ffee and bread and
butter is served up to each person separately in their own room, or in the
_Salle a manger_, Before dinner every one follows his own avocation or
amusement. At one, the family assemble to dinner which generally consist of
soup, _bouilli, entrees_ of fish, flesh and fowl, _entremets_ of
vegetables, a _roti_ of butcher's meat, fowl or game, pastry and desert.
The wine of the country is drunk at dinner as a table wine, and _old_ wines
of the country or wines of foreign growth are handed round to each guest
during the desert. After dinner coffee and liqueurs are served. After an
hour's conversation or repose, promenades are proposed which occupy the
time till dusk. Music, cards or reading plays fill up the rest of the
evening, till supper is announced at nine o'clock, which is generally as
substantial as the dinner.

On taking leave of Mr. de T[reytorre]ns' family I walked to the banks of
the lake Neufchatel, having a stout fellow with me to carry my _sac-de
nuit_. On arrival at the lake I crossed over in a boat to Neufchatel, which
lies on the other side. I remained there the whole of the day. It is a very
pretty neat little city, in a romantic position. Its government is a
complete anomaly. Neufchatel forms a component part of the Helvetic
confederacy, and yet the inhabitants are vassals of the King of Prussia,
and the aristocracy are proud of this badge of servitude. The King of
Prussia however does not at all interfere with its internal government, and
his supremacy is in no other respects useful to him than in giving him a
slight revenue. French is the language spoken in the canton. There is a
marked distinction of rank all over Switzerland, except in Geneva, Vaud and
the small democratic cantons such as Zug and Schwytz, where it is merely
nominal. In short, tranquillity is the order of the day. Each rank respects
the privileges of the other and the peasant, however rich, is not at all
disposed to vary from his usual mode of life or to ape the noble; and
hence, tho' sumptuary laws are no longer in force, they continue so
virtually and the peasantry in all the German cantons adhere strictly to
the national costume.

BERN, 14 July.

I put myself in the diligence that plies between Neufchatel and Bern at
nine p.m., on the 12 July, and the following morning put up at the _Crown
Inn_ in the city of Bern, in the _Pays Allemand_, whereas the French
cantons are termed the _Pays Romand_. Bern is a remarka