sion.* He was, as has been observed, very near sharing the fate of the poor sufferers, and perhaps this very circumstance made him jealous of displaying too much feeling on the occasion. Yet, on his taking leave of me the following day, he exhibited so much warmth of regret, that I was affected almost to tears. His brother, David Couttet, another of the guides, was equally intrepid, and I believe was the means of preserving my life during the descent, in the passage of the glacier. My feet had slipped from under me, and I had rolled to the edge of a crevasse, when I felt myself suddenly arrested on its very brink by the cord around my waist, which allowed me time to recover myself. The minute details respecting the guides, with which I have interspersed this narrative, will not, I feel persuaded, be deemed 'impertinent by those who have ever been acquainted with this highly interesting race of men. There is about them all an honest frankness of character, united with a simple though courteous behaviour, and an almost tender solicitude about the safety and comfort of those committed to their guidance, which cannot fail to make a lasting impression on those who have once known them. The delight which they testify at finding the traveller surmount difficulties, and the looks of congratulation and encouragement which they every now and then direct towards him, contribute highly to keep up his spirit, which else might perhaps desert him at some important crisis. The principal of them are well known and appreciated at Geneva; and the reader will not therefore feel much wonder at the strong feeling which prevailed against us on our return thither. Our former companion had found it necessary to his own credit, to exaggerate exceedingly the apparent danger of proceeding higher; and it must be allowed that his account, supported as it was by the subsequent disaster, possessed strong claims upon the faith of his audience. I am happy, however, to add, that in a very few days this erroneous impression was completely done away with, and ample justice was rendered by all to the conduct of Dr. Hamel, who had been the most obnoxious to their censure, both from his being considered the leader of the party, and from his wellknown ardour in similar undertakings. We suffered very little in our persons from the sharp air of the mountain, in consequence of the precautions we had taken, though violent inflammation of the face and eyes, and even temporary blindness, have sometimes been the result. We felt a slight relaxation of strength for a day or two, and our lips con * He had formerly served in the Chasseurs à cheval in the French service, an honour which he duly appreciated. I cannot omit his laconic answer to a question proposed to him by one of the party, on the state of his mind during his rapid descent under the snow:-" Ma foi, j'ai dit à moi-même C'est fini-je suis perdu-voilà tout." tinued very sore for some weeks. We referred this to our neglect of a prohibition of the guides against eating snow during the ascent of the third day. Our thirst, proceeding as it did from fever, was not allayed for above a minute by the grateful coolness of the application; yet we could not be prevented from repeating it perpetually. I have reason to think, that had we abstained from the snow of the mountain, and the champaigne of St. Martin on the following evening, we should have been spared even the annoyance of sore lips. To those who make a similar attempt this may prove a useful hint-to abstain from any inflammatory diet for a few days afterwards.* WALKS IN THE GARDEN.NO. I. Heureux qui dans le sein de ses Dieux domestiques, DELILLE. A GENTLE fertilizing shower has just fallen-the light clouds are breaking away-a rainbow is exhibiting itself half athwart the horizon, as the sun shoots forth its rays with renewed splendour, and the reader is invited to choose the auspicious moment, and accompany the writer into his garden. He will not exclaim with Dr. Darwin, "Stay your rude steps! whose throbbing breasts enfold but he would warn from his humble premises all those who have magnificent notions upon the subject; who despise the paltry pretensions of a bare acre of ground scarcely out of the smoke of London, and require grandeur of extent and expense before they will condescend to be interested. To such he would recommend the perusal of Spence's translation from the Jesuits' Letters, giving an account of the Chinese emperor's pleasure-ground, which contained 200 palaces, besides as many contiguous for the eunuchs, all gilt, painted, and varnished; in whose enclosure were raised hills from twenty to sixty feet high; streams and lakes, one of the latter five miles round; serpentine bridges, with triumphal arches at each end; undulating colonnades; and in the centre of the fantastic paradise a square town, each side a mile long. Or they may recreate their fancies with the stupendous hanging gardens of Babylon-a subject which no living imagina *The scientific reader, who will probably rise disappointed from the perusal of this article, may be referred to a pamphlet composed immediately after the ascent by Dr. Hamel, which has already been translated in one or two magazines, and to Saussure's own account of his ascent in 1787. I would likewise point out to the general reader a highly interesting review of the former of these articles, which appeared in the British Critic for November 1820. tion could perfectly embody and depict, unless it be his who has lately realized upon canvass such a glorious conception of Belshazzar's feast.--Or he may peruse Sir William Temple's description of a perfect garden, with its equilateral parterres, fountains, and statues, "so necessary to break the effect of large grass-plots, which, he thinks, have an ill effect upon the eye;" its four quarters regularly divided by gravel walks, with statues at the intersections; its terraces, stone flights of steps, cloisters covered with lead, and all the formal filigree-work of the French and Dutch schools. If the reader be a lover of poetry, let him forget for a moment, if he can, the fine taste and splendid diction of Milton, in describing the Garden of Eden, the happy abode of our first parents 66 From that sapphire fount the crisped brooks, Let him also banish from his recollection the far-famed garden of Alcinous, which however, as Walpole justly observes, after being divested of Homer's harmonious Greek and bewitching poetry, was a small orchard and vineyard, with some beds of herbs, and two fountains that watered them, enclosed within a quickset-hedge, and its whole compass only four acres. Such was the rural magnificence which was in that age deemed an appropriate appendage to a palace with brazen walls and columns of silver.-Modern times, however, have shewn us how much may be accomplished in a small space. Pope, with the assistance of Lord Peterborough, "to form his quincunx, and to rank his vines," contrived to impart every variety of scenery to a spot of five acres; and might not, perhaps, have been insincere when he declared, that of all his works, he was most proud of his garden. But a truce to these deprecations and dallyings with our own modesty: the breezes are up, the sky is cloudless; let us sally forth, and indulge in the associations and chit-chat suggested by the first objects that we encounter. This border is entirely planted with evergreens, so benignantly contrived by nature for refreshing us with their summer verdure and cheerfulness, amid the sterility and gloom of winter. This with its graceful form, dark-green hue, and substantial texture, is the prickly-leaved Phillyræa, said to have been first brought into Europe by the Argonauts, from the island of the same name in the Pontus Euxinus. From the river Phasis in Colchis, these voyagers are reported to have first introduced pheasants, though many writers contend that the whole expedition was fabulous, and that all the bright imaginings and poetical embellishments lavished upon the Golden Fleece, resolve themselves into the simple and not very dignified fact of spreading sheep-skins across the torrents that flowed from Mount Caucasus, to arrest the particles of gold brought down by the waters. Our own crusades, however irrational their object, were attended with many beneficial results, not only introducing us to the knowledge of Saracenic architecture, but supplying our European gardens with many of the choicest Oriental productions. While we are on the subject of the crusades, let us not omit to notice this Planta Genista, or broom, said to have been adopted in those wars as a heraldic bearing, and ultimately to have furnished a name to our noble English family the Plantagenets. Next to it is the Arbutus, the most graceful and beautiful of all plants, and nearly singular in bearing its flowers and strawberry-like fruit at the same time, although the florets be but the germ of the next year's fruit. Virgil seems to have been very partial to this elegant shrub. By its side is a small plant of that particular Ilex, or holm oak, on which, in the south of Europe, more especially in Crete, are found those little insects, or worms, called kermes, whence a brilliant scarlet die is extracted, and which are so rapidly reproduced, that they often afford two crops in a year. From these small worms the French have derived the word vermeil, and we our vermillion, though the term is a misnomer, as the genuine vermillion is a mineral preparation. The Junipertree need not detain us long, now that its berries are no longer used for flavouring gin, the distillers substituting for that purpose oil of turpentine, which, though it nearly resembles the berries in flavour, possesses none of their valuable qualities. Box and Arbor vitæ, those treasures of our ancient gardeners, may also exclaim that their occupation is nearly gone, since the taste for verdant sculpture is exploded, and giants, animals, monsters, coats of arms, and peacocks, no longer startle us at every turn*. Yews also, which, from their being so easily tonsile, were invaluable for forming mazes, now only retain their station in our church-yards, where they were originally ordered to be planted This false taste, however, may boast the sanction of a most classical age. Pliny, in the description of his Tuscan Villa, might be supposed to be pourtraying some of the worst specimens of the art of gardening which our own country exhibited in King William's time, dwelling, with apparent pleasure, on box-trees cut into monsters, animals, letters, and the names of the master and artificer; with the usual appendages of slopes, terraces, water-spouts, rectangular walks, and the regular alternations by which "half the garden just reflects the other." by law, that, upon occasion, their tough branches might afford a ready supply of bows. But this Laurel cannot be so easily dismissed; it is literally and truly an evergreen, for classical associations assure to it an imperishable youth and freshness. Into this tree was Daphne metamorphosed when she fled from Apollo in the vale of Tempe; with these leaves did the enamoured god bind his brows, and decree that it should be for ever sacred to his divinity, since when, as all true poets believe, it has been an infallible preservative against lightning ;--and from tufted bowers of this plant did the Delphic girls rush out upon Mount Parnassus, when with music, dancing, and enthusiastic hymns, they celebrated the festival of the god of day. A wreath of laurel was the noblest reward to which virtue and ambition aspired, before the world became venal, and fell down to worship the golden calf. Cæsar wore his, it is said, to hide a defect; and our modern kings have little better plea for their crowns, from the Tartar dandy down to Ferdinand the embroiderer. Yonder is the Laurus, or bay-tree, a garland of whose leaves was deemed their noblest recompense by ancient poets; but our modern Laureates, not even content with the addition of a hundred pounds and a butt of sack, must have pensions and snug little sinecures besides. Virgil places Anchises in Elysium, in a grove of sweet-scented bays. Those three shrubs planted close together are the Privet, and two varieties of Holly, so placed that their black, yellow, and red berries might be intermixed :-the Misletoe, with its transparent pearls, would have formed a beautiful addition; but it is a parasite, and requires larger trees to support it. On new year's day the ancient Druids went out to seek this plant with hymns, ceremonies, and rejoicings, distributing it again among the people as something sacred and auspicious. Two or three hundred years since this young plant, which has only lately been added to the garden, may become a majestic Cypress it is of very slow growth, and still slower decay, on which account the ancients used it for the statues of their gods. The gates of St. Peter's church at Rome, made of this wood, had lasted, from the time of Constantine, eleven hundred years, as fresh as new, when Pope Eugenius IV. ordered gates of brass in their stead. Some will have it that the wood gophir, of which Noah's ark was made, was cypress. Plato preferred it to brass for writing his laws on; the Athenians, according to Thucydides, buried their heroes in coffins of this wood, and many of the Egyptian mummy chests are found of the same material. The beautiful youth who killed Apollo's favourite stag, was metamorphosed into this tree.-Those taller trees at the back of the plantation are Firs and Pines, sacred in the olden time to Pan. Unacquainted with brandy, the ancients used to tap these trees for a species of turpentine to fortify and preserve their wines, |