hat its objects are much
the same as those of the institution I have just described. I will now
proceed to the third sanctuary for which the neighbourhood of Biella is
renowned.

* * * * *

At Graglia I was shown all over the rooms in which strangers are lodged,
and found them not only comfortable but luxurious--decidedly more so than
those of Oropa; there was the same cleanliness everywhere which I had
noticed in the restaurant. As one stands at the windows or on the
balconies and looks down to the tops of the chestnuts, and over these to
the plains, one feels almost as if one could fly out of the window like a
bird; for the slope of the hills is so rapid that one has a sense of
being already suspended in mid-air.

I thought I observed a desire to attract English visitors in the pictures
which I saw in the bedrooms. Thus there was "A view of the Black-lead
Mine in Cumberland," a coloured English print of the end of the last
century or the beginning of this, after, I think, Loutherbourg, and in
several rooms there were English engravings after Martin. The English
will not, I think, regret if they yield to these attractions. They will
find the air cool, shady walks, good food, and reasonable prices. Their
rooms will not be charged for, but they will do well to give the same as
they would have paid at a hotel. I saw in one room one of those
flippant, frivolous, Lorenzo de' Medici matchboxes on which there was a
gaudily-coloured nymph in high-heeled boots and tights, smoking a
cigarette. Feeling that I was in a sanctuary, I was a little surprised
that such a matchbox should have been tolerated. I suppose it had been
left behind by some guest. I should myself select a matchbox with the
Nativity or the Flight into Egypt upon it, if I were going to stay a week
or so at Graglia. I do not think I can have looked surprised or
scandalised, but the worthy official who was with me could just see that
there was something on my mind. "Do you want a match?" said he,
immediately reaching me the box. I helped myself, and the matter
dropped.

There were many fewer people at Graglia than at Oropa, and they were
richer. I did not see any poor about, but I may have been there during a
slack time. An impression was left upon me, though I cannot say whether
it was well or ill founded, as though there were a tacit understanding
between the establishments at Oropa and Graglia that the one was to adapt
itself to the poorer, a