l of fourteen driving a yoke of oxen attached to
a cart, walking barefoot beside the team and plying the goadstick, while
a boy of her own age lay idly at length in the cart, is one of my
liveliest recollections of Savoyard ways. Nut-brown, unbonneted women,
hoeing corn with an implement between an adze and a pick-axe (and not a
bad implement, either, for so rugged an unplowed soil), women driving
hogs, cows, &c., to or from market, we encountered at every turn. So
much hard, rough work and exposure are fatal to every trace of beauty,
and I do not remember to have seen a woman in Savoy even moderately
good-looking, while many were absolutely revolting. That this is not
Nature's fault is proved by the general aspect of the children, who,
though swarthy, have often good forms and features.

We drove down into CHAMBERY, the capital of ancient Savoy, about 9 A. M.
This is a town of some fifteen thousand inhabitants, pleasantly situated
in the valley of a much larger tributary of the Rhone than that we crossed
at the boundary, and with a breadth of arable soil of perhaps two miles
between the mountains. No where else in Savoy did we traverse a valley
even half a mile wide for any distance. Here is an old ducal palace, with
fine spacious grounds, shrubbery, &c. The road from Geneva and the Baths
of Aix to Turin comes down this valley and here intersects that from Lyons.
We were allowed twenty-five minutes for breakfast, which would have been
very well but that the time required for cooking most of the breakfast had
to come out of it.

There was enough and good enough to eat, and (as usual throughout all
this region) Wine in abundance without charge, but Tea, Coffee or
Chocolate must be ordered and paid for extra. Even so, I was unable to
obtain a cup of Chocolate, the excuse being that there was not time to
make it. I did not understand, therefore, why I was charged more than
others for breakfast; but to talk English against French or Italian is
to get a mile behind in no time, so I pocketed the change offered me and
came away. On the coach, however, with an Englishman near me who had
traveled this way before and spoke French and Italian, I ventured to
expose my ignorance as follows:

"Neighbor, why was I charged three francs for breakfast, and the rest of
you but two and a half?"

"Don't know--perhaps you had Tea or Coffee."

"No, Sir--don't drink either."

"Then perhaps you washed your face and hands."

"Well, it wo