Friday 1st August 1834

Up at 6 – & engaged a char, to take us at 9 clock to Pont St. Laurent, at time could not get Passport, so had to wait for it till man returned, this delayed us till 9 ½ – then off – Douane on entering France, turned out our char & wished to search our persons till dearest shewed our Passport – At Pont St. Laurent. ½ hour in getting our Mules & guide – ride to Grand Chartreuse particularly fine, high mountains, & ravine & gorge finest I ever saw – road very good for mountains, only part bad or very narrow was near a wire mill, & that they were widening & improving – a newly strong wall banks up the road, which was the only means of preventing its being swept away in winter: rain came on, about 10 minutes before we got to what is called an Auberge, when in less than half an hour a violent thunder storm came on. ate poulet, & lay down on bench – [word crossed out] an aged Priest was in the room with two females when we went. one of the monks of the Chartreuse dressed in white woollen – these monks are not allowed to wear any linen, in place of a shirt, they have only a tunic of serge. the white woollen dress is fastened by a leather girdle or a hemp cord. the head is shaven, they sleep on straw mattresses, & have only sheets – by & by another party of 2 gents. a lady & her 2 daughters came in – stayed there till 3.30 unwillingness of our guide to leave, & his attempt to cheat us by charging 43 sous for his dinner when it only cost him 15. in returning he was quite Lame, my mule stumbled, & I then dismounted & changed with dearest in a short time guide was so lame we had to mount him on George’s mule, & George got up behind me: only just 2 hours in going from Grand Chartreuse to Pont St. Laurent, & 40 minutes from thence to Les Echelles: din[n]er ready, afterwards wrote to Mrs. Lister & went to bed –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale WYC:1525/7/1/5/1/21

[up at] 6 35/..
[to bed at] 1

no kiss last night not with her at all – fine morning Fahrenheit 70º at 7 1/2 a.m. breakfast at 7 40/.. – took George and Adney and I off at 9 10/.. in little char to Pont-St.-Laurent – at the bottom of the street cross the river (Guier /Guiers/ vif – the Guier mort on our left 2/3 way from Pont St. Laurent to the great Chartreuse) and very soon after stop at the French Douane – (the town of Echelles partly on one side partly on the other – the south side French the north Savoyard) – they searched our char, and then told us to go to the woman to have our persons examined – this was too much – went into the bureau – shewed my passport and remonstrated and got off – well we had it – the master of our auberge had gone out and forgotten to give it, and I had waited 10 minutes for it – on our right (West) the round topped verdant hills very pretty – left (East) the magnificent wall of white hoary calcareous rock dividing Savoy from France – cross the Guier Mort and almost immediately enter the little town of Pont St. Laurent and stop at 9 55/.. at (in front of) L’auberge du midi, chez Tartavel – a sort of cabriolet-calêche diligence at the door – 35 minutes before we could get our 3 mules ready and be off – would not have more than one guide – Adney on a Spanish saddle, and my English one not very comfortable – off at last at 10 1/2 – soon enter the magnificent defile – pass into the 1st arch-way and then pass an iron foundry – at 11 40/.. the valley closed by a magnificent natural high pyramidal rock, and a[n] arch-way under a ruined building abutting against the rock on each side very soon after, at the bottom of the hill cross the river over high 1 arch unbattlemented bridge – a peep at the Chartreuse when we were 1/2 hour off – seated on a green spot or plateau high under the mountain – a very large pile of building – reached it at 1 – no ladies allowed to enter the monastery (Cistertian – habit of white cloth confined by white cord or leather belt – a serge shirt – no linen allowed) – the great entrance gate looks strong – passed and went into a building at a little distance an old infirm monk and 2 women there in the large comfortless looking room on the left – the right fermé à clef – so my request for a bed for Adney to lie down upon, in vain – she ate her fowl, and then lay down upon the bench along the table with chairs to prevent her falling off, and the coats and cloaks for a pillow – by this time about 1 3/4 it began to rain (it had rained a little during the last 1/2 hour as we came) and soon afterwards we had heavy rain with thunder and lightning which did not abate till just before we set off on our return – I had amused myself spelling over a plan of the convent the terrific prints of a soul in purgatory surrounded with flames, and ditto in hell surrounded with flames with the addition of large green serpents gnawing the body – this amusement over I was cross to see poor Adney so comfortless – however she was better, and quite reconciled to hear that I should return rain or not – our garçon guide had kept out of the way and pothered me – at last he came and would have 43 sols for his dinner – I was astonished – but gave him the money – inquired an Italian family in the room with us and of the waiter and got a note proving that the fellow had only paid 15 sols, and made him refund the rest to his shame and surprise – for the ostler charging only 16 sols for the 3 mules, I could not think the dinner could cost so much – off at 3 40/.. from La Grande Chartreuse  Adney’s mule so stumbling soon put her on to mine – in 5 or 6 minutes found our guide lame – George led Adney‘s mule, and the guide mounted his – in 5 or 6 minutes more I tired out of the stumbling and mounted George’s mule, and let the guide have the stumbler, and made George mount behind Adney and thus we got on, trotted when we could, he holding Adney on and holding her bridle too, and in 50 minutes we reached the pyramidal rock – and in 3 minutes under 2 hours we were at Pont St. Laurent (without a drop of rain) and paid for the mules – would not give the guide one sol, nor would I listen to the master or the boy who owned the saddles and wanted me to pay for them extra, but was off in the char that was in waiting at 5 40/.. and alighted at our Inn at Echelles at 6 20/.. – from Pont St. Laurent to the chartreuse the road is good in comparison – not dangerous – everywhere wide enough – nowhere less than 8 or 9 feet even in those little bits (just after passing the foundry and afterwards) cut out of the rock – the only disagreeable was the mules loaded with fir planks and spars which being 4 or 5 yards long were rather tremendous to pass – besides these we had mules laden with charcoal which tho’ not so frightful, were not to be desired – Except the Gorge d’Ortessa from Mt. Perdu down to Torla, the gorge or defile to the Chartreuse is the finest I ever saw – it is really magnificently fine – thickly wooded even to the tops of the high wall-like rocks – surely they must be in many places 12 or 1400 feet above the river – the wood is perhaps chiefly beech with fir nearer the chartreuse intermixed and towards the tops of the rocks – limestone strata highly inclined – we should have seen the chapel of St. Bruno but it is 1/4 league from the monastery – would take us an hour to go and return and I was too much afraid of the rain – they wanted us to stay all night – but the Italian family who dined while we were there had only could only get soup, omlette and potatoes – and strawberries and this did not augur well – our guide wanted us to go to La paroisse, an hour off, but this I declined – glad to be back aux Echelles – dinner at 6 33/..  good rice milk and strawberries (besides soup, fowl, and roast mutton) and comfortable – till 10 1/4 wrote the journal of today – Adney wrote 2 1/3 pages to my aunt and was in bed by 10 – no rain as we returned and fine evening and very fine in the morning till about 1 1/2 p.m. – Fahrenheit 68° now at 10 1/4 p.m. – till 12 1/2 wrote very small and close the latter 2/3 page 3 and the ends of A-’s letter to my aunt and wrote 2 1/2 pages to Lady Gordon –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0066 & SH:7/ML/E/17/0067