Wednesday 6th August 1834

Up at 5 again with bowel complaint, lay down again for some time, & up at 6.30 only one cup of coffee at breakfast & went away being very unwell – shewed G[eorge] how to mend his stockings – read a little, dearest ordered me broth & fricandeau, & then went to see the Castle & barracks & – Eat my broth & fricandeau, & then wrote journal – & 2 ½ pages of a letter to my sister – inked over the pencil designs I took at Geneva of Sofa, screen chair, & Bains pieds – off from Grenoble at 4.20 went to Maitre d’hotel’s campagne, about an hour’s drive from Grenoble on Lyon’s road, he was there to receive us, went over the house – below, a very nice salon, with two small sleeping apartments at one end of it, a salle à manger, & another room – communicating with his wine vats, where all the wine is made, then into his kitchen, & above, a nice suite of rooms for sleeping apartments & servants, & kitchen &c. – beautiful view from all the windows, those of the sâlon open upon a terrace about 8 feet wide – planted with a row of umbrella acacias from Martin Burdin’s garden at 24 sous each – there are about 8 acres of ground, allotted into vineyards, kitchen garden farm &c. . Maitre gave for the Campagne 22,000 francs (£880 English money) & he wishes to sell it for 70,000, francs – he said the Pavilion at top of garden was the only folly he had committed, painted by an artist from Turin for 600 francs (£24 English). saw a very long melon (prolate spheroid) “pushed out at top the ends” about 2 feet longitudinal – . Maitre said he would let us the maison, (keeping back apartments for his wife’s Parents, & the farmer) for £40 P[er] A[nnum] [word crossed out] but he should wish to keep the Garden & vineyards letting us have half the vegetable produce  we could be supplied with milk & butter by the farmer, on return to house, Maitre gave me some excellent Malaga wine – approach road, not very good but might easily be improved – 1 ½ hour there, in going down approach road before we got on to the Lyons road, lost linch pin – got it tied with a cord at Voreppe, stayed at Hotel de Paris, 20 minutes, dearest trying to fix for us to sleep there as I was very tired, found we could have nothing but milk & butter, so came away – & on to Voiron, a very long ascent from Voreppe to Voiron, should think of nearly 5 miles – country beautiful but unfortunately obliged to travel it in the dark – at Hotel du Cours at 20 to 10 oclock had for supper – a fricandeau, & potage, Maitre very civil said we might pay him what we liked. large nice airy salon, with little bed closets out of it – bed 10 ½. –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale WYC:1525/7/1/5/1/23

[up at] 7 35/..

[to bed at] 1 5/..

no kiss not with her at all – fine morning – Fahrenheit 68 in my back room at 10 10/.. – breakfast at 9 – Adney still poorly – her bowels no better – Had our host, Monsieur Pernard – he fancied the 11 minerals I had left out of the box = 20/.  so I took only 4 for 6 francs^§ – he calls set-ě-ra what our cocher calls stèré – a setěra = 900 toises carrés; but they commonly go here by the journal (plural journaux) = 2/3 of a setera, or 600 toises carrés – terre à chanvre is worth 3,000 a setěra – terre with vines and bled = from 2000/. to 2,400 francs a setěra – terre de vigne = from 1800 to 2000 francs a setěra – the vine-hills (as at his own campagne) are what they call mi-côtes (i.e. demi côtes) – Monsieur Parrier has no land that he (Monsieur Pérard) knows of but at Vizille and none there but what belongs the château and may have from 60 to 80 seteras – but it is the chateau which makes the land valuable – in buying land one has to consider where it is terre battie, or not; that is, terre with a good house on it, or not – where there is a very large quantity of land, the house is generally given in – where there is not much land, of the house is a consideration – the chateau at Vizille is valuable as being a large manufactory – filature de coton employing now 200 to 400 oeuvriers – wheat is sold by the boisseau weighing 42 pounds or + or – according to the goodness of the wheat – it is now 4/50 per boisseau should be 6/. to enable the farmer to pay his way comfortably – Monsieur Pérard gave 22000 francs for his campagne has 17 seteras, and has laid out from 36,000 to 40,000 francs – wants 10,000 francs for all the trouble he has had the 28 months since he bought it, and asks 70,000 francs but his wife does not wish him to sell – he will assure the estate producing 100 louis (=2,400/) per annum without making anything of the house – it is situate in what is called the Beauplan –

^§ quartz up chaux carbonté 3/.

  cristaux de quartz 1/.

  spath pésante, baryte, d’Annonay 1/.

Pierre ollaire. 1/.took a boy guide, and out (left Adney at home) at 11 50/.. to the chateau fort or Bastille on a high compact limestone rock north of the town – had got a considerable way above the engineer’s house when he himself came and I was obliged to turn back and ask leave of the commandant – vexed enough – but could not help it – went back, the engineer with me – shewed my passport – made my story good – the commandant very civil ask me to take beer or Eau sucré which I declined and the engineer went a good way up with me – gave me note to the lieutenant in command at the top, and asked me to stop at his and take something on my return and I promised to call – I counted above 350 steps and forgot to count those perhaps 20 or 30 to the very top, and others lower down – besides all the traversing I certainly mounted 400 steps – very fine views of the town about 1/2 way and at the very top at 1 1/2 magnificent view of the valleys of the Isère and Drac – the former winds near the town in large folds – very beautiful – stood 10 minutes under the boiling sun enchanted with the view – the Graissivaudan valley at the apex of the angle stands Grenoble very fine and rich and beautiful deserving all its praises – the fine high Savoy mountain snow-streaked ridge on the East rather hid by clouds but the range hills of hills below beautifully thrown together with pointed rounded elongated all shaped tops – everyone should go to the top of the chateau – from the higher mountain above it the town would be masked by the castle – heated as I was, I was well repaid – down at the old tower, where lives the Engineer and his wife, at 2 1/2 – very civil – hoped I should go and see them again – gave me a nice little nosegay from their flower pots on the top of the tower   he lost his right arm in Spain at the taking of Valentia (Valence) – has 1500/. a year pay + 300/. gratification and lives, rent-free, of course, in the tower – a taker of roads came in – said the new road to Marseilles by Claix Vizille, etc. would be finished in 4 or 5 years as also the new road to Italy by Bourg d’Oisans, Grave, Madeleine, Lauzet etc. to Oulx and Exilles and Susa would be done in 5 years – 10 leagues done – 30 more to do – the road is done to beyond Bourg d’Oysans – 1/4 hour at the engineer’s ‘Mr. de Matheis, Garde du Génie, chevalier de la legion d’honneur, à Rabot’ – born at Turin – he gave me his address written very well with his left hand – in returning went to the marbrier, near the good stone bridge ‘Bernard fils marbrier, rue du Quai, no. 12, près le pont de Pierre, à Grenoble’ – 1 chimney piece very pretty dark coloured ground much veined with yellow – found in a ravine near Grenoble – no quarry of it – called brêche de tez – la cheminée coute 150/. transport to Paris 12/. to 15/. to London perhaps 30/. would engage it at 50/. – but what would be the duty? could furnish 10 or 11 specimens of Grenoble marbles, or marbres du pays of the Dauphiny alps 3 1/2 inches carrés and 1/4 inch thick at 3/. each – home at 3 1/2 – paid all and off from L’hotel des Ambassadeurs, Grenoble, at 4 35/.. – Adney’s bowels indisposed all the time  – the town too low, and near the river – so glad to be off – like the neighbouring hills exceeding for living on – not at all disappointed with town or country – the town a good provincial town, tho’ not handsome – had no time to see the musée – beautiful drive along the river winding tolerably near for some distance – at 5 35/.. having driven a roughish by-road alighted at the campagne of our hoste, in a vignoble about 1/4 mile from the road (right) – formerly belonged to the Chartreux – shewed us the cave and the great 2 or 3 foutres (casks that 30 men could stand in at once) they left there, and the wine press – still perfectly good (of oak) tho’ a century or two old – rez de chaussée a good salon with cabinet for 2 beds at one end, and 2 other pièces (small) – au 1er même distribution with kitchen above or below to be let – the fermier under the same roof, and a kitchen and 2 or 3 pièces reserved for his wife’s father and mother – I asked if the tenant could have a garden – no! but Monsieur Pernard would give him 1/2 the produce of the garden – this rez de chaussée and 1er well furnished for 1000 francs a year, – or for la belle saison May to October exclusive – everything really very nicely arranged – fine 7 1/2 foot parasol (in English, umbrella) accacias planted last November looking beautiful – had them from Martin Burdin Chambéri, at 24 sols per tree – and all sorts of rose-bushes at 12 to 16 sols each – fine large 7 1/2 feet mulberry trees at 10 sols each – would he sell them to me at that price – Monsieur Pernard will get and send me off to England as many as I please at the price he himself paid – the leaves of a fine young well-headed mulberry tree sell for 20 to 30/. for the season manure (Engrais) (horse manure) very dear – had put 6,000 francs worth into his land – but vines a hot thing themselves and did not do with a hot manure – wanted a cold one – la laiche bauche the best – the coarse ready grass (vide line 6 page 128) – too much horse dung bad, too hot – shewed his pavillon with great pleasure – prettily painted in fresco – an Italian from Turin did it and he and 2 men 2 1/2 months doing it for 600 francs – Adney sadly tired of so much talk she did not understand – but liked the place very well – off again at 7, and at Voreppe (fine beautiful drive as before) a shabby little town at 7 1/2 – in the rough road coming away had lost the shaft’s bolt or staple – the blacksmith having waited for me (I was bargaining with the woman of the Inn, but she was trop exigeante) and 36 minutes were lost – off from Voreppe at 8 6/.. sorry not to have staid all night – but Adney thought we should have fleas in such a looking auberge, and I determined not to give the woman more than 21/. for the night and breakfast tomorrow as she had little to give us for dinner and wanted 25/. – a pity to have so fine a drive in the dark – fine rocks high and perpendicular we passed close under soon after leaving Voreppe, then fine shaped hills and wood were dimly seen – alighted à l’hotel du Cours, chez Bearne at Voiron, at 9 40/.. – very large good room with 2 cabinets à un lit, at the end of the room – very comfortable – the master of the house very civil and reasonable – would object to nothing – would leave all to me – and take my price – nice little supper at 11 40/.. very fine day till about 5 p.m. then a shower and afterwards a few drops Fahrenheit 70° at 12 10/.. tonight – not with her tonight –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0069 & SH:7/ML/E/17/0070