it as far as the dominions of Geneva extend, that is, about two leagues and a half on each fide; and landed at several of the little houses of pleasure, that the inhabitants have built all about it, who received us with much politeness. The fame night we eat part of a trout, taken in the lake, that weighed thirty-feven pounds; as great a monster as it appeared to us, it was esteemed there nothing extraordinary, and they assured us, it was not uncommon to catch them of fifty pounds; they are dreffed here and sent post to Paris upon some great occafions; nay, even to Madrid, as we were told. The road we returned through was not the same we came by: We croffed the Rhône at Seyffel, and passed for three days among the mountains of Bugey, without meeting with any thing new: At laft we came out into the plains of La Breffe, and fo to Lyons again. Sir Robert has written to Mr. Walpole, to defire he would go to Italy; which he has refolved to do; fo that all the scheme of spending the winter in the south of France is laid afide, and we are to pass it in a much finer country. You may imagine I am not forry to have this opportunity

of seeing the place in the world that best deserves it: Befides as the Pope (who is eighty-eight, and has been lately at the point of death) cannot probably last a great while, perhaps we may have the fortune to be present at the election of a new one, when Rome will be in all its glory. Friday next we certainly begin our journey; in two days we shall come to the foot of the Alps, and fix more we shall be in paffing them. Even here the winter is begun; what then must it be among those vast snowy mountains where it is hardly ever fummer? We are, however, as well armed as possible against the cold, with muffs, hoods, and masks of beaver, fur-boots, and bear-fkins. When we arrive at Turin, we shall reft after the fatigues of the journey.

LETTER XX.

MR. GRAY TO HIS MOTHER.

Turin, Nov. 7, N. S. 1739.

AM this night arrived here, and have just set down to reft me after eight days tiresome journey: For the three firft we had the

fame road we before paffed through to go to

Geneva; the fourth we turned out of it, and for that day and the next travelled rather among than upon the Alps; the way commonly running through a deep valley by the fide of the river Arc, which works itself a paffage, with great difficulty and a mighty noise, among vast quantities of rocks, that have rolled down from the mountain tops. The winter was fo far advanced, as in great measure to spoil the beauty of the prospect; however, there was still somewhat fine remaining amidst the favageness and horror of the place: The fixth we began to go up feveral of these

mountains; and as we were paffing one, met with an odd accident enough: Mr. Walpole had a little fat black spaniel, that he was very fond of, which he sometimes used to set down, and let it run by the chaise side. We were at that time in a very rough road, not two yards broad at moft; on one fide was a great wood of pines, and on the other a vast precipice; it was noon-day, and the sun shone bright, when all of a sudden, from the wood-fide (which was as steep upwards, as the other part was downwards) out rushed a great wolf, came close to the head of the horses, seized the dog by the throat, and rushed up the hill again with him in his mouth. This was done in less than a quarter of a minute; we all saw it, and yet `the fervants had not time to draw their pistols, or do any thing to fave the dog. If he had not been there, and the creature had thought fit to lay hold of one of the horses; chaise, and we, and all must inevitably have tumbled above fifty fathoms perpendicular down the precipice. seventh we came to Lanebourg, the laft town in Savoy ; it lies at the foot of the famous mount Cenis, which is fo

The

fituated as to allow no room for any way but over the very top of it. Here the chaife was forced to be pulled to pieces, and the baggage and that to be carried by mules: We ourselves were wrapped up in our furs, and feated upon a fort of matted chair without legs, which is carried upon poles in the manner of a bier, and so begun to ascend by the help of eight men. It was fix miles to the top, where a plain opens itself about as many more in breadth, covered perpetually with very deep fnow, and in the midst of that a great lake of unfathomable depth, from whence a river takes its rise, and tumbles over monftrous rocks quite down the other fide of the mountain. The defcent is fix miles more, but infinitely more steep than the going up; and here the men perfectly fly down with you, stepping from stone to stone with incredible swiftness in places where none but they could go three paces without falling. The immensity of the precipices, the roaring of the river and torrents that run into it, the huge crags covered with ice and fnow, and the clouds below you and about you, are objects it is impoffible to conceive without feeing them;