Saturday 2nd August 1834

Up at 6 – riz au lait & strawberries to breakfast – room charged 8 francs in bill. dearest complained about, & explained that it was more than we paid even at Geneva – off about 10.30 got out at old road – at Parfaite Union at 2.30 had cold poulet, & wine, then went to Booksellers, & Monsieur Barin’s garden – saw the preparation for taking suckers of Rose trees & Plants; 3 cornered piece of sheet lead, with bottom corner cut off so

branch of plant slit up just above joint first slit across, & then a little way up – then 2 holes made in lead as marked, string put thro these holes & tied to the branch or if that be too weak, to a stronger branch, then the lead doubled up like a cup below the slit sucker, & filled with earth. query does a stick support the sucker? walked back again to Hotel, & storm came on – those Dahlias are best which do not shew any seed in the centre of the flower – Arbor Vitae make beautiful hedges, & in 5 or 6 years grow very high – Wrote part of journal, went to bed early –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale WYC:1525/7/1/5/1/21 & WYC:1525/7/1/5/1/22

[up at] 8

[to bed at] 10 25/..

no kiss tho’ she came to me for about half hour at six this morning   lay very quietly – fine morning Fahrenheit 67°  at 8 a.m. breakfast at 9 – very well satisfied till the bill came – and then I said the being charged 8/. a night for one double bedded room and the 2 servants rooms was ridicule – however the man said I had agreed to pay 19/. per day for all and everything and he had distributed the price so as to come to that – the fact is, I have a good lesson – I now see according to his valuation what dinners and breakfasts ought to be in little town like this – off from Les Echelles at 11 5/.. having previously agreed with the postmaster for the horses at 3 at 1/50 and the 4th at 1/. per poste, and paid him – telling the postillion I should only give him 1/50 per post – Alighted at the grotte, on the other side the tunnel, at 11 39/.. – walked down to the bottom of the old road and back in 1/2 hour – In descending the 1st natural cave (on the left) is of considerable extent – the curé a little while ago during la grande secheresse went on 1/2 hour in it – sometimes on hands and knees – a little lake at the far end of the cavern – the large cavern just on this side of the inscription in honour of Charles Emmanuel, and a little lower down (right) now the watercourse, was the original road along which the people made use of ladders to get up and down the inequalities, and from which the neighbouring town was called Les Echelles, on account of the ladders being left there – the man at the grotte would have accompanied us, but he was not well, and we could not now go into the cavern on account of the late rain – but during secheresse one could go thro’ the cavern and it is very interesting – off again in 33 minutes at 12 12/.. – a few drops of rain as we drove along from the grotte – on reaching St. Thiebault de Coux /St. Thibaud-de-Couz/ found there was a capital most picturesque new road just opened about 2 months ago direct from Les Echelles by Voreppe where 2 good Inns – 6 1/2 postes from there to Grenoble – 10 postes to ditto by Chambery – should save 2 postes by turning back – would have done so but for the torment of a little douane on entering France (vide yesterday) – this road just going to be entered in the livre des postes – at present the postmaster charged the 1st stage postes, but it was not in reality so much – at the Cascade de coux at 1 3/4 and alighted at La parfaite Union, Chambery at 2 25/.. – tired – had 1/2 hour’s nap in my chair – then Adney and I out at 3 1/2 put into the post office Adney‘s and my letter to my aunt Shibden written last night and dated at Les Echelles –  would be in Paris in 3 days and I paid 6 sols français – put in the Post Office also my letter 2 1/2 pages to ‘Lady Duff Gordon, Poste restante, à Munich, Bavière’ dated as today at Chambery – paid 1/. – will be at Munich in 8 days – then went to the nursery garden saw Frederic Burnier – went about with us very civilly – told him to give the habitat and temps du floraison locality where and time when gathered of each specimen – sauntered about the town – went to the castle – saw the Sainte Chapelle – fine painted glass windows – lofty groined roof – exterior handsome old gothic except the modern Greek front to the castle yard – old ruined empty partially-square-and-partially-round tower singular but picturesque – home at 5 25/..  – dinner (very good one) at 5 40/.. – had a Lavaret (salmo lavaretus) excellent, the sort of fish the fishermen on Lake Bourget, at Hautecomb, asked us 4/. a piece for – as large and therefore 1 pound weight – the first time I remember to have tasted this fish – melon brought with the veal cutlets steaks – sat long over dessert – till 9 25/.. wrote all the above of today – a few drops of rain at the grotte and afterwards occasional showers during the rest of the day – Fahrenheit 69° now at 9 25/.. p.m. – the drive from Chambery to Les Echelles is certainly very fine – Chambery a very nice town, but one must marchander with everybody – I ought to have done so with my gardener botaniste Mr. Frederic Burnier, but I never thought of it at the time – he said, they had here 64 journals of ground in nursery – a journal = 4000 French feet carrés – sometimes (in the spring and autumn and now when much work to do) 250 workpeople – have given up the establishment at Turin – but one at Lyons and Grenoble, the latter newly established – with her twenty minutes before getting into my own bed – 

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