ls on the banks of the
Rhone, though all its former splendor is eclipsed, its commerce
decayed, and most of its antiquities are buried in ruins. The church of
Notre Dame de la Vie was undoubtedly a temple. On the left of the road,
as you enter it, by the gate of Avignon, there is a handsome obelisk,
or rather pyramid, about thirty feet high, raised upon a vault
supported by four pillars of the Tuscan order. It is certainly a Roman
work, and Montfaucon supposes it to be a tomb, as he perceived an
oblong stone jetting out from the middle of the vault, in which the
ashes of the defunct were probably contained. The story of Pontius
Pilate, who is said to have ended his days in this place, is a fable.
On the seventh day of our journey from Aix, we arrived at Lyons, where
I shall take my leave of you for the present, being with great
truth--Yours, etc.

LETTER XLI

BOULOGNE, June 13, 1765.

DEAR SIR,--I am at last in a situation to indulge my view with a sight
of Britain, after an absence of two years; and indeed you cannot
imagine what pleasure I feel while I survey the white cliffs of Dover,
at this distance. Not that I am at all affected by the nescia qua
dulcedine natalis soli, of Horace. That seems to be a kind of
fanaticism founded on the prejudices of education, which induces a
Laplander to place the terrestrial paradise among the snows of Norway,
and a Swiss to prefer the barren mountains of Solleure to the fruitful
plains of Lombardy. I am attached to my country, because it is the land
of liberty, cleanliness, and convenience: but I love it still more
tenderly, as the scene of all my interesting connexions; as the
habitation of my friends, for whose conversation, correspondence, and
esteem, I wish alone to live.

Our journey hither from Lyons produced neither accident nor adventure
worth notice; but abundance of little vexations, which may be termed
the Plagues of Posting. At Lyons, where we stayed only a few days, I
found a return-coach, which I hired to Paris for six loui'dores. It was
a fine roomy carriage, elegantly furnished, and made for travelling; so
strong and solid in all its parts, that there was no danger of its
being shaken to pieces by the roughness of the road: but its weight and
solidity occasioned so much friction between the wheels and the
axle-tree, that we ran the risque of being set on fire three or four
times a day. Upon a just comparison of all circumstances posting is
much more easy,