The
Poorest Savoyard In Paris Never Fails To Remit Something For The Support Of
His Parents.
Both Voltaire and Rousseau have rendered justice to the good
qualities of this honest people.
It is a thousand pities that this country
(Savoy) is not either incorporated with France, or made to form part of the
Helvetic confederacy.
On passing by La Meillerie we were reminded of "La nouvelle Heloise" and
the words of St Preux: "Le rocher est escarpe: l'eau est profonde et je
suis au desespoir." On the opposite side of the lake is to be seen the
little white town of Clarens, the supposed residence of the divine Julie. A
little beyond St Gingolph, which lies at the eastern extremity of the lake,
we quit Savoy and enter into the Valais, which now forms, a component part
of the Helvetic confederacy. German is the language spoken in the Valais.
As the high road into Italy passes thro' the whole length of this Canton,
Napoleon caused it to be separated from the Helvetic union and to form a
Republic apart, with the ulterior view and which he afterwards carried into
execution of annexing it to the French Empire. The Valais forms a long and
exceedingly narrow valley, thro' the whole length of which the Rhone flows
and falls into the lake Leman at St Gingolph. The breadth of this valley in
its widest part is not more probably than 1,000 yards, and in most places
considerably narrower, and it is enclosed on each side, or rather walled up
by the immense mountains of the higher Alps which rise here very abruptly
and seem to shut out this valley from the rest of the world. The high road
runs nearly parallel to the course of the Rhone and is sometimes on one
side of the river and sometimes on the other, communicating by bridges;
from the sinuosity of the road and the different points of view presented
by the salient and re-entering angles, of the mountains the scenery is
extremely picturesque, grand and striking, and as sometimes no outlet
presents itself to view, you do not perceive how you are ever to get out of
this valley but by a stratagem similar to that of Sindbad in the Valley of
Diamonds. At St Maurice is a remarkable one-arched bridge built by the
Romans. We stopped at Martigny to pass the night; within one mile of
Martigny and before arriving at it, we perceived the celebrated waterfall
called the Pissevache; and the appellation, though coarse, is perfectly
applicable. From Martigny a bridle road branches off which leads across the
Grand St Bernard to Aoste. The next morning we arrived at Sion, called in
the language of the country Sitten, the metropolis of the Valais; it is a
neat-looking and tolerably large town, and which from its position might be
made a most formidable military post, as there is a steep hill close to it
which rises abruptly from the centre of the valley, and commands an
extensive view east and west.
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