English country ale-houfe. We fare well; and are charged only three livres a-head. To-morrow we hope to arrive at Geneva. We have been walking about the town in queft of fomething curious. Our kind hoftefs conducted us to the houfe of Monf. le Baillie, by way of fhewing us the finest edifice in the town;-a dreadful difmallooking old manfion, painted all over black and

red.

I reft fatisfied that your friendship will make allowance for the inaccuracies of this letter, for the barrenness of the fubject, and for the want of that amusement you may have expected to have received from the pen of your moft affectionate, &c.

Pais de

Gex.

Nyon.

WE

E are now in Savoy, where we arrived yesterday afternoon, about half a mile from Geneva. Having been informed on the road, that there was a better inn on the other fide of Geneva than any in the town, we drove through without stopping. Another convenience arifing from our not being in the town, is, that we are not fubject to be detained here longer than just to take a cursory view of this famous city, wherein, had we been lodged, we might have experienced difficulties in fo fuddenly breaking from the fociety of several of our countrymen, which, though it might prove a most agreeable interruption to our journey, yet, as the season is far advanced for paffing Montcennis, we think it more prudent to lofe as little time as poffible on our way thither.

All yesterday's journey was through a moft beautiful country (till we came to Little France, or the Païs de Gex; of which district, fo much talked of by our news-writers, I fhall by and by attempt a description). From Morges to another decent town called Nyon, the road winds the whole way along the borders of the Lake; and on the other fide, as far as the eye can reach, nothing ap. pears but a rich foil, all under tillage, and planted with extenfive orchards of apples, pears, cherry,

and

and walnut-trees, growing at about the distance of fifteen yards from each other. Agriculture appears to be in a state of great perfection in this part of Switzerland. Here are confiderable fields of buck wheat and lucerne, as well as of various other kinds of artificial graffes.

The Swifs have a contrivance for spreading an alarm on the appearance of the enemy, which has a pretty and an odd effect: this they do by beacons, Beacon. placed on the corresponding fummits of their highest mountains. Each of these confifts of nothing more than a very tall withered pine, ftuck into the ground with a bundle of ftraw and faggots tied across, and appears, when viewed at a distance, like the belfry of a ruined hermitage. On the suspicion of an approaching enemy, they fet fire to that beacon which happens to be the most contiguous; the blaze is immediately perceived, and all the beacons in the country are inftantly in flames. Thus the neceffary alarm for warlike preparation spreads rapidly from canton to canton.

Gex.

After an hour's drive on this fide of Nyon, we entered the Païs de Gex; feparated only by a rivu- Pais de let from Switzerland. Scarcely had we paffed its borders, when our ears were affaulted by the fqueeling street voices of the Frenchwomen. The peasants of both fexes bear in their phyfiognomy incontestable proofs of their origin, though they have been transplanted hither many years fince; brown, meagre, ragged, half-ftarved wretches, prancing and grinning at one in their dirt, mifery, and

fabots

fabots; their houfes fcarcely covered in, windows ftuffed with rags.-Laziness, fuperftition, and defpotifm, with their baleful claws, feem to have been the only cultivators of this wretched country:What a difference between this fcene and the landscape on the other fide the stream! their habitations clean and commodious; themselves ftout, freth-complexioned, healthy, and decently dreffed (no fabots); their beafts of burden large, ftrong, and well fed their implements of agriculture ingeniously conftructed, and always employed; their churches neat, fimple, and well built, though perfectly plain. But how different must be the country where liberty, blended with each patriotic and focial virtue, fprings up fpontaneously in every bofom, to that where religion ferves only as a mask to hide the hypocrify of the wily prieft; who, inftead of inculcating the laws of morality, and encouraging industry, as Chriftianity teaches, whenever it ferves his interefts, drags forth from his faintly cupboard his holy puppet-fhow, and unfurls the banners of his deceits* to his deluded flock 3 who, beating their breafts, their eyes turned up in extatic ftupidity, whilft their ears are filled with the fwelling yell of thefe boly men, fancy that the heavens, propitious to fuch distortions, will bestow upon them immediate rain or funfhine, according to their wifh fhall beg pardon for this digref fion, and return to the defcription of the Païx de

૩

* The ftandards, on which are painted faints of both fexes. , and which are borne in processions.

Gex, which is about three quarters of a league in breadth, and three and a half in length, in shape like a tongue, stretching across the country down to the Lake. The moment we entered it, we harpy, commonly called a Commis of a Bureau, who extorted more duties upon our baggage for three quarters of a league, than the like charges for twenty-eight leagues had amounted to in Switzerland.-Our Commis was fucceeded by a woman between feventy and eighty years old, who pursued us, clattering her wooden fhoes, and demanding a trifling toll. The firft time I have seen rouge fince I left France was on the fhrivelled cheeks of this beldame.-As we were very curious to fee the port of Verfoix (the new town) we difpatched our courier to the commandant for his permiffion to that purpose, which was very obligingly granted, and he fent the commanding officer of the troops to be our guide. The commandant very politely excused himself from accompanying us, on account of illness, and being confined to his room. His name is I-re: he inhabits a poor cottage, juft at the entrance of the bourg. We alighted then from our carriage, and walked about what is to be the town of Versoix, for there is not a houfe yet begun upon. The ftreets, fquares, &c. are indeed diftinguished by tall ftakes fixed in the ground, and have all pompous names. Here are a few miserable hovels, or rather roofs of planks, which almoft touch the ground, appear at a distance like tents. In thefe

were attacked by a harpy,

and

wretched