A WIFE ON HER TRATELS.—II.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Nauders, Tyrol, September 7, 1867. SIR,—Edward is growing a beard. I am sure he wouldn't have done this at Margate, and it is one of the set-offs against foreiga travel that I don't think you have made proper allowance for. A beard is picturesque, I dare say, and all that, like the pine woods
— excuse the local illustration—towards the top of a pass, but I think it is rather appropriate to patriarchs and brigands, and that kind of person, than to decent civil servants with a young family and fanciful superiors in any of Her Majesty's Offices. I have known a beard passed over as suggesting unbusinesslike associa- tions, when very inferior men with clean-shaven chins have been promoted. Besides, beards are scrubby, and in early stages very frightful. Edward didn't dare begin it till he left Paris, and at Schaffhausen the other day, as we were leaving the hotel in an Einspanner,—unassuming one-horse vehicle, adapted for two per- sons and two-thirds,—a waiter who observed the situation politely suggested that he might perhaps wish to have himself shaved (" Der Herr mochte vielleicht filch =siren lessen ") before starting. Edward blushed, and hastily got into the Einspanner, and I could see for a day or two after that he looked uneasily into the glass, and would have hurried its growth if he could. This is what comes of cutting yourself loose from social restraints. In Mrs. Shrim- paty's front parlour he would never have had courage to let his beard grow, and I am sure I don't know whether I shall ever shame him out of it again. I suppose it's no use trying at present. Perhaps when he sees his little family again, and he hears Hannah exclaim, " Laws, Mum! how odd master do look," and bethinks himself of the observations at the — Office, he will have it shaved off. Talking of Hannah, how I do long to hear of my darlings ! Edward says I may to-night. But it is a week since I left home, and we have only just reached the first place I told Hannah to write to. With telegraph all the way too,—I have never lost sight of the wires,—it seems almost cruel.
Well, at Bale we stayed a day to lay in our English Tauchnitzes, which Edward says he never fails to do in a journey abroad. I am ashamed to say I got a lot of novels of a trashy description. Edward chose Kinglake's Crimean War, which he had never pro- perly read, and Warren's Diary of a Late Physician, over both of which he pished and pshawed all the rest of our journey, and, with regard t, the latter, abused the last generation for thinking so well of it. As to the other, he said Mr. Kinglake could not be natural, and was always on his literary stilts. I asked for the day's rest at Bale, and was sorry afterwards that I had, for when you have once enjoyed the rush of the great river, by daylight and by night, and walked over the pretty quaint bridge to Klein- Basel, and meandered a little about the town, there is not much else to see ; and when you have nothing homelike about you, I think the excitement of some little change every day is almost necessary. I found a little in embarking largely in household brushes (I have a weakness for brushes), which I lighted upon in a little shop in the town, and thought nice and cheap. Our portman- teau is apoplectic in consequence. But Edward was not enthusiastic about the brushes and had time to get hipped. Besides, as we had heard that the attendance at the principal Rhine inn had lately become bad and supercilious, Edward had taken me to one of the
others on the Rhine, where we were very comfortable in other respects, and had a beautiful room with a view over the river ; but the two beds were secreted in a windowless alcove or deep cave, in the extreme recesses of which you could only see the light, even at midday, like a star in the distance, "on the glimmering limit far withdrawn." The consequence was that the air was very oppres- sive there, and though we opened both windows till the rating of the Rhine made me dream that the pipes had burst at home and my little Colin was washed off his bed, Edward woke the second morning giddy and sick, and so ill altogether, that I thought of sending for a German doctor, and writing you a letter of reproach- ful expostulation. It was partly owing to his taking coffee, which he tried because these Germans make it better than tea, and which never suits him. Luckily I had taken the precau- tion to bring with me two pounds of good 4s. 6d. tea (North's), and Edward, having dictated to me enough German to make the good-natured German chambermaid au fait at the situation, I obtained means to make him a good cup of tea, and carried it to him in the recesses of that dim retreat. Not, indeed, that said cham- bermaid felt any delicacy about conversing with him directly on the subject of his ailment. I had scarcely finished my learnt sentences, when she rushed into the cave and opened an unreserved inter- change of views with him on the stomach and its maladies. I thought to myself that German chambermaids rush in where Hannahs fear to tread. But really I am forgetting our journey in all these little drawbacks. A good cup of tea, and some very weak preparation, believed to be dilute veal broth, set Edward suffi- ciently up to leave in the afternoon. I did not wish to have him sleeping another night in that excavation. Before we left, Edward pointed out to me in the great book the names of the two old Miss B 'a, who, with their brother, were " arrives d'Avignon," and (oh !) " partis pour Pontresina, Engadin," just where we !tie going. Edward turned pale, and murmured something about wishing for the wings of a dove. The truth is, they are scientific ladies, (they have a gyroscope !) and dreadfully friendly,—persons who will go into the geology of a district, its religious history, its political constitution, its sanitary arrangements, anything but its beauty. I Comforted him, and hoped we should miss somehow. But the omen was fatally true.
However, when we got into the train for Schaffhausen Edward cheered up, and began making lively observations on the Badenserinnen, who got in and out of the train in the oddest head- dresses you ever saw. Black-ribbon horns they were. I suppose the black ribbons were stiffened out with some wire framework ; for they stuck out like horns behind each ear,—what the Old Gentle- man would wear if he were in mourning. Edward asked a fat old lady in the carriage if they were always worn so, and always black, and she replied in the affirmative. Certainly one of the ugliest head dresses I ever saw ! but they did Edward good. He said it showed such nice, modest feeling to put such frightful erections into mourning, and that English hideousness of that kind is usually flaming yellow or red. The Rhine, on our right hand as we went towards Schaffhausen, was one long rapid, and very beautiful. If our tickets had not been taken to Schaffhausen, and our little " Koffer " irrecoverable till we got there, I think we should have stopped at Laufenburg, where the great Rhine narrows almost to a brook, and rushes with tremendous violence between two rocks scarcely five yards apart. On each rock is the quaintest little grey tower ; and a covered bridge, such as is so common and pretty in Switzerland, runsbetween. The brown hillsbehind, with young green vineyards creeping up them, were most picturesque and tempting. But we had given a pledge to society, in the shape of our yellow-red " Koffer," that we would go as far as Schaffhausen ; and we went. Before we got there Edward's veal broth was all assimilated, and his stomach crying out for dinner, but, as the authoress of Emilia Wind- ham somewhere finely observes, " ere that haven could be reached some time must elapse." Not knowing the geography clearly, we passed the great falls in the railway, and then had to drive back in an open carriage over a great hill to the pleasant hotel where we were to sleep. What a drive that was !—through the myriad stenches of Schaffhausen, a town which in variety and subtlety of offensive smells seems a young and active rival to Cologne, past the old fortress, across the picturesque wooden bridge, mounting through the orchards and vineyards till the roar of the Rhine rapids above the falls became as soft a sound as a wind in the trees, and the foam only caught the eye here and there like a gleam of sunshine, and then rattling down again at a speed that, in spite of the drag, made me cling to Edward's hand, and calculate mentally the chance of ever seeing my home in Wandsworth again safe and sound. I spare you the falls at Schaff hausen. 1 could never be as eloquent as the gaide-book, and we were so dis- gusted with all the photographs they wanted to sell us, that it would be inconsistent in me to make a weak copy in words of what light itself paints so badly. I went under the falls after dinner in a mackintosh, provided for the occasion by a man who lets them out, and with my little umbrella up ; but it made me shiver to feel the slight wooden platform on which we stood tremble beneath the incessant shock of those tons on tons of dazzling, delicate spray. Next day we crossed under the falls, and back again above the falls, and got them as thoroughly into our poor weak little imaginations as we are ever likely to do, and then returned back over the hills to Schaffhausen, where the smells would give Mr. Mansel (Edward says) his best idea of the true Infinite, as distinguished from the Indefinite, and took the railway to pretty little Constance, whence the steam- boat took us to Rorshach. The Lake of Constance itself is rather a delusion. It is so wide, and its banks so flat, that the whole effect is tame. Still the heavy, low boats, with their single, towering sail, which when the sun is on it looks like a pillar of light adiancing over the lake, are exceedingly picturesque ; and we enjoyed our passage, though not sorry to see Rorshach. But though not sorry to see, we were, alas ! to smell it. Schaff- hausen we only fled through, but in Rorshach we abode during the hours of darkness,—hardly of sleep. The difficulty was whether to keep the windows open or shut. When shut, the smell from within, as of an invalid room badly tended, rushed in over- poweringly from inside. When open, the streets sent up the rich steam of emptied slop-pails, which the inhabitants freely throw out,—the waggons rattled paist with deafening roar,—a little cur barked continuously all night, and the only soothing sound was the low plash of the lake on its banks. Edward preferred to cut short the anguish by rising at five, and getting away, which we did, catching an early train, which took us a short way up the Rhine Valley to Oberried, where we got out in order to strike off to the Arlberg pass into the Tyrol. The mists were rising hope- fully from the great dark green mountains, as we got into the post carriage in which we were to cross the Austrian frontier. They floated us omnibus and all across the full, turbid, yellow Rhine in a ferry boat, and then we "declared " our two pounds of tea at the Austrian frontier, and then I fell asleep,—I find fine scenery very soothing,—while Edward strained his eyes for the first patch of Alpine snow, which he found as we approached Feldkirch, but very kindly did not disturb my slumbers to show it me.
Dear me, how shall I describe our feelings, when we reached Feldkirch, to see the two old Miss B.'s coming down stairs with broad hats and alpenstocks, such frights I They fell upon us at once. Theirs were what Mr. Swinburne calls,— "The hands that cling, the feet that follow,"
—for all four hands were teld out to us. "My dear Mr. and Mrs. C., who would have thought of finding you here ? I thought you always went to the sea side. A most delightful region indeed !- have you noticed the fossil crustacea of the rocks here? Melisina intends to read a report on them before the British Association next year—too late, you know, for this. Melisina and I are going forward alone to-day towards the Engadin. Henry has been pedestrianizing in France, and has really got the skin so much off his face that he needs a little rest ; but you will bring him on with you, won't you now ? So pleasant for Henry ! We are quite glad to have a little attempt at travelling without escort. At our age, you know, we may venture it, and to-day is such a fortunate day for the Alpine flora, that we can't delay for poor Henry. Have you obtained yet the Gnephalium Leontopodium ? No? Ah just come from Schaffhausen ? Of course not. Well, good bye, an revoir, au revoir! Take care of Henry. He won't mind seeing you, though the skin is all off his nose. The Black Eagle, Schwarzer Adler—you know, at Landek. Don't forget to observe the break in the conformable succession of the lower beds of the Arlberg." Edward waslarious. I wish,' he said, there may be a break in the comfortable succession of their beds, and that they mayn't trouble us any more. Your friend, the Spectator, says that it is something to have even the gutter in a different place. Their gutter is just where it was, and overflowing with the same muddy science. Did I come to Switzerland for this V We fled the " Saal " for fear of encountering " Henry;" and before dinner had such a lovely walk up through the vineyards to a little garden of mountain meadow land, full of cistuses, wild barberries, ranunculuses, and all the sweetest wild flowers, and with it the grandest view of the old brown Rhine Mountains, flecked with snow. I could have stayed there for ever. But the inexorable stomach brought us down again somewhat soothed to the table d'htite, and there was " Henry,"—a piteous sight indeed, the skin curling in small white curl-papers from his nose in a way that made him so conscious, he had to apologize. I said, " Oh I Mr. B., you should have a blue veil like mine. My sister (who married the Honourable Mr. M., you know, one of the principal members of the Alpine Club) warned me not to come abroad without a blue veil, and I see now from your case that she may be right. Hitherto it has been only
a worry to me." Well, we had to travel with good Mr. B. He was very great on the primary schools in France and Switzerland, and the mischievous results of the harmless little idolatries of the Tyrol. But after all, he was better than Melisina and Theodora. When we had deposited him with them again, and extemporized a different route from theirs, up they came again one night at tea at Pfuuds, and we never had a more embarrassed meal. No- body knew whose victuals were whose, and as there was a scarcity it was really embarrassing. Melisina had a fearful appetite, and as we had engaged the only chicken to be had that night, Edward scarcely liked eating it under her hungry eyes, and throwing her back upon eggs, which we had every reason to believe were a little musty. This sad rencontre threw Edward materially back. The fine Arlberg pass, with its tier on tier of wild valleys, and its pink rhododendrons, and blue gentians yet in blow, had scarcely done him any good. We nearly lost our mail carriage because Edward would be obstinate in finding (or rather losing) our way for us up the zigzags on foot. He insisted on following the tele- graph wires (which led us right at last, no doubt, but through such bogs, and up such steep, wind-breaking climbs), instead of the line of passengers ! Just as we regained our mail omnibus it began to rain heavily, and then down we went, first, through a wild storm of rain, then through the darkening night, great mountains loom- ing through the twilight, and the stream beside roaring a pleasant music, till after thirteen hours' journey we reached Landek, tired, but after a day only alloyed by the worthy Henry B.'s presence.
I mustn't weary you with the bit of Tyrol we have seen. It is very lovely. We had such a climb yesterday to Stands, a little Tyrolese village, 500 or 600 feet above Landek, where there was a little church with little quaint pictures on all the tomb- stones, generally intended in the case of " ehrsame " fathers and mothers, to give an idea of how many babies they had had,—the said babies being always painted oval, all of the same size, and ranged in a row like owls sitting on perches, often to the number of nine or ten, as if the ehrsame Mutter had had ten at a birth, like a retriever. In the case of " tugendsame Jungfrauen," the oval shape (enlarged) was still preserved by bringing the feet very close together, and making the young woman broad at the hips; but sometimes the Jungfraus were in the air, like angelic visions. What a view that was from Stands up the three valleys ! But you would hate me, and score out the " copy," if I attempted to de- scribe. We travelled " extra post " up the Inn valley to this lovely place ; and travelling " extra post " is clitnified, pleasant, and on the whole cheap. Extra post is having a post carriage (Zwei- spanner, two-horse carriage) all to yourself, which is changed at every station, at a fixed tariff. It is not everywhere you can do it, and when you do meet a tired, wayfaring friend, as we did once, you can give him a lift without inconvenience to yourself, and it may be not without reward. The grateful man in question bestowed on Edward a leathern Alpine cup, which has already been invaluable to us in our bright, thirsty little walks.
But I must break off. The post has just brought me a delight- ful account of my little darlings. But that impertinent Hannah said they were all better and quieter for not being so much petted and spoiled. 1 Pleas, ma'am, they all eat harty, and Colin sleep very good in my room, and I take them a walk every day on the common ; and yesterday that naughty R. [the eldest] run into the pond and get all wet and dirty." Well, it might have been worse. You, Mr. Editor, were never so thankful for the arrival of a missing article,—" copy," I think you call it,—late on a Friday, as I for this first welcome news of my darlings, bless
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