The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1865-08-18
ST. AIBANS' VT. FRIDAY, AUGUST IS, 1865.

smaller or row boats are sometimes
very prettily fitted up with upholstery
in gay colors and covered with striped
canvas thrown over wooden ribs placed
Mt intervals of two or three feet over
the entire length of the boat
Coppet is the name of the first land
ing, II small village of six hundred in
habitants remarkable only as contain
ing the Chateau, formerly the resi-
dence of Madame de Stael. One room
in it is pointed out as the study where
the authoress of Corinne composed
many of her works From this place
and until we reached Lausanne, pass
ing Nyon, Role, on high rolling
ground where the view up, down, and
across the lake must be magnificent;
Morges Station, where stands the cas-
tie of Wufflens, with its tall, white,
square tower and smaller turrets built
of brick i'll the thirteenth century;
Bussigny, where in the Ancre Inn,
Lord Byron anchored during a spell
Of bad weather, and in the incredibly
short space of two days wrote the
Prisoner of Chillon; the slopes from
the Jura were charming beyond de-
scription. Beautiful villas, some locat-
ed Immediately on the banks of the
lake protected by heavy walls of ma
sonry and with spaces let in them
providing bathing, boat and washing
houses) peeped out of the luxuriant
groves, or boldly raised themselves
upon eminences, and every acre OF
cleared ground was covered more or
less with the grapevine. The contrast
between the deep, blue waters of the
lake, the rich green shades of the slop
ing shore, the grey-brown back ground
of the Jura, the picturesque villas and
cottages and dumped villages nesting
in the vale; the high and grand noun
tains of the opposite shore, and the
beautiful shadows thrown by ponder
Gus masses of white making
the sky seem bluer than ever-over
the scene was one that might we'll in
spire the poet, and charm the travel
Ter.
Lausanne is town of considerable
pretensions; 1t has q population of
seventeen thousand, and is the capital
of the Canton Vaud which numbers
two hundred thousand inhabitants.
Lausanne is very charmingly located
on the lowest slope of Mont Jorat
which sinks down to the lake gradual
ly, intersected by several ravines Civ
ing it the form of separate heights.
From this cause the old streets are n
series of ups and down, many very
steep, and all very quaint and curious.
The old cathedral founded A. ID. 1000,
very extensive but not very attractive,
we did not visit, as The description fur
pished by Murray was not tempting.
Bernard de Mention, founder of the
Hospice of the Pass of st. Bernard, is
inferred there The two towers are
very antique. There are great ma
ny charming walks and drives about
Lausanne, which is quite wine grow
ing section.
The next place is Vevay, the most
delightfully."- located of any of the vii
lages or towns on the lake. 1t is sit
uated on the margin of the lake at the
mouth of the gorge of the river We
veyse, while some two miles back of
the town on lofty eminence the view
must be grand, taking in the villages
of Montreux, Chillon. Villeneuve, and
the gorge of the Rhone, backed by the
mountains of the Valais Alps, etc.
The hero of Anteitam' was stopping
there waiting, probably, for supplies
or reinforcements, or perchanee un-
able to decide whether to go up or
down the lake. We did not stop to
call upon the General whose present
complete obscurity and littleness is the
best commentary that can be offered
on the man who came so near destroy
ing the greatest and best government
the sun ever shone upon
Three miles from Veyay is Clarens, so
substantially described by Rousseau
and Byron. Itcommands one of the fin
est views of the lake, but in itself is
very interesting. The spot on which the
beautiful "bosquet de Jules is sought
for is now a potato-feld
Byron's poem describing Clarens
was an inspiration, and should be read
by all who visit it or the lake on
whose margin it stands.
Twas not for fiction chose Rousseau this spot,
Popping it with affections; but he found
1t was the scene which passion must allot
To the minds purified beings; twas the ground
Where early Love his Psyches zone unbound,