minute before. Thus the line of road forms an alternation of angles, by means of which all abruptness is avoided, and the summit of the pass attained by a succession of easy ascents Having gained the most elevated point of the road, the traveller descends a little towards a plain of considerable extent, called the Plain of Mont Cenis; and here he finds. the well-known Hospice, founded by Charlemagne. Of the whole of this pass, the Mont Cenis is perhaps the least dreary part. Its Hospice; its houses of refuge, each occupied by a cantonnier, and built for the reception of such as might otherwise be lost in the snow storms; the various other habitations that meet the eye; and the number of travellers who are continually passing and repassing, take away all idea of desolation, notwithstanding the wildness of the scenery. We had now bid adieu to the waters which pay tribute to the Rhone, and here we beheld another stream, issuing from the little lake opposite the Hospice, and running on with equal eagerness to join the Po. This lake, though frozen over more than half the year, is said to abound with delicious trout. Addison calls it a beautiful lake, an epithet which, notwithstanding its rhododendrons and mountain myrtles, it scarcely merits; and adds, oddly enough, that it "would be a very extraordinary one, * The average inclination of the road is about one foot in fifteen. The highest point of it, near La Ramasse, is 6780 feet; and Rock St. Michel, the highest peak of Mont Cenis, 11,460 feet above the sea. were there not several mountains in the neighbourhood rising over it!" and, therefore, sufficiently accounting for it. In the descent, only one horse was employed in drawing the traineau, while one of the others was fastened by a rope to the hinder part of it, for the purpose of acting as a check upon it at those points where its motion might otherwise have been too rapid. Beyond the Grande Croix, the road winds down in terraces to the plain of St. Nicholas. The grandest section of the mountain is that which overlooks this plain. Here the rocks shoot up abruptly, and to such a height, that even in the clearest weather their summits are not unfrequently lost in mist, "abeuntque in nubila montes." At this point, on looking down upon the line of road, you see it in some places hollowed out of the solid rock, in others resting upon arches, traversing ravines, carried along the edge of precipices, protected by parapets, and indicating at every step the arduous character of the struggle, before the enterprise and perseverance of man triumphed over the stubbornness of Nature: Thro' its fairy course, go where it will, Thro' glens locked up before!-ROGERS. At the post-house on the Italian side of the mountain, we placed ourselves in another diligence, and arrived in the evening at Susa. The descent on the side of Lans le-bourg, from La Ramasse, the highest point of the pass, may be accomplished by those who have nerve enough for the task, in a sledge guided by one man, in about seven minutes. Mont Cenis presents a more imposing front on the side of Piedmont, where it rises abruptly from its base, than on that of Savoy, where it slopes more gradually towards the valley of the Arc: accordingly, the views on the south side are bolder and more romantic than those towards the north. But though the traveller is taught to look for the first sight of Italy from the Mont Cenis, and may perhaps in clear weather, and from the loftier summits, catch a distant glimpse of it, yet from the road itself he must not expect to see an unbounded horizon, or any thing like a panoramic view. Here, as in most other mountain passes, the prospect is confined by the windings of the valley along which the road runs. "It would be difficult," says Gilly, "to conceive where Polybius and Livy could have placed Hannibal, to give him and his army that sight of the plains of the Po, which had the effect of animating their drooping spirits. The direction is all that could possibly have been pointed out, from whatever spot the Carthaginian harangued his troops; for, wherever there is a mountain pass, there must be intersections, and chains and ridges flanking and crossing each other, and effectually intercepting any dis * Prægressus signa Hannibal, in promontorio quodam unde longè ac latè prospectus erat consistere jussis militibus, Italiam ostentat, subjectosque Alpinis montibus circumpadanos campos. tant prospect." This is certainly true as regards the prospect from the Mont Cenis itself. But, after the traveller has followed the road in its sinuosities round the side of the mountain which overhangs the deep valley of Novalese, and has passed the Roche Melon-an enormous mountain which rises on the opposite side of that valley-then the vale of the Doria expands before him, and offers to his admiring eyes one of the most beautiful views in the Alps, bounded by Turin and the plains of the Po. Near the entrance of Susa is the dismantled fort of La Brunette, once the key of the passes by the Mont Genèvre and the Mont Cenis, and, therefore, of this part of Italy. At Susa itself, in the garden of the governor, are the remains of a triumphal arch, built in honour of Augustus by Cotys, a petty sovereign of this mountainous region: but the diligence started much too early in the morning to afford us an opportunity of visiting it. As we journeyed along the vale of Susa, we could not help contrasting its sunny hills, its well-watered and cultivated fields*, with the wilder scenery of the valley of the Arc. At Rivoli, where the At Rivoli, where the gay Italian villa first meets the traveller's eye, we quitted the narrow vale of Susa, and entered that vast plain which stretches from • Apricos quosdam colles, according to the expression of Livy, rivosque propè sylvas, et jam humano cultu digniora loca. Livy has also hit off the general features of a transalpine valley happily enough:-Nives cœlo propè immista, tecta informia imposita rupibus, pecora, jumentaque torrida frigore, homines intonsi et inculti, animalia, inanimaque omnia rigentia gelu."-Liv. xxi. the foot of the maritime Alps to the shores of the Adriatic. During this day's journey we frequently met with the vine trained over trellises, so as to form successive avenues, but no where did we see it married to the poplar or the elm. From Rivoli, a straight road, bordered by a noble avenue of lofty trees, conducted us to Turin. Large patches of snow still lay scattered over the plain; and the Collina, a chain of hills rising to the south of the Po, was covered with it. "TURIN commands the sublimest prospects-here a crescent of magnificent Alps-there the snow-capped cone of Monte Viso-in the middle, the king of floods,' opening his way through a rich plain which gradually widens before him-beyond him the Collina, studded with white villas, and crowned with the lofty dome of the Superga *. Turin itself is worthy of its beautiful site, and is deservedly admired-for the straightness of its streets, which cut each other at right angles-the elegance of its buildings; though, from the holes which supported the scaffolding and are still left gaping, they have a somewhat unfinished air—and its general cleanliness. This latter peculiarity was noticed and accounted for by Addison. "By the help of a river," says he, "that runs on the upper side of the town, they convey a little stream of water through all the most considerable streets, which * Forsyth. |