Library, where the English daily papers are received generally on the second day after publication. Half a franc is charged for a single visit to this Reading Room, and we have more than once very cheerfully given it for a sight of The Times, Punch, and Illustrated London News. All Guide Books of Lausanne refer to the circumstance of Gibbon, the historian, having written the last portion of his great book, "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," in the garden behind the dining-room of the Hotel Gibbon.

FROM

LAUSANNE TO GENEVA.

We have now a choice of two ways, either by rail on the West Swiss Railway, or by steamboat of the Compagnie Générale. If we choose the former, we shall pass the following stations: Renens, Morges, St. Prex, Allaman, Rolle, Gland, Nyon, Céligny, Coppet (famous chiefly for its castle, formerly belonging to Necker, the famous Swiss banker, and which afterwards was the residence of Madame de Staël), Versoix (which formerly belonged to France), Genthod, and Chambésy. We name the whole of these places, though some of them are small, because many English visitors have their children or friends at the schools which abound all through the district. There are also houses and châlets which belong to, or are occupied by, English noblemen or gentry.

The country between Lausanne and Geneva is very pleasant, and gives us some exquisite views of the Lake.

If, however, time is no object, and the steamboat journey is preferred, it will be found to present a thousand charms which cannot of necessity be seen and leisurely con- ' templated from a railway carriage. The route taken by the steamer is as follows: Ouchy, Morges, Rolle, Nyon,

Coppet. The steamers generally run about four times a day; but all information on such points as these had better be obtained from local time-tables.

We must bear in mind that the end of the Lake nearest to Geneva is by far its most uninteresting part; and as, in the course of the tour we are describing, we shall again have an opportunity of rowing or sailing on these incomparable waters, where the scenery culminates in beauty, we advise the railway in preference to steamboat.

GENEVA.

(Grande Hotel de Russie et Anglo-Americain Hotel, facing the Pont du Mont Blanc, with uninterrupted view of Mont Blanc and the Lake; or Hotel du Lac, equally good and equally well situated. The former on the left bank, and the latter on the right.)

Geneva is the most thickly populated town in Switzerland, although it is only the capital of the smallest of the cantons; population, 62,600. The river Rhone separates the town into two parts; and this natural division has almost as naturally separated the inhabitants into two classes-the Quartier St. Gervais being chiefly occupied by folk of the poorer sort. The city, like most others on the Continent, where free sentiment and commercial enterprise prevail (and these generally go hand in hand), is being rapidly transformed; progress and improvement are noticeable everywhere, both in and around the place. The railways which concentrate here have wrought great changes; for all around acres of fortifications have been cleared away to make room for beautiful private residences and public buildings and institutions.

It is interesting to trace the histories of old and celebrated places, and it is curious to mark the rapid strides of civiliza

tion in arts, in taste, and in commerce. The history of Geneva may be thus briefly epitomized. It is of Roman origin of course. It had to struggle with the house of Savoy till it allied itself with Fribourg, and then with Berne. In 1798 it was annexed to France; in 1815 it was allied with the Swiss Confederation; but in 1846 a democratic government succeeded the aristocratic government, and since then the course of events has run smoothly. But, as Murray very well says, "Geneva has an historical interest for intelligent travellers far greater than that to be derived from the individual objects of curiosity contained within its walls. . . . . From Geneva emanated those religious doctrines from which Scotland, Holland, and a large part of France, Germany, and Switzerland derived their form of faith, and which were transported by the Pilgrim Fathers to the opposite shores of the Atlantic. Here also was sown those political opinions which bore fruit in the English Revolution under Charles I., in the American and the French Revolutions."

The true history of Geneva, therefore, is the history of John Calvin, who in the month of August, 1536, in the twenty-eighth year of his age, entered the town and was expelled. What he afterwards became, and what he did, it is beside the province of this book to particularize; but, to the thoughtful student, there is no more sacred place in Geneva than the cemetery where a small square stone, bearing the initials "J. C.," marks the spot where this world-renowned servant of the Cross sleeps.

In a place like Switzerland, where the tourist wanders from place to place without having before his eyes a programme of sight-seeing which he is bound to get through, as in Rome or Venice, it will be unnecessary to describe places in the order in which they may be seen, but a list is appended of things that should be seen.

The meeting of the waters, the confluence of the Rhone and the Arve, a little below the island, where the eagles (heraldic emblem of the canton) are kept in a cage. It is curious to watch the two rivers as they meet at the junction, but do not blend for a considerable distance; the Rhone an intense blue, which gives you the idea that anything white steeped in it must come out dyed, and the Arve a thick dirty white, struggling side by side until at length they merge into a mottled mass of waters.

The Botanic Gardens, an agreeable promenade. The Hotel de Ville, a massive building, which we may gaze upon and pass by, as there is nothing there to interest us. The Musée Rath, in which there are some very good pictures to be seen, between eleven and three, gratis.

The Arsenal, containing a few interesting memorials. The Relief of Mont Blanc. This is in the centre of the English Garden, and is the finest model in Switzerland of the monarch of Swiss mountains and the surrounding country. Free Sundays and Thursdays, from eleven to three; at other times one franc.

Another class of associations may be grouped together thus:

No. 40, Grand Rue, the house in which Rousseau was born, 1712.

Rousseau's Island, where his statue, by Pradier, stands. The Cathedral where Calvin preached. No. 11, Rue des Chanoines, where Calvin lived and died (1564) in the arms of the devoted Beza.

The Hill Le Champel, on which Servetus was burnt alive.

The Cemetery of Plain Palais, where is the grave of Calvin, already referred to, and also the celebrated Sir Humphrey Davy and De Candolle the great botanist.

The Public Library, founded by Bonnivard, the prisoner of Chillon.

At short distances from the town another series of similar associations may be taken up.

Campagne Diodati, beautifully situate, where Byron (in 1816) wrote the third canto of "Childe Harold" and "Manfred."

Prégny, where the Empress Josephine dwelt after her divorce. Baron Rothschild's magnificent villa is here.

Fernex, where may be seen the house of Voltaire, and the chapel erected by him. N.B. A good text for a sermon would be the inscription that was over it, "Deo erexit Voltaire." Here, among other things, are his bed, arm-chair, and mausoleum, which was intended by the Marchioness de Villette to contain his heart.

Geneva abounds with beautiful suburbs, and no difficulty will be experienced by those who have the time in reaching them. We must not omit to mention one in particular.

Mont Salève (4,527 feet), from which point is seen the Lake of Geneva, the Jura, the cantons of Geneve and Vana, and the summit of Mont Blanc.

In the descent by the back of the mountain, the views of Mont Blanc and the great expanse of open country stretching out from the front of the Salève, are most magnificent. A finer landscape can be rarely met with, even in Switzerland. THE LAKE OF GENEVA.

(Lacus Lemanus of the Romans.)

The Lake of Geneva is the largest in Switzerland, being on the north shore fifty-six miles long, and on the south forty-four; it is in shape like a crescent; its surface is 1230 feet above the sea level: the widest part is near Lausanne, where it is eight miles across, and the extreme beauty of its