{"id":15843,"date":"2011-07-26T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2011-07-26T07:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nonsenselit.org\/diaries\/?p=15843"},"modified":"2011-07-25T20:32:29","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T18:32:29","slug":"friday-26-july-1861","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nonsenselit.org\/diaries\/2011\/07\/26\/friday-26-july-1861\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday, 26 July 1861"},"content":{"rendered":"

Off at 5.20. Magnificent Velley scenery \u2015 opening of V. A\u00f4sta. Peasants, red-capped. Cultivation \u2015 hemp, grasses, I. corn. 5.45 Montalto ?1<\/a><\/sup> & castle. 6.5 Borgo Franco.2<\/a><\/sup> Jolting village streets. 6.40 Settimo Vittone. 6.50 Carema. \u2015 Valley narrow. 7.30 S. Martino,3<\/a><\/sup> gigantic & picturesque \u2015 yet over-mountanous & stupenjous.<\/p>\n

At 7.50 Donnaz4<\/a><\/sup> \u2015 close in by rox. Foundries, \u2015 grand & awful rox. 8.10 Fat Bard, & J. Uwins<\/a>‘ view. Drew till 8.45 tho\u2019 little inclined. Send on carriage, & walk by Bard \u2015 drawing again till 10. Bard is a vastly grand scene. 10.25 pass. Arnato<\/em>?5<\/a><\/sup> \u2015 destroyed by torrent in 1857 or 8. \u2015 At 11 Verrex6<\/a><\/sup> \u2015 before wh. I slept from uneasiness & monotony. Stop to bait: shady inn. 3 Piemontesi, dispute if I am Tuscan or Roman or Neapolitan. 11.30 to 12 \u201cCollation.\u201d7<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

\u201cOut of the day & night\u201d \u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015 but even if that were not so, there is a gloom about these Alpine valleys, I can\u2019t abide. I doubt my staying anywhere long, till I get to Lake Leman \u2015 unless indeed Curmayeur [sic<\/em>] is more pleasant & lively. The wonderful wealth of vegetation or cultivation here is indeed undeniable, but the sense of never being able to get out-ness is paramount with me. Yet it would be happy for me I if this Swiss visit were again as those in 1837, or 1854. There is a drawing by Brockedon<\/a> \u2015 of the father of the Innkeeper here \u2015 John Garda. (\u201cSketch by W.B. as a little acknowledgment of the civility & attention of J.G. of Chatillon, who conducted the artist & his friend during the voyage of a month in Piedmont & Savoy \u2015 Sept. 16. 1824.\u201d)8<\/a><\/sup> \u2015 12.30. Left Verrex. Narrow gloomy valley. \u2015 1.15 Mont Jovetto9<\/a><\/sup> \u2015 horrid & gloomy indeed! Walk the cut pass in the rox. At 2.30 St. Vincenzo10<\/a><\/sup> \u2015 where the valley opens & is really very beautiful. Could get no place at any Inn \u2015 so on, Vetturino not complacent \u2015 to Chatillon \u2015 by 3. Amazing row with said driver, who is a great blackguard. G.<\/a> & I walked out \u2015 but much gloom & some rain prevents drawing \u2015 nor is it possible to draw these scenes of million details of rock & wood without months of study, which I can\u2019t (& would not if I could,) give here.<\/p>\n

So I supped & to bed at 9.<\/p>\n

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]<\/span><\/p>\n

  1. Montalto Dora. [↩<\/a>]<\/li>
  2. Borgofranco d\u2019Ivrea. [↩<\/a>]<\/li>
  3. Pont-Saint-Martin; Lear has now entered Valle d\u2019Aosta. [↩<\/a>]<\/li>
  4. Donnas. [↩<\/a>]<\/li>
  5. Arnad. [↩<\/a>]<\/li>
  6. Verr\u00e8s. [↩<\/a>]<\/li>
  7. Perhaps a form of \u201ccolazione,\u201d breakfast. [↩<\/a>]<\/li>
  8. Jean Guarda (or, once, Garda) is mentioned several times in William Brockedon\u2019s 1833 Excursions in the Alps: The Pennine, Graian, Cottian, Rhetian, Lepontian, and Bernese<\/em>. London: James Duncan, 1833. [↩<\/a>]<\/li>
  9. Montjovet. [↩<\/a>]<\/li>
  10. Saint-Vincent. [↩<\/a>]<\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Off at 5.20. Magnificent Velley scenery \u2015 opening of V. A\u00f4sta. Peasants, red-capped. Cultivation \u2015 hemp, grasses, I. corn. 5.45 Montalto ?1 & castle. 6.5 Borgo Franco.2 Jolting village streets. 6.40 Settimo Vittone. 6.50 Carema. \u2015 Valley narrow. 7.30 S. Martino,3 gigantic & picturesque \u2015 yet over-mountanous & stupenjous. At 7.50 Donnaz4 \u2015 close in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nonsenselit.org\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nonsenselit.org\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nonsenselit.org\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nonsenselit.org\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nonsenselit.org\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15843"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nonsenselit.org\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15845,"href":"https:\/\/www.nonsenselit.org\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15843\/revisions\/15845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nonsenselit.org\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nonsenselit.org\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nonsenselit.org\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}