ly, upon
the lovely landscape around--the cathedral, in the mean time, becoming of
one entire golden tint from the radiance of the setting sun. It was hardly
possible to view a more perfect picture of its kind; and it served as a
just counterpart to the more expansive scene which I had contemplated, but
the preceding evening, from the heights of that same cathedral. The
conducteur of the Diligence rousing me from my rapturous abstraction, I
remounted, and descended into a valley; and ere the succeeding height was
gained, a fainter light floated over the distant landscape ... and every
object reminded me of the accuracy of those exquisite lines of
Collins--descriptive of the approach of evening's

... gradual, dusky veil.

For the first time, I had to do with a drunken conducteur. Luckily the road
was broad, and in the finest possible condition, and perfectly well known
to the horses. Every turning was successfully made; and the fear of
upsetting began to give way to the annoyance experienced from the roaring
and shouting of the conducteur. It was almost dark when I reached
GRANVILLE--about twelve miles from Coutances; when I learnt that the horses
had run six miles before they started with us. On entering the town, the
road was absolutely solid rock: and considering what a _house_ we carried
behind us (for so the body of the _diligence_ seemed) and the uncertain
footing of the horses, in consequence of the rocky surface of the road, I
apprehended the most sinister result. Luckily it was moon-light; when,
approaching one of the sorriest looking inns imaginable, whither our
conducteur (in spite of the better instructions of the landlord of the
Hotel d'Angleterre at Coutances) had persuaded us to go, the passengers
alighted with thankful hearts, and bespoke supper and beds.

Granville is fortified on the land side by a deep ravine, which renders an
approach from thence almost impracticable. On every other side it is
defended by the ocean, into which the town seems to have dropt
perpendicularly from the clouds. At high water, Granville cannot be
approached, even by transports, nearer than within two-thirds of a league;
and of course at low water it is surrounded by an extent of sharply pointed
rock and chalk: impenetrable--terrific--and presenting both certain failure
and destruction to the assailants. It is a GIBRALTAR IN MINIATURE. The
English sharply cannonaded it a few years since, but it was only a
political divers