the Rhine, but principally on the left bank. After a full enjoyment of the scene, heightened in its loveliness by the delicate light of early morning, and a glance at the exterior of the old cathedral, built with dark chocolate-coloured sandstone, and adorned with two tapering and elegant spires; and after an ineffectual attempt to gain admission to its interesting interior, containing, amongst other objects, the tomb of Erasmus, I returned back into the picturesque yet clean streets. In the Fischmarket-in the centre of which stands the Gothic Fountain, casting forth clear streams of water from its traceried structure, adorned with statues of the Virgin and Child, John and Peter, and several others-there was, indeed, a bustling and characteristic scene: peasants were arranging their stores for the coming market; some were busily employed in unloading the most picturesquelyconstructed carts imaginable of the produce of the garden; here hurried a group of chattering bare-footed damsels, in short kirtles; on their | broad, slouching hats, carrying crates of poultry, seemingly by their unceasing cries emulatory of the conversational powers of their bearers; there tripped along some maiden, with the yoke upon her shoulders, bringing in capacious shining pails, the produce of the dairy; all contributing to produce, by diversity of figure and costume, a most lively and entertaining picture.

which we soon overtook, our journey was continued for some time upon the left bank of the Rhine, the waters of which almost continuously, in conjunction with the surrounding scenery, presented remarkably fine views. Oftentimes upon our way our attention was arrested by the large frame-work raised above the farm-houses for the stork to come and build in; this we observed, in repeated instances, was occupied by its treasured tenant; and once we noticed a completed nest raised above the vane of a village steeple, in which one of these birds of good omen was standing erect, flapping his broad wings in the sun, a most singular and interesting object. At Rheinfelden, a small town where we changed horses, we met with another specimen of that ornament to the towns of Switzerland, the brunnen, or fountain; in this instance the column was surmounted by a statue of a warrior, bearing a lance in his hand, carved in stone. Passing from hence, we arrived soon after noon at Stein, a mere village, where the diligence rested half an hour for the passengers to dine. Here a most meagre repast was set before us, with a most ludicrous attempt at display, On again taking to our route, I was fortunate in obtaining a seat on the box of one of the supplementary carriages by the side of the driver, a rough, yet not altogether uncouth youth, bedizened with a waistcoat of red plush, a jacket of bright blue coarse cloth, a steeplecrowned drab hat, with some sun-scorched re

Some time before noon I was waiting, with quite a congregation of travellers, several of whom were English, the departure of the dili-mains of bouquets in its band, his certainly naïf gence for Baden. A general sensation was visage set off with the down of a moustache. I am created when the jingle of the horses' bells inclined to think that the artist would have congreeted our ears; and when the cumbrous sidered him far from picturesque. On first leavvehicle, which has previously been packed with ing the village, I think our vehicle bid fair to be the luggage in the court-yard, made its appear- pre-eminent as carrying the liveliest, perhaps the ance in the streets, there was a unanimous and noisiest, party, in the train of passenger to simultaneous "rush" for the vacant places. Zurich that day. Much of this mirth was But this is now how they load a diligence in created by the not very encomiastic remarks Switzerland: a speedy retreat was made before made upon our late repast by a very tall and the person of a little red-faced elderly gentle- very loquacious gentleman, whose countenance man, who with frantic gesture, and with the aid and deportment once seen would not be very of a large book which he carried in his hand, speedily forgotten. He wore a high purple consigned, according to the respective number velvet cap, elaborately embroidered with beads of their tickets, each passenger to his destined of every shade and hue; this added not a little place. The diligence being speedily occupied, to his most striking physiognomy, which, when and still many with tickets unprovided for, other en repos, reminded me very forcibly of the porvehicles were soon in attendance. As one of traits of Charles I.; the aquiline nose, the methe overplus, I found that my billet brought me lancholy, thoughtful eye, the long, piked beard. a seat in a low, small, old-fashioned-covered car- But when, after a momentary pause, resuming riage; judging from the mouldy and antique the conversation, his countenance lit up, his eye appearance of which, one is led to imagine that sparkled; in the gusto of the application showeither supernumerary carriages are seldom called ering a very tempest of snuff over his fine beard, into requisition at Basle, or that the "spirited" away went the vision of the mournful monarch, proprietors of the Bureau de Diligence are ex-giving place to the most jovial of expressions tremely fond of relics. With four others, two of them my countrymen, taking my place in this most ludicrous conveyance, the driver jumped to his seat, and with loud cracking of his whip, and a volley of imprecations most voluble, drove off at a furious rate, jolting and rattling as though it would break our crazy conveyance into a thousand fragments, through the uneven streets. Passing under the turret-guarded gates of the town, in the route of the diligence,

that ever trembled under the sallies of the wild-
est laughter. Of any temporary cessation of
the merriment of the party our driver seemed to
avail himself for the display of his vocal powers, in
snatches and fragments of song, or for the pur-
pose of urging, with cracking whip and thunders
of imprecation, the flagging horses upon the up-
ward way.
Continuing thus for a time, at
length, under the influence of the extreme heat
of the sun, the whole party lapsed into most

Witless he

"Who first beholds those everlasting clouds,

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moody silence, which alone was intruded upon, object of interest upon the route.
by the roll of the vehicles, or the monotonous of those fine lines and of their truth-
jingle of the horses' bells. Still rising on suc-
cessive elevations lay our journey, often com-
pelling us to alight and walk by the side of our
carriage up the dusty road. After passing the
village of Effingen, the road is carried over the
Botsberg, at the top of which, said one of our
fellow-travellers, we shall see the Alps. The
effect of this announcement was immediately
perceptible; everyone seemed to bestir himself,
as for some coming event; the likeness of
Charles I., with loud exclamations, awoke his
lady, who was fast asleep in the corner of the car-
riage; and even our Jehu, who had only peeped
up at intervals from his last hour-and-a-half's
doze, seemed, upon a sudden impulse, to deem
it necessary to pour forth his set vocabulary of
vituperation upon the horses, in chorus with his
whip-lash.

Those mighty hills so shadowy, so sublime,
As rather to belong to heaven than earth-
But instantly receives into his soul
A sense, a feeling that he loses not,

A something that informs him 'tis an hour
Whence he may date henceforward and for ever?"

In a few more moments and we were hurrying through clouds of dust down the rapid descent of the hill, and the beautiful landscape of wide campaign and snowy mountain summits had passed away. I have written passed away; but no, it can never pass away. From that moment I had learnt a new and fresh form of beauty; from that moment another glorious picture was given unto the gallery of memory, for the mind's eye in the future to look back and luxuriate upon. Since then I have seen many finer prospects of mountain scenery; but of none do I retain a more lasting and vivid reminiscence than of this first sight of the Alps.

The hill-top-the dust rises in columns before the fresh breeze, obliging us to guard our eyes. The diligence has pulled up, and the vehicles behind us are hastening up the hill. Every one talking-every one exclaiming. How one wishes they would be quiet while they gaze. Away the columns of white dust go sweeping down the Still descending rapidly. Oftentimes saluted, way we have climbed up. The air is clear, and or rather assailed, by bands of Handswerkswarm and balmy; would that I could give you bursche, or "wandering journeymen of Gersome idea of the glorious scene which we be- many." Groups of these youth we repeatedly held-beholding, with a half-fear, it seemed so met, coming up the hill, with knapsack on back, dream-like, so unlasting, so wondrous to be and blouse and staff; while distant we could real. Shadows and golden lights moved over hear their voices united in song, or ringing with the green meadow of the wide landscape below; laughter. It was not a little amusing to watch like tracks of quicksilver, the streams shone their change of demeanour on coming up with here and there wood, village and hamlet- the diligence or carriages; off went their hats steeple, and more distant spires of Brugg, slept on assuming a supplicatory air, and turning in the dreamy haze of the summer afternoon; back, they would run after us through the dust while beyond arose the ranges, tier above tier of with loud and earnest solicitations to "help dim blue solemn hills, and over these a vision them on their way." Immediately upon this which the eye, new-seeing, scarce can compre-being responded to, which more than once it hend; an ocean of angry waves, frozen in billows of brightness, is its shape-in hue (the nearest approximation to a comparison that I have met with), of mother-of-peal. So dazzling do they rise, that an undue darkness is given to the subject hills in the foreground below. The clouds, which dapple the azure sky overhead, extending down and congregating on their summits of unchanging snow, linking them to the hemisphere above, a shining luminous stair, unto the gates of light, bringing a sense of awful solitudes and stillness, broken only by the wailing storm or the thunders of the avalanche; of untrodden regions inaccessible, where the hail and the snow and the sunbeams only pass, afar, in radiant glory, which it is not in words to tell of or describe

"the Alpine summits rise Height o'er height stupendous hurl'd; Like the pillars of the skies

Like the ramparts of the world."

"Monsieur, les Alpes!" said the driver at my side, with an indicative jerk of his whip, as though the glorious scene which thrilled the heart and moistened the eye, was but a trifling

was liberally, the role of the beggar was cast
aside, the scarcely-concealed smile, which had
peeped out of the corners of the assumed gravity
once or twice, held full sway of the young and
healthy face; and continuing our journey, we
could catch the refrain of their blended voices
as they tramped upon their way.
"This ram-
bling," says Howitt's Domestic Life of Ger-
many, "all over the country of such numbers
of these young men, in every part and in every
direction, is not so much a matter of choice as
necessity; for three or more years after the ex-
piration of their apprenticeship, they must thus
pursue their travels, and on their return must
give evidence of having become perfect in their
calling, by making their meisterstück, or master-
piece, before they can obtain permission to enter
on business for themselves."

On our arrival at Brugg, a town of much antiquity, surrounded by walls, the gates by which we entered being guarded by old stone towers with pointed roofs, the conveyances were changed, and I had to take my place in the rotonde of a diligence. What we saw of the town in passing through, fell short of our anticipations from the picturesque appearance of its

low ripple of the water in the reeds. How phantom-like and wondrous are the Alps at night, above the low curling mists, where the stars are shining clear!

walls and towers seen in the distant landscape with you. Passing over one of these bridges when approaching. Brugg is noted as the birth- through the narrow suburban streets of the place of Zimmermann. Leaving, by gates of town, I walked up the road which runs along similar character to those by which we had the east or right margin of the lake. On the entered, the dust became so intolerable, that right hand low marshy meadows extend down notwithstanding the intense heat, we were com- to the waters; whilst on the left, situated in their pelled to have all the windows of the diligence luxuriant gardens, the villas of the wealthy ones closed, so obtaining but limited views of the of Zurich are interspersed along the way. The scenery through which we were travelling; the view of the lake, with the distant mountains, glimpses of the distant hills, and the near, from this road, was very lovely. The mists of verdure-clad slopes, causing one to repine most the evening almost veiled the scenery immelongingly for an outside place and fresh air. A diately on the other side of the lake; while the ride of four or five miles brought us to Baden, ashy summits of the Alps seemed sailing in the where commences the (at present) only Swiss air; and above them, given back by the mirror line of railway. Taking our place in one of the below, shone the thin crescent of the summe. open third-class carriages, the patois of the moon. Solitude lent an unexpressible charm to peasantry, with which the carriage was filled, at this sweet landscape; scarcely a sound ruffled once told us that we had entered into another the stillness of the air, only at intervals the district, as also did the contour of the surround-plash of the oar from some solitary boat, or the ing countenances, as well as the costume-the high steeple-crowned hat, the prevalence of the long grey coat, or the "cut-off" of bright brown. The line of railway runs along the valley of the Limmat, the waters of which stream It was quite dark when I hurried back into flowing from the lake of Zurich run into the the streets of the town. Over these, and over Aar, near the town of Brugg. When we reach the bridges, dim oil lamps were suspended by Zurich in the early evening, the narrow streets, cords. In one narrow, gloomy place, a group with overhanging houses, with groups of people of young men were singing from books, by the and children seated or playing in the shadow by aid of a lantern, underneath a lighted casement. their door, presented most charming pictures; In a few minutes the serenade was over, the and when we emerged from these upon the taper of the lantern blown out, and the singers wide promenades on the banks of the river dispersed several ways. Soon after I could hear which runs through the centre of the town, the the roll of the drums, from the patrol, through view was beautiful beyond description. Fa- the solitary streets. tigued with the journey of the day and its excitements, I sought the Schwerdt hotel, seated at the open window of which the glory of the scene lulled me almost into forgetfulness of fatigue and hunger, until the footsteps of the day had fleeted from the far-off snows. At the edge of the pathway below the window ran the Limmat, spanned by its elegant wooden bridges; on the left hand on the opposite side of the river, rose the dark spires of the cathedral against the evening sky; on the right the picture was bounded by the tall old houses of the street; beyond, and in front, lay the blue waters of the lake, clear and shining as the bright sky overhead, and dotted over and animated by white sails or pleasure-boats flitting over the surface of its glossy bosom. The view was closed in by a range of the Alps; which as the scene below was losing colour, became more luminous and transparent, passing from primrose hues to exquisite roseate tints; the glaciers and the snowy steeps glowing like a pile of crumpled rose-leaves; then from a new change of tyrian royalty dying into utter paleness, their vast steeps towered into the purpling evening, ghastly and solemn as death.

On my arrival at Zurich, I had found, to my mortification, that on account of my passport not having received the Austrian visé, I could not continue the route I had proposed to myself; and on inquiry at the bureau, I could obtain but little information, the officials at which held out the possibility of my obtaining the required signature at Lucerne; so I at once resolved to proceed to Lucerne by the Rhigi.

The voyage of

At an early hour the following morning, when I went on board the little steamer lying at the quay, I found it already crowded with passengers, the fore-part particularly so, with peasantry, pilgrims from different cantons, on their way to the miracle-working abbey of Einsiedeln, in canton Schweiz. about eight miles to Horgen, a small village on the left bank of the lake, under the aspect of the bright summer weather, was very delightful. The country immediately around the lake partakes more of the beautiful than the grand, the mountains around not being of very considerable height, but luxuriant in waving wood and pasture land, and dotted over everywhere with white villas, manufactories, mills, hamlets, and spires; but beyond, and over the summit of the near hills, giving a grandeur to the scene, rise the snowy heads of the Glarnisch, the Sentis, and the Dodi. With the morning sun lighting up their glaciers with silvery brightness, it is scarcely possible to gaze up to them for any length of time with the naked eye. With a telescope, you may discover from the steamer, as

are not an inside passenger in the "bus;" not alone for the grateful fruit, but for the fresh air and sunshine, the elevation above the dust, and the grand prospect of mountain and lake which await you every portion of the way. On apberg, the ridge of which mountain is a close boundary along the left-hand side of the road from Zug to Arth. At Arth we remained to dine-not a wise proceeding, you will say, preparatory to a predestrian effort. As it was, our

you sail along, the glaciers coiling their white ridges down the mountain sides. A few minutes' walk from the bank of the lake brought us to Horgen, where an omnibus waited for passengers to the Rhigi, vid Arth. Again awarded a place in a supernumerary-in this case a box-proaching Arth, the road winds under the Rossseat on an old-fashioned barouch-I obtained excellent views upon our way, which, on leaving Horgen, continues over an extreme shoulder of the Albis ridge, arriving at the summit of which a fine view is presented of the lake and town of Zurich. Much of the journey presented the ap-meal was at best but a luncheon, and that of a pearance of most lawn-like slopes, where, in most meagre character, from the soup down to many instances, the haymakers were busy at the little hard specimens of confectionary. After work. A rapid descent brought us into the this refreshment I started with a guide whom I green valley of the Sihl, where, after passing had engaged to carry my knapsack. Crossing through the village of Sihllrücke, by the bridge through two or three meadows, leaving Goldau which you cross over the stream, you leave the on our left, the ascent commenced immediately. canton Zurich for canton Zug. Here, shortly After a smart walk, or rather scramble, under after, commences another ridge, the view from the the low hanging boughs, up the rugged side of top of which, when reached, repays fully the the hill we came, by a turn, suddenly upon the delay and toil of the ascent. Below you, on last thing one would have expected to have met the margin of its lake, enclosed in its stone walls, in such a place. Situated on the hill-side, emlies the quaint-looking town of Brug. On the bowered in the trees, a public-house, and aropposite side of the lake, the precipitous sides ranged on the limited space of ground outside of the Rhigi Berg rise up sheer from the lake, were tables, benches, and chairs, "and all ap on this side almost free from foliage, and brown, pliances and means to boot," for a thorough sterile, and wild in aspect. Beyond this, in the carousal. Here some of our companions of the distance, tower the dark, ragged summits of omnibus, who had preceded us, were indulging the Pilatus. On this occasion it was entirely in the good things which the house afforded; free from the cap of storm-clouds with which it kirshwacher, limonade-gazeuse, and beer. Of is usually said to be crowned. According to the first-named, the only compound I tasted, and tradition, this mountain takes its name from that from curiosity, it being a beverage of the Pilate, the governor of Judea, who is said to country-not from any need of refreshment, I have drowned himself in a lake on its summit, left with a very bad opinion, it being to me from whose perturbed spirit (of course) arise exceedingly unpalatable: I can compare it to all those storms which curl and break about the nothing save intensely-sweetened and remarkably brows of old Pilatus. Here, as in many other bad gin. It is made from cherries. For a few haunts of tradition, the prosaic searchers have minutes resting on the certainly not very reposebeen, and have attempted to drive the spirit from inviting seats, for looking over the rude plank her abiding place. It is stated that, from its pe- back, beneath you could track along under the culiar position, it collects the clouds and va- precipice your way up, we enjoyed the view of pours which sail over the plains from the north the increasing landscape before us; but the and west. In front, nearer to the spectator, on smoke from the pipes of our German friends not the left hand, is the rugged form of the Ross-seeming to assimilate with, much more improve berg. After a somewhat rapid descent, we rode the fresh air of the mountains, we speedily rethrough a succession of orchards and meadows sumed our walk. Continuing up the precipitous into Zug-a slumberous old town, lying on the side of the hill, our path was in great measure extreme margin of its lake. We remained shadowed from the afternoon sun by the thick here but to change horses, so had but a glimpse foliage, the roots of the trees in many places of its quaint towers and streets. The road to forming a complete stair-way in some instances, Arth from Zug, about nine miles in extent, is assisted by artificial means; and I presume, inclose upon the borders of the lake the entire tended as a spiritual aid to the bodily exertion journey, presenting throughout a series of fine consequent on this ascent, there are at intervals, views over the waters of the stern mountain of in watch-box kind of buildings, or elevated on the Rhigi, rendered colossal by its nearness, and poles, the most distorted and revolting pictures, seeming to hang its precipice over the lake, re-purporting to represent the suffering and pasflecting it below: and behind this rise the sion of our Saviour. Emerging from these black splintered peaks of Mount Pilatus. This woods, you come upon tracks of the pleasantest beautiful road is almost continuously under pasture-land, which, after the rough stairs and avenues of cherry-trees; and, taking the pre- loose stones of the previous journey, is indeed caution to tie your cap, "wide-awake or grateful to the tired feet. As our way continued "Leghorn," safely upon your head, you may, to bear to the left, we were entirely sheltered with a very small exercise of dexterity, have a from the sun, which, on pausing to look round, plentiful repast as you drive along, and at the for the first time I saw was flooding the far-off same time feel thankful, spite of an occasional valleys with amber-tinted glory. Sitting down buffet from some unexpected bough, that you upon the dry turf to enjoy for a few moments