been brought to the
state of that delectable domicile by the aid of the trowel and
paint-brush.

[Footnote 12: Vide Cooke's Views.]

From La Serve to Tain, the same style of country continues, without much
alteration. The utmost exertions of the inhabitants seem necessary to
struggle against the stony ungenial nature of the soil; and a black
storm which was rolling to the right over Mont Pilate, appeared to
menace the scanty crops of vines which their labour had produced. In
every hamlet we heard the bells ringing, and saw the poor peasants
crowding to the church to put up prayers against the coming hail, which
at this season of the year is peculiarly fatal. If this be a
superstition, it is surely not a contemptible or uninteresting one to
witness: nor can one wonder at the influence gained over peasants thus
instructed to associate Heaven with their daily hopes and fears. To our
great satisfaction, after two or three vivid flashes of lightning, the
clouds broke away to the north-west, and a light rain fell partially,
more beneficial to the parched vineyards than hurtful to the hay, which
even at this early season was in great forwardness in most places. On
the whole, I should say that the district lying fifty miles south of
Lyons, is a month more early than our own in point of climate and
productions.

At Tain, the Rhone forces for itself a narrow passage into the vale of
Valence, from among the rugged skirts of Mont Pilate, leaving on the one
side Tain, and on the other Tournon; both backed by strong heights,
which seem to guard the entrance of the defile. The situation of Tournon
is striking, and very much corresponds with the ideas which one forms of
a strong baronial hold upon the Rhine. A large portion of the
precipitous hill which commands it, is connected with the town by a
broken line of grim old walls and towers, which betoken the former
importance of this position. Its castle, a building of a heavy
conventual style of architecture, and standing on a fortified terrace,
formerly belonged to the Prince de Soubisc, but is now converted, as we
were informed, into a prison. To this purpose it is well adapted, as a
leap from one of the round towers which breast the river at the angles
of its terrace, would be fatal; and the character of despotism impressed
on its walls seems to say, that in former times its uses were not very
different. The resemblance indeed which it bears to the Chateau
d'Amboise on the Loire