TALBOT2731

Coire ¹
4^th August 1833

My Dear Mother

I have written to Horatia ² at Lacock by this day’s post, guessing she may be there, but as there is a chance of your being still in London I will direct this to you there.

We left M^rs Jones³ at Berne as a useless incumbrance, and found indeed that she would have added materially to our difficulty of travelling, as 3 persons in a carriage are enough on these roads – We meant to have returned to Berne in a fortnight, but it will prove a month instead. We have no news of Caroline, ⁴ but as she expressed an intention of crossing the Splugen at this time, & we have crossed the other way, we hoped to have met her.

Troubles ⁵ have broke [sic] out in canton Schwytz 3 or 4 days after we left it: all the cantons have called out their contingents to suppress them. You know that last year this canton split into two, as did the Canton of Bâle. Now the old half wants to reconquer the new half, which has caused the uproar.

We travelled south as far as the shores of Lago Maggiore & then turned north again, through the Vale of Misocco – In this valley there is a fine ruin called the Castle of Misocco where the feudal lord lived – S^t Bernardino is a good inn with a few scattered houses near it, very high up on the mountains & bleak.

We crossed the pass in a cold windy day, which fatigued us so much that we stopped as soon as we reached the village of Splugen – But the next day was very favourable for seeing the Via Mala – I admired the gorge of Rofflen called “the little via mala”, between Splugen & Andeer very much, indeed all the road is very fine – I was much interested with the numerous remains of castles, & with imagining what lives their owners must have led in the dark ages!

What a place the castle of Bärenburg ⁶ is, with wolves & bears for its neighbours no doubt, as its name indicates, & as is the case still we are told: and that extremely high seated ruin on a rock near Tusis, of which there is no account in the books that I can find. But chiefly 2 ruins near the banks of the Rhine below Tusis, & about halfway to Coire engaged our attention, one of them still a peasant’s habitation, the other deserted. This deserted one, is placed on a pinnacle of rock adossé ⁷ to a high very barren mountain, [illustration] There is no cultivable land near it, nor any wood, all is craggy rocks. The Rhine flows at the base, & on its banks are seen the ruins of the principal castle itself perhaps. The [illegible deletion] remaining fragment must have been a watch tower for it never could have been a tolerable habitation for the rudest chief of banditti – The way to get up to the ruin is obliterated by time & the éboulemens ⁸ of the shingly sides of the mountain What an idea of predatory life & feudal tyranny such a place conveys, evidently built for the personal security of its inhabitant & far from his lands & cultivated fields if he had any –

Your aff^te son
Henry

Lady E. Feilding
31 Sackville S^t
Londres
Angleterre