depths, than to deter him from the adventure by the display of any characters of terror or of

awe.

On arriving at Thun we drove to the Belle Vue; a splendid hotel, new built, and one of the most delightfully situated in all Switzerland. It stands on the banks of the Aar, and commands that portion of the view I have described looking towards the Alps. We here engaged a suite of rooms, simply because the master of the hotel would not let me have a bedchamber which I much wished to occupy, on account of the view, unless we did so. The rooms were truly elegant. Tired as I was, I lost no time in beginning a sketch from the windows. It was a great comfort that, at Thun, we had not to ascend so many flights of stairs as we often had at other inns, to get to our apartments. So lofty are most of the continental hotels, that when we have sometimes arrived at a house that was very full (or that the master chose to say was so, in order that he might reserve his rooms on the lower floor for parties who would engage a suite of them) we have frequently been compelled to

mount to the fifth or sixth story. At last Mr. Bray got so sick of mounting upward, in a manner that prefigured the tower of Babel, that I have known him turn away, in order to leave a first-rate inn that could supply none but such chambers. Sometimes this resolution to depart for other quarters produced the possibility of finding him a room on less elevated floors.

At Thun, as at Lucerne, we had also the comfort of a salon à manger, where tobaccosmoking was prohibited by a placard, begging all persons to desist from it in the salon. The manner in which men, and even boys, smoke on the Continent is almost incredible. In Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, and Holland, the male sex seem to me to live in an artificial atmosphere, which they raise for themselves by the fumes of tobacco. Nothing can be more offensive to others than this practice. In Holland it is alone excusable, because in that country there is only a choice of evils-the fumes of tobacco, or of the long, innumerable, and stinking canals that poison the whole of that great marsh, from one end of it to the other: tobacco.

is certainly the least offensive of the two odours presented to a Dutchman's choice; and therefore does he smoke morning, noon, and night. But this custom of perpetual whiffing is loathsome to the ladies of England, and it is grievous to see how eagerly it is often adopted by some of our young Englishmen, who catch at so many of the foreign fopperies, and even at this dirty habit, for fear they should be behind their continental neighbours in acquiring their follies the thing easiest learnt, and that calls for the least effort of imitation. Of all the race of the coxcomb kind, that of a foreignised Englishman is the most disgusting.

At the table d'hôte at Thun we met a most respectable and numerous company, principally English; and though we had still the hard meat in the plainer dishes, and the half-raw poultry, yet for Switzerland the fare was good. The master of the Belle Vue deserved the warmest praise; nothing could exceed his activity, his unwearied attention to his house and his guests, his earnest desire to oblige them, and the strict he kept over every one of his domestics, so

eye

that their attention was not less than his own. I had some conversation with one of them, a very nice young woman, who spoke French. She told me that both the master of the hotel and his wife were excellent people; and, though so strict over the servants in points of their duty, treated every one of them as parents do their children, taking great care of them if they were sick, and not suffering the least impropriety of morals or of conduct in their house. For the accommodation of the Protestant English, this respectable landlord was building a church in his garden. I hope he may continue to thrive, for he deserves to do so.

At the table d'hôte we had, what is common on the Continent, a band of itinerant musicians; they walked into the room with their instruments, and sang and played whilst the company dined. All contributed something to recompense their pains. Another day, when we dined here after our return from Grindelwald, we had a juggler and ventriloquist, who entered boldly, told the company he was come to perform a scene or two for their amusement, and, without

staying further leave, commenced his exhibition. It was very well in its way, but not so agreeable an accompaniment to the dinner as the music of the wandering band.

In the afternoon I hastened to my chamber to finish my sketch from the window. Mr. Bray continued to make his notes of the journey; and my nephew departed to ascend a very lofty height at the back of our inn, near the summit of which a pavilion has been erected for the purpose of enjoying the view from that spot. How it happened I cannot exactly say, but I believe Edward touched some machine connected with a reservoir of water at the back of the pavilion: in a moment he was covered, not only with a shower of water, but of mud; and in this plight he returned, laughing, to us at the inn. He was obliged to change his dress, and I washed for him his light and comfortable hat, made of willow, which he had purchased at Freyburg for the journey. The view he had seen, he said, was truly magnificent.

We now set forth with a hope to see it; but the air was so hot, and the ascent so steep, we were