n:--

"The road leading from Geneva to this celebrated spot is delightful,
bordered on each side with superb villas, and presenting picturesque
points of view only to be found in the environs of that enchanting city.
A handsome avenue conducts the traveller to the chateau, the
architecture of which is nothing very remarkable. After mounting three
steps, and crossing a narrow vestibule, we entered the _salon_, which in
its day received most of the wits and celebrated personages of Europe:
for as a contemporary of Voltaire observed, 'to have been admitted at
Ferney, is to have taken out a patent for genius.' The appearance of
this salon is far from brilliant: a few indifferent pictures, some old
red tapestry, and antiquated furniture compose the whole of its
ornaments. To the left we entered the chamber of Voltaire.

"On one side of the apartment an humble mausoleum has been reared, the
sanctity of which was not however respected by the sabres of the
Austrians. The inscription on the top (a happy inspiration of the
husband of Mademoiselle Varicourt), contains these simple words: 'Mon
coeur est ici; et mon esprit est partout.' The most elaborate panegyric
could not have conveyed a finer eulogium.

"On entering, the spectator is struck with the view of a bed of simple
materials, and which was pillaged by the Austrians. Hung round the room
are the portraits of Frederick, of Catharine, of Lekain--one of Voltaire
himself, taken at the age of forty, and full of expression, with a
number of _silhouettes_ of the celebrated men of the day.

"The window of this apartment looks upon the gardens, and upon a little
wood, which has undergone many changes since the death of Voltaire. Time
however has hitherto respected a long and thick row of elm trees,
whither he was wont to repair at sunrise, and where he usually meditated
and recited aloud the scenes of his tragedies when finished, to any one
whom he could find. His jealousy of criticism on such occasions is
matter of record.

"The gardener at present belonging to the chateau was there during the
latter period of Voltaire's life, and related to us with much _naivete_
several anecdotes, not generally known, of his master.

"Where the thickly-spreading branches of the elm trees present the
slightest opening, the spectator enjoys one of the most beautiful views
that can be imagined. In the distance, that giant of the hills--Mont
Blanc, crowned with its eternal snows, rises majesti