The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-08-07 00:00:00


A RAMBLE IN
(By our London Correspondent.)
LETTER
More than compensated for the discomforts of the
toilsome ascent of the Righi by the splendour of the
view, and perhaps by that unavoidable but not par-
ticularly manly feeling, that I had "done the Righi,'
I descended in good company to Weggis, which may be
regarded as merely a place at which to have a good
rest and sleep, and from which to start; and in due
time I did so, by the steamer, for Fluelen, a pretty
village on the Lake of Lucerne. The scenery here is
glorious. It is said to be the most picturesque and
romantic lake in Switzerland, but I suppose opinions
differ about that. Certainly the scenery is grand. "If
you would view Lucerne aright, go visit it by the pale
moonlight," and you will be charmed by its lovely and
quiet beauty. If you would molt in its majestic gran-
deur, go and see it in a squall; but as you cannot
choose your weather, visit it under any circumstances,
and you will acknowledge how charming and plc-
tureeque is this district. When it is stated that the
lake of Lucerne coven an extent of some seventy square
miles, and that it consists of seven basins or lakes, it
will readily be seen that the lake scenery presents many
varied aspects, according to your point of -'ew and
according to the weather. But see it under what aspect
you may, its green waters, its wooded margins, its
background of rocks, the pretty villages on its banks,
the swift steamers traversing it, the bright blue sky or
the storm AI the case may be—every aspect has its
charm for the denizens of great cities.
At the town of Lucerne itself, there is not much to
see, except the peculiarities of foreign manners and
characteristics which are always more or less interest-
ing, unless you be an experienced traveller to whom
nothing comes fresh. But even the town is a charming
one. It is situated on both sides of the river Remo.
It is a place of some 12,000 inhabitants, chiefly
Catholics, and is the town chosen for the residence of
the Papal Nuncio. Its situation is delightful, and in
the season hundreds nay, thousands—of English come
to stop here • few weeks. Hence it is that there are
so many facilities for excursionising round and about
the place; and it is equally true that it in owing to the
town itself being so picturesque and pleasant that all
Norte of temptations are held ous to you ail irISIIO it for
a time and go and see some other scenery, which on
the whole is no better perhaps. You find this sort of
thing everywhere in Switzerland, more perhaps, than
In any other European country. It is a show country,
a country that to a great extent lives on English
money spent in its tourist districts, though it ought
immediately to be added that, as is well known, the
Swiss are remarkable for their steady industry, their
sobriety, and an economy which money-spending
tourists might ill-mituredly call stinginess. The
character which the poet Goldsmith gave the Swiss,
was, on the whole, not a very flattering one; but his
" Tratelke" was written rather more than a century
ago; and how have peoples changed since then! After
a very severe handling of the Italians, Goldsmith
exclaims :--
"• Hy soul turn from them ; turn we to survey
Where rougher climes • nobler race display,
Where the bleak Swiss their stormy mansions tread,
And force a churlish soil for scanty bread.
No product bare the barren hills afford
But man and steel, the soldier and his sword;
No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array,
But winter lingering chills the lap of May."
A century cannot pans over a country without pro-
ducing immense changes. "The everlasting hills'
and the natural characteristics of a place may remain
oomparatively unchanged, but we know that even the
aspects of nature are changed by restless, inventive
man. And what changes do the progress of science
and invention effect! The Swiss may here and there,
for aught I know to the contrary, have to "force a
churlish soil for scanty bread," but certainly this is
not now the unhappy lot of the people generally as it
may have been in 1765, when Goldsmith wrote the
words. It is curious to read, in the Switzerland cif
1860, the poetic, but not true lines of one of En-
gland's meet • en. I have not the vanity
td think L 4- .. much knowledge of the
domestic life of the Swim by a three weeks ramble
through a part of the country, but "putting this and
that together,' I will ask any one who knows Switzer-
Laid awl the Swiss better than I do to call recent im-
pressions to mind, and then read " poor Goldy's " im-
premi us of ac, ,t,., y o -o.
" Hot . oleo in ignorance and toil,
Ladl, with contracting, fits him to the soil.
C. meld at morn, he wakes from short repose,
Weathes the keen air and carols as he goes;
Ith patient angle trolls the tinny deep,
It drives his venturous ploughshare to the steep;
Jr seeks the den where snow.tracks mark the way,
And ,rag the struggling savage into day.'
And then, after poetizing the return home, and telling
us that the good wife " displays her cleanly platter on
the Isisrd," Goldsmith writes :
-- Anil haply too some pilgrim, thither led,
With many a tale repays the nightly bed."
The poor, good-natured, reckless, spendthrift who
wrote this no doubt wrote from his own experience.
He known to have wandered through France, Italy,
Switz..rlsrel, and other countries, with very scanty re
aources, and tt have often played on the Hate for a
bad! Thera mlAy be some primitive hospitality left
even yet; but when you are cogitating over a rather
still hotel bill it is suggestive of a comic contrast when
you read about "some pilgrim, thither led," repaying
his nightly bed with " many a tale." Al, fres temps, attires
'piques.

Ya u will not of course leave Lucerne without visiting
the monument raised to the memory at the Swiss
Goerdo who fell in defence of the family of Louis the
Sixteenth, on the 10th of August, 1792, during one of
those sanguinary massacres which form such striking
episodes in the history al the French Ilevolution.
The monument is situated in the garden of General
Pfyffer, on the road to Zurich. The design of the
monument is by the celebrated Thorwaldsee, anal its
actual execution is due to Louis Ahorn, a sculptor of
Constance. It is hewn out of a large block of granite,
and altogether represents one of the most spirited
sculptural figures of the present day. The figure is
that of a colossal lion, 28 feet long and IS feet high ;
he is fatally wounded, and has fallen, bait in the agony
of death still endeavours to protect a shield on which
is sculptured the fleur-de-lys of the Bourbons. At
the foot of the monument are carved the names of the
Swiss" mercenary" but marvellously faithful soldiers
who died in the effort to protect the unfortunate family
" Louis Caper." The leading infoription on the
monument I." Helvetionam fidei ac virtuti" (to the
faith anal virtue of the Swiss) ; and near the monument
is a little chapel, with the inscription " Invictis pax"
(peace to the unconquered), where masses fair the repose
of the souls of the brave Swiss Guard are annually
said on the 10th of August.
Anybody who likes nice scenery, a fresh-looking
picturesque town, and varied walks about it, might
well spend a few weeks at Lucerne, but my time was
short, and I railed it to Zotingen. Not much of a
place that Zofingen perhaps -a one-eyed place corn-
mereially or politically, but it has its history and its
interest of course. You will perhaps, if you have
nothing better to do, go into the public library, and
look at the autograph signatures of celebrated Swiss
reformers, and be eurpriaed that they are no different
to what you might have thought that they would be.
And you will, of course, notice the splendid linden
trees, with two small ball-rooms hanging as it were in
their branches. I found at Aarburg, a station a few
miles further on—no, I should Ray, nearer home—a
good dinner, which is usually much more important
than picturesque scenery; anal towards the close of the
day footed it to Olten, a town that is very charmingly
placed in a valley of the Jura, anal which has a pros-
perous don't-carish air about it. A night's repoe
after a by no means hard day's work or pleasure, and
hen—let me see, a Swiss " breathes the keen air and
carols as he goes "—well, I don't know about carolling,
but I had a lovely long walk to Simach, amid
scenery which one enjoys aU the more because you can
linger and drink it in as it were at your ease. And
thence by rail to Basis; and then—somehow or other
drawn by the irresistible attractions of the place, to
Paris again.
And Paris, /a rifle de o/aisir, seems more bustling,
near, noisy, more wide-awake, more light, bright, and
brilliant than ever, and there is the same absence of
cairn repose as ever. To the stranger who rambles
Aleut—who goes to visit the Tuileries, the Louvre, the
Gardens of the Luxembourg, the Madeleine, the Pan
thal.an, or any of the show-placeo of the city, or who
merely wanders about the bright and busy boulevarale,
—to such a one it seems as if all Paris were out of doors.
There tray be a panic at the Bourse, a crisis in toe
Government, or trade may be dull and deal; but the
boulevards never look like dulness of trade. The
bright, glaring calls are busy am ever; the garcon flits
about noiselessly and actively, taking money rapidly
and doubtless making •little fortune for himself, if he
can only stay long enough (and then he will set up a
cab, for himself) ; the enjes.ehontante are attractive as
ever be the evening but moderately warm and fine;
and, in a word, Paris is Paris and unlike every other
city in the world. "None but itself can be its paral-
lel." Anal a day or two of the refreshing anal invi-
gorating aea-bref xe as you get it on the harbour or an
the PNII.IB of Boulogne, will be a nice preparation for
that mou.ent of embarkation when all the pleasures of
travel cease—for me, at least, for whom the sea is
always too rough. Convenient, cheap, anal ever 53
rapid as railway travelling may he, we have not yet
enquired the art of making railway travelling positively
agreeable. But it is the fag end of a very ph-anent
holiday. Of emir.. I find, on narrating a few at nay
not very perilous air exciting wanderino, that I have
not been te the right places or seen the right thing.;
anal of course oilers have been mua h farther, seen
mere, fr dove this, that, or the other thing infinitely
better than I. I aflmia if l at console ua) self that I
have nevertheless Lea cery pleasant ramble in
Switwerlanr'„