intelligent travellers who ever visited these countries, are already out of date, and unsatisfactory. Until the revolutionary wars, it seemed as if time stood still within the mountain barrier of Italy. Very few political changes had taken place, by which her institutions were deprived of their character of antique permanence. The independence of the Italian states was guaranteed by the jealousies of their neighbours ;-hence no adventurous spirit yet dared to snatch the ducal bonnet or the triple crown from the brows of the feeble wearers. Few governments had been more wise in their own conceit than those of Italy; and they continued glorying in their fancied wisdom, until they felt that all their wiles and politicstheir ragione di stato,' became musty. The sages of Terrafirma, and the sages of the Sea, had as little in common with the ministry of Louis, or the cabinet of George, as with the Conscript Fathers. The bark of St Peter yet floated on the waters; but the steersman sat at the helm, as of old, with his astrolabe in his hand, and guided his vessel in her track according to the calculations of the Almagest. He could not be brought to acknowledge the fallibility of the pilots who preceded him, by unlearning their theory of the stars, or acknowledging the imperfection of their instruments,-until the tempest wrecked him.

After having seen Italy subjected to one mighty will, we are now anxious to know the measure of good and evil which has resulted to her from the sway of her late conquerors, the partial recal of some of her old rulers, and the kindly transfer which has been made of many of her fair provinces to a new race of taskmasters. Strong arms, and wise counsels, were those which replaced Apollo and the Pope within the walls of the Vatican, and which recalled Venus and the Grand Duke to the banks of the Arno: And we hope that Rome and Florence rejoice in the restoration of their treasures. The Wivern of Milan, the Lion of St Mark, the Red Cross of Genoa, were brought together in the brilliant quarterings of the armorial ensign of the kingdom of Italy. Perhaps it was to be lamented that they had been assembled under the Iron Crown; but now the banner has been rent, the shield has been broken asunder, and the tatters and fragments, emblazoned and glittering with the devices of former independence and dominion, have been bestowed by strangers upon strangers, and withheld from all the owners who once had borne them.

L'Italie a été plusieurs fois décrite; ainsi ce n'étoit pas l'espoir de faire quelque heureux découverte, qui m'inspiroit le désir de voir ce pays si vanté. Je voulo.s examiner moi-même les grands monumens dont il s'enorgueillit, et que les meilleurs desseins et les gra

vures les plus fidèles ne peuvent qu'imparfaitemen⚫ epresenter. D'ailleurs quoiqu'on a publié tant de descriptions de l'Italie, il n'existe aucun ouvrage qui en donne une idée conforme à celle qu'on doit s'en faire aujourd'hui. Misson est trop credule et trop abrégé. Dupaty est trop exalté. Richard, Lalande, Wolkman, Bernoulli, et ceux qui lui leur ont succedé, ont enrichi leurs ouvrages de détails importans, et seroient de meilleurs guides, mais leurs écrits manquent d'ordre; ils ont tout recueilli sans goût et sans choix, et la marche des événemens a tellement vieilli ces ouvrages, qu'il y reste peu d'observations dont on puisse profiter. Des souverainetés ont été détruites; les lois et l'administration ont été changées; et, quoique les derniers evenemens aient rétabli plusieurs états, et renouvellé plusieurs institutions; ces révolutions ont amené de grandes variations dans les mœurs et les usages.

J'ai donc cru qu'il étoit encore possible de donner une nouvelle description de l'Italie, et de lui imprimer quelque intérêt, en visitant cette riche contrée, et en profitant de tous les ouvrages dont elle a été le sujet.'

The main line of communication from France to Chambery, commences with the noble road which was made across the mountains during the reign of Charles Emanuel the II., and finished in 1670. In the passage called the Passage de la Crotte, the undertaking was attended with the greatest difficulty. The road is hewn through rocks of a tremendous height for more than a thousand toises.

From hence M. Millin passes into an Alpine scene. He crosses the sterile valley of Cous; in which is situated the waterfall, the Cascade de Cous, described by Jean Jacques Rousseau as the finest he had seen.' M. Millin will only make a partial admission of its beauty. Je le crois,' is his answer;

mais ce n'est pas la plus belle qu'on puisse voir.' The correctness of the perceptions of Jean Jacques for the picturesque, cannot well be disputed; and it must be recollected that M. Millin saw the fall at an unfavourable season; besides which, some of the rocks over which the water flowed, have been displaced, and the cascade has lost the bold rushing curve which constituted its principal beauty.

The capital of Savoy cannot boast of remote antiquity. In the 12th century, Chambery was an open vill, protected by a moated baronial castle. The cathedral is a Gothic building, in which M. Millin observed little that was worthy of notice, except some ancient fresco paintings' of the 14th century. Its walls were formerly adorned by the bearings and devices of the knights who tilted at the great tournament of Chambery in the year 1348. Amongst them was the shield of Amadeus the 6th,

VOL. XXIX. No. 57.

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whom we had rather call Amadis, like some of our old English writers; it is a name of more knightly sound. Amadis obtained the appellation of the Green Earl;' for this good knight always appeared in the livery of the spring; his armour was green; the surcoats of his squires were green; and the trappings of his steed were green. The shields, and bearings, and devices, however, are now completely obliterated. The duty of officiating at the cathedral happened, unfortunately for the admirers of chivalry, to devolve upon the White Friars; and as the disciples of the prophet Elisha entertain great aversion to all worldly pomp and vanity, they covered over the bright emblems of love and war with a thick coat of whitewash.

The tournaments used to be held in the Verney, a kind of park thickly planted with trees, and which is now the favourite promenade of the inhabitants of Chambery. The ancient, Verney has been improved in the modern French fashion; and these improvements have not increased its pleasantness. A Champ de Mars' has been annexed to it, in which the soldiers who were lodged in the immense Caserne' erected by the French Government, were occasionally drawn out and reviewed. These military works have occasioned a loss which excites the regret of our traveller. The old Jardin de l'Arquebuse' has been destroyed, in order to make room for the Parade, and the Champ de Mars, and the barracks. Here they used to shoot the popinjay; and, according to the custom which prevailed in many other countries where this pastime was practised, the suc cessful marksman obtained the title of the king of the game. The match was succeeded by processions and balls; and when his majesty of the popinjay had attained his honours, he was bound to share them with a queen, and, by a singular regulation, this queen was to be chosen from the class of inhabitants to which he, the king, did not belong; that is to say, if he was a noble, the lady was to be a citizen's daughter, or the victorious citizen was to be mated with a lady of patrician rank. Six young candidates for the queenship, either noble or ignoble, according to the rank of the king, were chosen from amongst the fairest ones of the town, by the grave Burghercouncil, the prudhommes of Chambery; and the king se lected his companion from this little band of maidens bright of blee,' who were collectively called the Rose."

The dance was led off by the King and Queen: and the rest of the dancers were matched, or rather mismatched, by the same joyous rule which had brought the sovereigns of the feast together. Each roturier had a partner of high degree, and each nobleman danced with the wife or daughter of a burgess. The

Princes of Savoy sometimes joined in the sport. It once happened that Victor Amadeus hit the popinjay, upon which he was duly declared the king of the Arquebusiers. When it was time for him to chuse his queen, all Chambery was in an uproar. Such a thing had never happened before; it was quite a new case; a case to which the existing laws did not appear to be applicable. The judges were puzzled sorely; they could not decide whether the queen ought to be taken from the nobility, or from the burgesses; for it was evident that the victor belonged to neither class. The Prince evaded giving a final determination upon this difficult point; and put an end to the dispute, by taking the hand of a girl, a lawyer's daughter, who was not and could not be included in either of the rival Roses which had been named by the contending parties. Our graver readers must pardon us for these little details.

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The Abbey of Haute Combe was founded by Amadeus the Vth, in 1225; and afterwards became the burial-place of a long line of Princes. According to the usual fate of pious foundations situated in the countries which have been annexed to France, the Abbey has been spoiled and desecrated. It is converted into a porcelain manufactory, and as M. Millin expresses himself, des fours a faience, symbole de la fragilité humaine, ont remplacé ces 'illustres tombes.' In this church are deposited the remains of an English prelate, the tyrannical Boniface, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose sacrilegious oaths and pugilistic prowess are dolefully bewailed by Matthew Paris. This monument escaped the first general devastation; but it has since been annihilated.

Former travellers described Aquabella as a poor town; but to M. Millin it appeared prosperous and full of life. The total cessation of all maritime commerce had given a temporary activity to all the towns on the road of Mount Cenis. Aquabella, so called from the limpid streams by which it is watered, ought to be a place of note in English history, as it is the birth-place of Peter de Egeblanke, Bishop of Hereford, a prelate who acted a conspicuous part in the reign of Henry the IIId, and whose memory 'exhales a loathsome and brimstone stink;' as we are told in the bitter pages of the venerable monk of St Alban's, who never spares pope, prince or prelate.

This Bishop, of hateful memory, is buried in the collegiate church of Aquabella, which he founded, built and endowed. ' The same church also contained the sepulchral monament of Peter of Savoy, Earl of Richmond, the uncle of our Queen Eleanor, who was as little liked in England as the bishop, his namesake and relation.

The church has been ruined in the late wars-the walls alone

are standing. The site of Peter of Aquabella's tomb, however, is still pointed out;-but the monument has disappeared. In the opinion of Mr Kerrich, a most competent judge, it was a work of considerable intrinsic merit, and not without great beauty, although in rather a hard dry style, such as, if the figure were antique, would be dignified with the title of severe :-the whole is executed with the utmost delicacy.'*

The monu

ment was further remarkable, by preserving the name of the artist; this occurs rarely--and Master Henry of Colonia' is almost the only ultramontane sculptor of the middle ages whose existence is thus recorded.

When Mr Kerrich saw the tomb of the Earl of Richmond, it was greatly mutilated--both the legs were broken, and one of them was lost. The people of the place seemed to know very well who he was; but they called him an Englishman, and insisted that he was related to the Bishop who was buried under the other tomb. From the silence of M. Millin, we must infer, that the tomb of the Earl has shared the fate of the tomb of the Bishop. It is fortunate, therefore, that the elegant pencil of Mr Kerrich has rescued these fine specimens of art from oblivion. This gentleman tantalizes us; he just opens his portfolio, and allows us to peep at the treasures which it contains, and then he closes it in our faces. that he would attempt the history of the progress of the arts in It were greatly to be wished France and Italy. Such a work would be most acceptable; nor is the necessity of it superseded by the appearance of Azincourt's history.-Azincourt's subjects are selected without judgment; and the plates of his expensive book are executed without taste or feeling.

Whilst M. Millin was travelling through Maurienne, he met with several troops of little mountaineers, all of whom were under ten years of age. We are going to France, my good Sir,' was the answer which he received to his inquiries. Savoy had been long united to France; but, notwithstanding this union, it was quite impossible to convince the Savoyards that they were Frenchmen. They migrate like swallows. The young Savoyards sally forth every autumn, in great flights, from the mountainous districts of Savoy. In the winter season, they disperse themselves throughout the towns of France, where they earn a scanty pittance by their industry; they clean shoes, and take upon themselves the indefinable office of Commissionaires; and, above all, they employ themselves in the standard vocation of the country-in sweeping chimneys. Grave authors main

* Archaiologia, Vol. XVIII.-Art. 17.