TALBOT7021

Turin

July 11^th 1854

My Dear Constance

After leaving Lyons I passed through a pleasant country which I have described in my letter to Matilda - By this road, after passing thro' fertile valleys & over undulating hills, one arrives suddenly at the first range of the Alps, which bars the passage like a wall, a pretty cascade tumbling down the rocks right before you. - The road turns to the right along the foot of this wall & continues so until it finds an opening to pass through, a magnificent gorge, thro' which a river finds its way whose name I have forgotten -

Having passed this chasm the traveller finds himself in the quiet scenery of Pont de Beauvoisin¹ - At les Echelles he encounters as it were the Second line of mountains thro' which he passes by a tunnel, and then through a rocky valley to Chambery - I had left Lyons at 6 oclock & travelled so well that I reached Chambery at ½ past 4, an hour too early to stop, in the long summer days. So I dined at table d'hôte & continued my journey at ½ past five through the long and rather melancholy valley of the Maurienne - The fine evening lights on the lofty Chambery mountains at first made the drive a pleasant one, but soon the evening began to close in, and after passing Montmeillant and Maltaverne, by the time we got to Aiguebelle it was moonlight. From thence to Grande Maison, a long stage by the light of the full moon - It was very cold & damp, in an open carriage.

Arrived at Grande Maison at ½ past 11 oclock after a drive of 17 hours & a half from Lyons which even my courier considered a good days journey. Found everybody gone to bed - Thundered at the doors, and was accompanied by huge barking of dogs. Inmates awoke, got up & lit the Kitchen fire - logs of wood - Soon got a saucepan to boil swinging like a pendulum over the blazing logs - got some coffee & forgot our troubles.

Adieu

Your aff^te

Henry