1839. DEPARTURE FOR ROME. 453 family to Rome, whither they were gone for the benefit of Mrs. Buxton's health. But it was necessary for him before he left England to prepare a complete edition of his work on "The Slave Trade and its Remedy;" the publication of which had been delayed in order to afford the Government time to deliberate on the plan. To Mrs. Buxton, at Florence. "Northrepps, Nov. 3. 1839. "I have been working hard during the week, but yesterday we had our hardest day. With the exception of a few minutes in the garden, and a run to the Cottage, and dinner, I did not stop from breakfast till past one o'clock at night; and, what is more extraordinary, I had seven capital secretaries at work, and many of them during the whole day. We got on famously; till then I had been very doubtful whether I should not be obliged to stay a week longer." To Mrs. Johnston. "London, November 18. 1839. "My book is finished; there it lies in a bag; a precious tug it has been to get it done. I do not think I have worked so hard since I left college; day after day, from breakfast till two or three o'clock the next morning, with the interval of only a short walk and meals. I quite wonder at my capacity of exertion. "The effect of this is, that I believe I shall not, when I start to-day, have a single memorandum unattended to, and hardly a letter unwritten." "Montreuil, Nov. 19. 1839. "Since I left London I have spent four hours in sailing, some time in meals, a few minutes in chat and reading, but my great business has been sleeping, which I have effected with laudable energy." 454 CHAPTER XXVIII. 1839, 1840. JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY.-MONT CENIS IN A SNOW PRISONS DURING the winter which Mr. Buxton spent abroad, he became, what he had never been before, a very good correspondent on miscellaneous subjects. We shall give some copious extracts from his letters, which are written in a style of playfulness very natural to him when relieved from the pressure of business. Accompanied by Miss Gurney of Northrepps Cottage, and his second son, he travelled quickly through France and crossed over to Italy by Mont Cenis: "Poste Royale, Mont Cenis, Nine o'clock, Nov. 30. 1839. "For our journey from Lyons to Chambery, and from Chambery to Lanslebourg, I refer you to Fowell's journal, only stating that we were in the carriage and moving, at a quarter before four in the morning, and out of the carriage at twelve o'clock at night. The last two stages were rather awkward ones to pass in the dark, as we had a continued succession of tremendous precipices on one side of the road; on one occasion, on seeing a light straight down, an immense way below us, A- said, There is a star, only in the wrong direction.' "At Lanslebourg we heard accounts of the roads being very difficult, but still passable and safe; so we gave them their own time and started this morning at half-past nine, with eight horses to our carriage, two to our cart carrying our 1839. MONT CENIS IN A SNOW STORM. 455 luggage, and thirteen attendants to bear up the carriage, in case of difficulty from the snow. Things went smooth enough till about one o'clock in the day, when we encountered a tourmente,' as they call it, and, at the same moment, several carts coming from Italy loaded with casks of wine. It was difficult enough to keep the carriage up when we had all the road to ourselves (for it was snowing so fast that we could scarcely see), but when, in addition to all this, we had to break out of the way to make room for these caravans, it was by no means agreeable. Our soundings of the snow, I should tell you, had not been very flattering; we had, first, a foot deep; after some time, two feet and a half, four feet, five feet; and between five and six feet of snow on the level, was the encouraging report just before we met the wine carts. Well, at this pass, just upon the verge of the top of the mountain, the snow falling, the wind howling, we had this encounter with the caravans; and, first, there was a war of words between the leader of their train and the Mâitre de Poste of Lanslebourg, who had volunteered to conduct our expedition. Words ran to the highest pitch, and the shrillest tones, and the most vehement and menacing action seemed to threaten a charge, in which the enemy had the safe side, and we the precipice; but, at length, an amicable compact was made between the belligerents, by which the whole force of both parties was employed in hoisting their cart further into the snow on their side. All this, however, had consumed some time, the tornado had then passed, but the accumulation of snow which it had occasioned remained, and here we had our greatest chance of an overturn, but not over the precipice, which was a great way off (full seven feet). "Over we must have gone, again and again, if it had not been for our little army, half of whom were on one side pulling the carriage towards them; the rest on the other side holding it up. Spink tells me, that at times the hind wheel was nearly a foot from the top of the snow. * * Miss Gurney's coachman. 6 "We had just got through this difficulty, when the men cried out, there's a wolf;' and sure enough there sat the beast! This was an almost irresistible bait for us; my gun was loaded after a time (for we had some difficulty in finding the things), but then I recollected that a pretty thing it would be to leave A- under such circumstances, and go a wolf hunting; so, with a sigh, I was obliged to commit the task to one of our guides, who is a chasseur by profession. He, from ignorance of our guns, got the locks wet and missed fire, and away went the wolf. "In comes the Mâitre de Poste, and tell us that it is in vain to attempt to descend this night. So here we are perched in a little bit of an inn at the top of Mont Cenis; the night very quiet but hazy, which is a bad business, for last night they killed three foxes, and we might have had famous sport at them to-night; three chasseurs are employed to watch them and give me notice; but, with submission to them, I now conclude my letter and go to bed, only just saying, that though we are on the top of the Alps, we are very comfortable and warm, thanks to roaring fires, admirable trout from a tarn which is close below us, and double windows. I have just put my nose out, and it is snowing furiously; we have no great taste for a month here with nothing to eat but foxes, but, nevertheless, we are very cheery. "Turin, Dec. 2. 1839, Five o'clock. "Well, I must just finish my letter. We passed a quiet night, and found in the morning that a good deal of snow had fallen, but that the weather was bright, frosty, and calm; the last being the question of importance. We did not start early, as our guides begged permission to go to mass first, from which they did not return till nine o'clock. Then we started in a sledge. We called at the monastery, and left something for the poor, and saw the only remnant, as it is supposed, of the ibex, a race of goats. The appearance of the tops of the mountains, gloriously gilded by the sun, was as beautiful as it was strange: we enjoyed it much. We 1839. ARRIVAL AT ROME. 457 saw on the road several carriages which had been left, and one which had been overturned. It took us between six and seven hours to sledge down to Susa; it was a pleasant mode of conveyance. The little waterfalls, - the water, as it seemed, turned into dust, and glittering in the sun; a little rainbow about six feet span between us and the rock, only a yard distant; the view of the valley, reckoned, and no doubt justly, one of the finest in the Alps; all these united, made our journey a delightful contrast to that of the preceding day." The party reached Rome about the 12th December. Mr. Buxton thus writes on the 17th:—— "The weather here is delightful; I am now sitting opposite a large window on the shady side of the street, wide open, and it is warmer than any day in England last summer. We hear grand accounts of wild boars and woodcocks. I went to the Capitol yesterday morning. I am old, have never cultivated the fine arts, and all romance has been thumped out of me. One might as well expect to see a hackney coach-horse frisking about like a colt, as to see me in ecstacies and raptures with antiquities and classical recollections. However, I was greatly taken with the view of the whole of Rome. There we saw before us, gathered in a very small space, the city so famous for everything : - at one time, the mistress of the world in arms; at another period, the ruler of nations by the fiat of the Vatican; and, again, the great nursery and school of the arts. You cannot conceive how all the objects of interest are clustered together close around you. Right beneath you, the yellow Tiber; within gun-shot, as it appears, the palace of the Cæsars: but I will not go on describing, or, in spite of myself, I shall grow quite romantic. But one thing did strike me more than all. In a little narrow dark cell, undoubtedly a Roman dungeon, there is a well-grounded tradition that St. Paul was confined immediately prior to his martyrdom. What a leaf is this in the history of man ! In that palace lived the proud and cruel Cæsar, dreaming of immortal reputation. He is almost for |