Route 45. Lake of Bienne. there sweeps round the eminence on which the castle stands, and flows into the lake after passing through the centre of the town. Though in winter a furious torrent sweeping everything before it, it is reduced in summer to a noisome driblet of water, exhaling unwholesome effluvia. tunnel has, in consequence, been made through the rock at the bend before alluded to, for the purpose of carrying its waters entirely clear of the town into the lake, at a considerable distance S. of its present outlet. A A new road to Vallengin has been traced up this gorge, following nearly the line of the conduit which supplies Neuchâtel with water. It will require to be cut through the limestone rock for nearly 2 miles, but will avoid altogether the painful ascent and descent which the existing road makes. The principal produce of the canton is wine; the best sorts resemble Burgundy, but are much inferior. The chief manufacture is that of watches and clocks, of which 130,000 are, it is said, exported annually: the centrical seat of it may be said to be the valley of Chaux de Fonds and Locle (Route 48); but much is done in the town of Neuchâtel. "Most of the watches sold at Geneva are made in the canton of Neuchâtel; the dealers at Geneva contracting for all the good ones, and leaving the bad. But the manufacturers of Neuchâtel are now beginning to cultivate for themselves this branch of industry, which is gradually leaving Geneva."-W. C. T. The Steamer navigating the lake sets out from Neuchâtel at 6 A. M., reaches Yverdun at 9; sets out to return at 10; reaches Neuchâtel at 12 or 1. Three times a week it leaves for Morat at 2, returns thence at 4, and arrives at Neuchâtel at 7 P. M. By means of this conveyance a traveller, leaving Neuchâtel in the morning may reach Lausanne at 1; in time for the Geneva steamer 131 so as to arrive at that place by 6 P.M. Coaches run from Morat to Berne and Freyburg, in correspondence with the steam-boat. The new road to Bienne, along the W. shore of the lake, shortens the journey to that place, to Soleure, and to Basle, by 3 hours, and is far prettier than the old road (Route 45). Diligences go daily from Neuchâtel to Pontarlier and Besançon, to Berne and Bâle, to Geneva and Lausanne. ROUTE 45. BIENNE TO YVERDUN AND LAUSANNE, BY THE LAKES OF BIENNE AND NEUCHÂTEL. = 18 stunden An excellent new road was finished in 1837, along the W. shore of the lake of Bienne, partly by cutting a passage through the rock. It is about 8 miles shorter than the old road by Siselen, and perfectly level, while the other is very hilly, The Lake of Bienne (German Bieler See) is about 10 miles long and nearly 3 broad. It is 8 feet lower than the lake of Neuchâtel, whose waters it receives at its S. extremity by the Thiel, discharging them again at the N.E. corner, through a continuation of the same river. Its banks are neither bold nor striking, but it possesses much quiet beauty of scenery, although it owes its celebrity chiefly to Rousseau's residence on it, and to his somewhat extravagant praises. The Isle St. Pierre, on which he took refuge for 2 months, in 1765, after his proscription at Paris, and his pretended stoning at Motiers (Route 49), is situated about 6 miles from Bienne. Boats may be hired at almost all the villages on the lake to row to it. There is now (1841) a steamer on the lake in connection with that on the lake of Neuchâtel. Carriages may be sent on from Bienne to Glerisse, a village opposite the island, to wait. solitaires, qui aiment à s'énivrer des charmes de la nature et à se recueillir dans un silence que ne trouble aucun bruit que le cri des aigles, le ramage entrecoupé de quelques oiseaux, et le The island, a pretty object, is a roulement des torrents qui tombent ridge of sandstone, rising 12 feet de la montagne. Ce beau bassin above the lake, and prolonged south- d'une forme presque ronde, renferme wards, under water, to the hill called dans son milieu deux petites îles, Jolimont. It is crowned by a beauti- | l'une habitée et cultivée, d'environ ful grove of magnificent old oaks, the demi-lieue de tour; l'autre, plus shade of which in summer is most petite, déserte et en friche, et qui refreshing. The following descrip- sera détruite à la fin par les transtion is given of it by Rousseau in his ports de la terre qu'on en ôte sans Reveries: cesse pour réparer les dégats que les vagues et les orages font à la grande. C'est ainsi que la substance du faible est toujours employée au profit du puissant. "De toutes les habitations, où j'ai demeuré (et j'en ai eu de charmantes), aucune ne m'a rendu si véritablement heureux, et ne m'a laissé de si tendres regrets que l'île de St. Pierre au milieu du lac de Bienne. Cette petite île qu'on appelle à Neufchâtel l'île de la motte, est bien peu connue, même en Suisse. Cependant elle est ́très-agréable et singulièrement située pour le bonheur d'un homme qui aime à se circonscrire; car quoique je sois peut-être le seul au monde à qui sa destinée en ait fait une loi, je ne puis croire être le seul qui ait un goût si naturel, quoique je ne l'aie trouvé jusqu'ici chez nul autre. "Les rives du lac de Bienne sont plus sauvages et plus romantiques que celles du lac de Genève, parce que les rochers et les bois y bordent l'eau de plus près; mais elles ne sont pas moins riantes : il y a moins de culture de champs et de vignes, moins de villes et de maisons; il y a aussi plus de verdure naturelle, plus de prairies, d'asîles ombragés de bocages, des contrastes plus fréquents et des accidens plus rapprochés. Comme il n'y a pas sur ces heureux bords de grandes routes commodes pour les voitures, le pays est peu fréquenté par les voyageurs* :) mais il est intéressant pour des contemplatifs * Steam boats and the new road along the W. shore of the lake, within a musket-shot of the island, have produced a great change on this head since Rousseau wrote. "Il n'y a dans l'île qu'une seule maison, mais grande, agréable et commode, qui appartient à l'hôpital de Berne, ainsi que l'île, et òu loge le receveur avec sa famille et ses domestiques. Il y entretient une nombreuse basse-cour, une volière et des réservoirs pour les poissons. L'île dans sa petitesse est tellement variée dans ses terrains et dans ses aspects, qu'elle offre toutes sortes de sites, et souffre toutes sortes de culture: on y trouve des champs, des vignes, des bois, des vergers, des gras pâturages ombragés de bosquets et bordés d'arbrisseaux de toute espèce, dont le bord des eaux entretient la fraîcheur; une haute terrasse plantée de deux rangs d'arbres enlace l'île dans toute sa longueur, et dans le milieu de cette terrasse on a bâti un joli salon, où les habitants des rives voisines se rassemblent et viennent danser les Dimanches durant les vendanges. Une de mes navigations les plus fréquentes était d'aller de la grande à la petite île, d'y débarquer et d'y passer l'après-dinée, tantôt à des promenades très-circonscrites au milieu des marceaux, des bourdaines, des persicaires, et des arbrisseaux de toute espèce; et tantôt m'établissant au sommet d'un tertre sablonneux, couvert de gazon, de serpolet, de fleurs, même d'esparcettes "Route 45. - Bienne to Neuchatel. 133 et de trèfles qu'on avait vrai-sem- | walls, doors, shutters, and windows blablement semés autrefois. are scribbled over with names of visitors of all nations. For some time after his arrival he remained almost unknown; but as soon as the presence of the author of the "Contrat Social" on the island became noised abroad, it was inundated with shoals of curious visitors. To escape their importunities he used to climb up by a stove, through a trap-door (still shown) into the garret, and frequently, when informed by his host that a party had come expressly to see him, refused to appear — “Je ne suis pas ici dans une ménagerie." After having, by his own account, made up his mind to end his days on his beloved island, he was at length expelled the canton of Berne, by a decree of the Grand Council, after in vain begging them, in preference, to commute his sentence into perpetual imprisonment, and to lock him up for life in some old castle. “ Quand le lac agité ne me permettait pas la navigation, je passais mon après-midi á parcourir l'île, m'asseyant tantôt dans les réduits les plus raints et les plus solitaires pour y rêver à mon aise, tantôt sur les ter rasses et les tertres pour parcourir des veux le superbe et ravissant coup d'œil du lac et de ses rivages, couronné d'un côté par des montagnes prochaines, et de l'autre elargi en riches et fertiles plaines dans lesquelles la vue s'étendait jusqu'aux montagnes bleuâtres plus éloignées qui la bornaient. En sortant d'une longue et douce réverie, me voyant entouré de verdure, de fleurs, d'oiseaux, et laissant errer mes yeux au loin sur les romanesques rivages qui bordaient une vaste étendue d'une eau claire et cristalline, j'assimilais à mes fictions tous ces aimables objets; et me trouvant enfin ramené par degrés à moi-même, et à tout ce qui "We rambled over this lovely m'entourait, je ne pouvais marquer le island for a couple of hours. We point de séparation des fictions aux left it with the greatest regret, and réalités, tant tout concourait égale- if ever we are in this country again ment à me rendre chère la vie rewe certainly shall spend a day here. cueillie et solitaire que je menais The whole view is one of quiet lovedans ce beau séjour. Que ne peut-liness, which gives one a feeling of elle renaître encore! Que ne puis-je repose after the grandeur of Alpine aller finir mes jours dans cette île scenery.”—Ld. F. chérie, sans en ressortir jamais, ni jamais y revoir aucun habitant du | continent qui me rappelât le souvenir des calamités de toute espèce qu'ils se plaisent à rassembler sur moi depuis tant d'années!" He has further recorded the mode of passing his time on the island, in | botanizing, in music, in climbing the trees, with a bag tied round him to gather the fruit, in carrying over a colony of rabbits, to stock the neighbouring islet, and in allowing himself to drift for hours across the lake, stretched on his back in a little boat. The farm house in which he dwelt now serves as an inn, but Rousseau's room is preserved nearly in the state in which he left it, except that its 3 Neuveville (Germ. Neustadt), a little town of 1200 inhabitants, on the edge of the lake at the foot of the Chasseral, and a little to the S.W. of the two islands. On the opposite side of the lake, near its S. extremity, stands Erlach (Cerlier), at the foot of the Jolimont, a hill of sandstone, which sends out the spur prolonged into the Isle St. Pierre, producing shallows covered with reeds stretching into the lake. The borders of the lake of Neu. châtel are reached at 1 St. Blaize, and an improved road, skirting the edge of the vineyards, conducts thence to 1 NEUCHATEL (see Route 44, p. 128.). 134 Route 45. Neuchâtel to Yverdun A steam-boat (see p. 131.) and diligences run daily between Neuchâtel and Yverdun. Posthorses are provided on the road to Yverdun. 2 posts Vaumarcus. A little more than a mile from the gates of Neuchâtel the road crosses the glen of Serriêres by a handsome stone bridge, built by Marshal Berthier. The bottom of it is occupied by a little hamlet, composed of a group of water-mills, turned by a remarkable stream, rising in the head of the dell and falling into the lake, after a course of not more than half a mile. Though it remains, as it were, but a few minutes above ground, it rises in sufficient force and volume to turn a wheel within 200 yards of its source, and subsequently sets in motion several others, both above and below the bridge. It is fed from secret reservoirs within the mountain, and is probably to be identified with some of those singular streams which bury themselves in various places among the cavernous range of the Jura. About 3 miles farther is Columbier, once the seat of the Scotch Marshal Keith, the friend and general of Frederick the Great: he was governor of Neuchâtel. Cortaillod, by the water-side, produces one of the best wines in the canton. 33 St. Aubin-(Inn Couronne ;) -a village half-way to Yverdun. Near it are the castles of Gorgier and Vaumarcus. An excursion may be made from this over the hills to the Creux de Vent (Route 49). It was with the view of relieving the unimportant fort of Vaumarcus, in which some of his councillors and friends were besieged by the Swiss, that Charles the Bold of Burgundy abandoned his strongly fortified camp behind Grandson, and marched his forces down to the narrow strip between the lake and the mountains, where there was not space to deploy Grandson. a third part of them, and where his cavalry and artillery were useless. The advanced guard of the Swiss, who came from Neuchâtel, was posted near Concise (a village in canton Vaud), and their batteries on the heights did great execution upon the Burgundians. Here, falling on their knees in prayer, as was the custom of the Swiss at the opening of a battle, they received on their lances the charge of the Burgundian horse, who mistook their attitude for one of submission. From the hills above, latér in the day, echoed the war-horns of Uri and Unterwalden, announcing the arrival of reinforcements from those cantons, and spreading dismay in the hearts of Charles and his forces. The scene of the battle lies between Concise-(Inn: L'Ecu de France, comfortable) - and 23 Grandson-(Inns: Lion d'Or ; Croix Rouge, not good ;)—a town of 890 inhabitants, with a venerable castle, now converted into a snuff-ma nufactory, on an eminence above the lake. It is historically remarkable because before the battle of Grandson it resisted for 10 days the assaults and artillery of the Burgundian army. When at length the garrison, reduced by famine and invited by the offer of free pardon, by a spy or deserter who had entered the castle by stealth, surrendered it, Charles, with a fero city peculiar to his character, caused them to be stripped and hung by hundreds on the surrounding trees, and as many more to be drowned in the lake. But two days after, on the 3d of March, 1476, he expiated this atrocious crime, and experienced the vengeance of the Swiss in the me morable defeat of his host 50,000 strong, by the army of the confederates, amounting to not much more than of that number; and was himself compelled to fly for his life across the mountains, with but five followers. The spoil of his camp, which fell into the hands of the victors, included 120 pieces of cannon, Route 48. - Neuchâtel to La Chaux de Fonds. 600 standards, all his jewels and ROUTE 48. 135 regalia, costly hangings, and military NEUCHÂTEL TO LA CHAUX DE FONDS chest; on that day gold and diamonds were dealt out to the Swiss by handfuls. The Church of Grandson is very ancient; Farel preached the reformed doctrines from its pulpit. There is a path over the hills from Grandson to Motiers Travers. 1 Yverdun (German Ifferten) (Inns H. de Londres, good but dear; Maison Rouge, also good, and said to be more reasonable)- -a town of 3248 inhabitants, at the S. extremity of the lake Neuchâtel, at the spot where the Orbe (thenceforth called Thiele) falls into it. It is built upon the site of the Roman Ebrodunum, whose name, with a little change, it still inherits. The Castle, built in the 12th century by Conrad of Zähringen, became the school-house and residence of Pestalozzi, from 1805 to 1825. Although the founder of a system of education, and of many schools buth in Europe and America, he was a very bad practical schoolmaster himself; and this establishment, the headquarters as it were of his system, turned out a signal failure. A very delightful excursion may be made from this up the Val Orbe to the Lac de Joux (Route 50). The road hence to Geneva passes through Val Orbe. Diligences go to Lausanne, and a steam-boat to Neuchâtel from Yverdun daily. About a mile S. of the town, at the extremity of an avenue of poplars, a mineral bath is passed: the water is warm and sulphureous. 13 Essertines; a rich country to Lausanne. 13 Echallens, a village on the river Talent, with 714 inhabitants. 23 LAUSANNE (in Route 56). AND LOCLE. 6 stunden 19 Eng. miles. The high road to Vallengin is at present carried over the steep hill at the back of Neuchâtel; a new line is proposed, which will conduct it di rectly through the profound chasm of the Seyon (see p. 130.). 1 Vallengin(Inn: Couronne) is the principal place in the fertile Val de Ruz. Its Castle (now a prison) is in part as old as the 12th century: its base is washed by the Seyon. The Church, a perfectly regular Gothic structure, was built by a Count of Vallengin, on his return from the crusades, in consequence of a vow made to the Virgin in a storm at sea that he would build a church upon the water; accordingly the stream of the valley is conducted under the building. A steep and long ascent up the Tête de Rang leads, through uninteresting country, to The 3 La Chaux de Fonds (Inn: Lilie). -a scattered village, of 9000 inhabitants, in a bleak, upland, and desolate valley, bare of wood, and from its great elevation of 3070 ft. above the sea, capable of producing only a scanty crop of oats. village covers an area not less than that of the city of Oxford, each cottage being an isolated cube, surrounded by a croft or garden half an acre or an acre in extent. Its inhabitants are reputed to be very rich. After Locle, it is the chief seat of the manufacture of clocks and watches. This is not carried on in large factories, but in the separate dwellings of the workmen. Each man usually makes only one particular piece of machinery, leaving even the finishing of it to others. The number of persons here and at Locle, and in the neighbouring district engaged in different branches of watchmaking is |