r
them.--I had the fortune (good or evil as it might be) to sail from
Meillerie[361] (where we landed for some time) to St. Gingo during a
lake storm, which added to the magnificence of all around, although
occasionally accompanied by danger to the boat, which was small and
overloaded. It was over this very part of the lake that Rousseau has
driven the boat of St. Preux and Madame Wolmar to Meillerie for shelter
during a tempest. On gaining the shore at St. Gingo, I found that the
wind had been sufficiently strong to blow down some fine old chestnut
trees on the lower part of the mountains. On the opposite height of
Clarens is a chateau[362] [Chateau des Cretes]. The hills are covered
with vineyards, and interspersed with some small but beautiful woods;
one of these was named the "Bosquet de Julie;" and it is remarkable
that, though long ago cut down by the brutal selfishness of the monks of
St. Bernard (to whom the land appertained), that the ground might be
enclosed into a vineyard for the miserable drones of an execrable
superstition, the inhabitants of Clarens still point out the spot where
its trees stood, calling it by the name which consecrated and survived
them. Rousseau has not been particularly fortunate in the preservation
of the "local habitations" he has given to "airy nothings." The Prior of
Great St. Bernard has cut down some of his woods for the sake of a few
casks of wine, and Buonaparte has levelled part of the rocks of
Meillerie in improving the road to the Simplon. The road is an excellent
one; but I cannot quite agree with a remark which I heard made, that "La
route vaut mieux que les souvenirs."

22.

Of Names which unto you bequeathed a name.
Stanza cv. line 2.

Voltaire and Gibbon.

[Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778) lived on his estate at
Fernex, five miles north of Geneva, from 1759 to 1777. "In the garden at
Fernex is a long _berceau_ walk, closely arched over with clipped
horn-beam--a verdant cloister, with gaps cut here and there, admitting a
glimpse of the prospect. Here Voltaire used to walk up and down, and
dictate to his secretary."--_Handbook for Switzerland_, p. 174.

Previous to this he had lived for some time at Lausanne, at "Monrepos, a
country house at the end of a suburb," at Monrion, "a square building of
two storeys, and a high garret, with wings, each fashioned like the
let