Thursday 14th August 1834

Up at 5.30 dearest warmed for me part of riz au lait that we left night before, & made my tea – off at 10 to 9 – at Montbrison is an old castle mentioned by [gap] Sir W[alter] Scott – At Noire Table [Noirétable] got 2 boiled eggs stayed half hour, then off. about half mile distance met carriage & changed horses – as there were none at La Bergère, when arrived there had to wait an hour, whilst horses baited – 2 yards make a toise or rather 6 French feet = 6 feet, 6 inches feet English – wrote part of a letter to my sister in carriage whilst waiting for horses, detained at La Bergére an hour & twenty minutes, having been stopped before on road to change horses with another carriage – View of the Lemagne [Limagne] in descending hill from Thiers beautiful beyond description – At Thiers, a single house at the bottom of a long hill immediately descending from the town, long altercation with Maitre de poste, who tried much to induce us to stay all night – got tired horses from there to Lezoux, where we wished to stay all night no accommodation so posted to Pont du Château, last stage before Clermont, got veal & poulet for supper, at 11 oclock – people told us perhaps a vetturino might come into room in the night to repose on one of the 5 beds. however dearest effectually fastened door with handle of our tea apparatus. company in bed –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale WYC:1525/7/1/5/1/27 & WYC:1525/7/1/5/1/28

[up at] 6 3/4

[to bed at] 12 35/..

very fine morning Fahrenheit 72° at 7 1/2 a.m. she came to me for quarter hour this morning not with her last night breakfast at 7 3/4 – off from l’hotel du nord à Montbrison at 8 55/.. – comfortable beds, tho’ Adney much bit, and Eugenie said there were punaises in the house – I killed a mosquito last night, and was not afterwards troubled – at 9 3/4 pass between 2 conical hills (distant – right and left) crowned with (right) church, and (left) small remains of old castle tower and walls – Extensive, light, whitish sandy plain – hill range all round – distant right – Boen /Boën-sur-Lignon/ tolerably largeish, shabbyish, narrow streeted town on hill-side in pretty, viny wooded valley, the clear, shallow widish little river Lignon winding at the bottom – market day and the narrow streets full of people but no striking costume – good new road cut out of the rock just out of the town – very hot and dusty, but not blinded as on Tuesday – road shaded with walnut and other trees, chiefly the former – beautiful narrowish winding valley beautifully shaped hills yellow with corn, looking rather too yellow and arid – St. Thierin /Saint-Thurin/ a picturesquely situated goodish village – several workmen on the road as we came along – the road hardly finished – soon after leaving St. Thierin turn (left) up narrower wooded (fine fir-wood) valley and montée for 35 minutes till 1 1/2 – the road all up the mountain newly cut out of the granite rock – fine drive – at the top of the montée, the valley rather opens – then descend a while – nice little stream with us all along – the fir-woods begin from Saint Therin – Noiretable /Noirétable/, goodish small town – goodish looking auberge at la Poste – Adney had 2 boiled eggs and bread and butter and the servants bread and cheese and wine – at ./75 per personne – then said it was trop bon marché but I would not pay more – judging from this and from the woman’s asking 1/50 par repas for the servants last night, offer these prices in future – but alight as seldom as possible – and take cold fowl for Adney and let the servants have wine etc. with them – 5 or 6 minutes out of Noiretable changed horses, because no horses or postillions at La Bergère – our new postillion said if I would pay for the rafraichissement (to give what I pleased) he would drive me thro’ La Bergère to Thiers – I offered 10 sols per horse – no! but would do it for 1/. per horse = 4/. – declined this; finding that I should not reach Clermont tonight, thought we might wait an hour at La Bergère and write up journal – nice drive from Noiretable to La Bergère but the road these 3 last stages very jolting at times – at La Bergère at 4 20/.. – sat writing in the carriage, in the large shed, and had done as far of to day at 5 – Adney wrote journal and added a little to her letter to her sister begun the day we left Chambéri – from (at La Bergère) 5 5/.. to 5 35/.. inking over accounts and off at 5 38/.. – La Bergère merely the poste which surrounds a tolerable little auberge – road cut out of granite rock, and Durole /Durolle/, shallow stream, at our feet – narrow valley beech and other wood – at 6 1/2 ravine – road bur-walled and entirely cut out of the granite rock – just room for the Durole at the bottom – fine view and fine zigzag descent upon Thiers – as seen from this side, large goodish town but most pictoresque nice good town (as we afterwards saw it from the other side) in a hanging garden of vines – fine look down upon rich wide amphitheatre plain below (the famous Limagne of Auvergne) bounded by a fine range of mountains in the distance – pass thro’ the town at 6 50/.. and still descend, and cross the Durole at 7, and in a few seconds stop at La poste, large good-looking house – must be a mile from the town, picturesque and beautiful see[n] from this side – finely placed midway the mountain and creeping down to the river and a few houses picturesquely scattered even on the other side of it – the maitre de poste pressed us to stay – our postillion said only maçons slept at the Auberge at Lezouz /Lezoux/ – we wanted to get a stage farther thought we should have to pay dear enough at La poste here, so off at 7 17/.. (my watch 20 minutes too soon ever since Grenoble) that we have time enough by the day for 1 3/4 poste – at Lezouz at 8 55/.. – à La poste – just dark – should have been glad to stay, but the woman very civil and honest – said they were new people there and could not receive us – had not rooms nice enough – could not receive such as we – so off again at 9 1/4 and at Pont du Château a little moonlight, at 10 3/4 – would just as soon have slept at the last place – we had a great large room with 5 beds in it, and were told there might perhaps come a voiturin to take one of them in the middle of the night – but this I protested again and fastened the door with Jones’s boiler pan-handle – supper such as it was at 11 – put all our things on chairs in the middle of the room for fear of punaisses – for beds and supper for us all to pay 12/. – would have gone forward but did not like going into Clermont at midnight – very fine day – very hot Fahrenheit 74° at midnight –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0074 & SH:7/ML/E/17/0075