into a mere thread of water, and its sounding course through a stony channel cannot be heard so far. In our front the mountains increase in magnitude and loftiness. Whilst our eyes were yet rivetted to these grandeurs of Creation, a sudden turn conveyed us into the winding recesses of a forest, where over-arching trees

concealed both the beauties and the dangers that environed us; and we pursued a path of delightful shade till an equally abrupt change of direction brought us to the entrance of another stupendous amphitheatre. Thus proceeding through several more wondrous passages, we at length came to a point where

"Rocks pil'd on rocks as if by magic spell,"

like one vast wall reared upon another, appeared to deny an outlet. Here it was that Charles Emmanuel II. Duke of Savoy, in 1670, caused to be executed the great work which does so much honour to his memory. The road called La Grotte, having been blocked up by a fall of rock, Napoleon, in 1803, gave orders for a new route to be excavated, and the work was achieved to a great extent. A superb tunnel, many hundred feet in length, wide and high in proportion, has been perforated through an enormous cliff. The prospect seen from its entrance, like most of those in this part of Savoy, was at once terrific and pleasing. If "the rocky summits frown," the fertile vallies smile; and could we, for the scattered and miserable hovels of the peasantry, but substitute a sprinkling of neat cottages, à l'Anglaise, the valley of the Echelles though shut in so closely by Nature's fortifications, would prove an agreeable abode for the summer visitor. The road in many parts is extremely good, in others rough and troublesome; but all the way broad enough for two carriages to pass abreast. It is carried over many brooks, by means of aqueducts and bridges. Several of these structures are chef d'œuvres of engineer architecture; and surprise not less by the boldness of their design, than they please by the symmetry of their

form and the skilfulness of their execution. It was under the care of the lately deceased King, Victor Emanuel, that the new road of the Grotto (begun, suspended, and recommenced three different times by the French) was completed. And by order of the present Sovereign some important ameliorations are at this moment in hand from the Echelles to St. Thibauld-de-Coux. We stopped at a cascade by the side of the road leading to the last named place, and left the carriage to have a closer view of its pellucid waters sparkling in the evening sun, which gilded our way through a rich and cultivated country. I could suppose that the scene we then beheld had been witnessed by the Poet who evinces his descriptive powers in the following lines:

"The mountains, yielding to a fruitful vale,
“Within their range half circling had enclosed
"A fair expanse in verdure smooth. The bounds
"Were edg'd with wood, o'erhung by hoary cliffs,
"Which from the clouds bent frowning. Down the rock,
“A tumbling torrent wore the shagged stone:
"And gleaming through the interval of shade,
"Attain'd the valley, where the level stream
"Diffus'd refreshment."

We arrived at Chambery about five o'clock, highly gratified with our day's journey: and after dinner made a tour de promenade in this ancient yet certainly not very interesting city. It is situated in a pleasant plain; and its picturesque advantages are heightened by the rivulet Albano uniting there to the more powerful stream of the Laissi, whose receptacle is the Lake du Bourget. The lofty hills by which it is surrounded offer themselves in