Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Journal Entry: 19 September 1816
“September 19th.
“Rose at five. Crossed the mountains to Montbovon on
horseback, and on mules, and, by dint of scrambling, on foot also; the whole route
beautiful as a dream, and now to me almost as indistinct. I am so tired; —for though
healthy, I have not the strength I possessed but a few years ago. At Montbovon we
breakfasted; afterwards, on a steep ascent, dismounted; tumbled down; cut a finger open;
the baggage also got loose and fell down a ravine, till stopped by a large tree;
recovered baggage; horse tired and drooping; mounted mule. At the approach of the summit
of Dent Jument* dismounted again with
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| 16 | NOTICES OF THE | A. D. 1816. |
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Hobhouse and all the party. Arrived at a lake in
the very bosom of the mountains; left our quadrupeds with a shepherd, and ascended
farther; came to some snow in patches, upon which my forehead’s perspiration fell
like rain, making the same dints as in a sieve; the chill of the wind and the snow
turned me giddy, but I scrambled on and upwards. Hobhouse went to
the highest pinnacle; I did not, but paused within a few yards (at an opening of the
cliff). In coming down, the guide tumbled three times; I fell a laughing, and tumbled
too—the descent luckily soft, though steep and slippery: Hobhouse
also fell, but nobody hurt. The whole of the mountains superb. A shepherd on a very
steep and high cliff playing upon his pipe; very different from
Arcadia, where I saw the pastors with a long musket instead of
a crook, and pistols in their girdles. Our Swiss shepherd’s pipe was sweet, and
his tune agreeable. I saw a cow strayed; am told that they often break their necks on
and over the crags. Descended to Montbovon; pretty scraggy village, with a wild river
and a wooden bridge. Hobhouse went to fish—caught one. Our carriage
not come; our horses, mules, &c. knocked up; ourselves fatigued; but so much the
better—I shall sleep.
“The view from the highest points of to-day’s journey
comprised on one side the greatest part of Lake Leman; on the other, the valleys and
mountain of the Canton of Fribourg, and an immense plain, with the lakes of
Neuchâtel and Morat, and all which the borders of the Lake of Geneva inherit; we
had both sides of the Jura before us in one point of view, with Alps in plenty. In
passing a ravine, the guide recommended strenuously a quickening of pace, as the stones
fall with great rapidity and occasional damage; the advice is excellent, but, like most
good advice, impracticable, the road being so rough that neither mules, nor mankind, nor
horses, can make any violent progress. Passed without fractures or menace thereof.
“The music of the cow’s bells (for their wealth, like
the patriarchs’, is cattle) in the pastures, which reach to a height far above any
mountains in Britain, and the shepherds shouting to us from crag to crag, and playing on
their reeds where the steeps appeared almost inaccessible, with the surrounding scenery,
realized all that I have ever heard or ![]()
| A. D. 1816. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 17 |
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imagined of a
pastoral existence:—much more so than Greece or Asia Minor, for there we are a little
too much of the sabre and musket order, and if there is a crook in one hand, you are
sure to see a gun in the other:—but this was pure and unmixed—solitary, savage, and
patriarchal. As we went, they played the ‘Rans des
Vaches’ and other airs, by way of farewell. I have lately repeopled
my mind with nature.
John Cam Hobhouse, baron Broughton (1786-1869)
Founder of the Cambridge Whig Club; traveled with Byron in the orient, radical MP for
Westminster (1820); Byron's executor; after a long career in politics published
Some Account of a Long Life (1865) later augmented as
Recollections of a Long Life, 6 vols (1909-1911).
