Wednesday 9th July 1834

off from Cormayeur at 8 – breakfasted at Pré St. Didier, valley beautiful – had a very good view of Mont Blanc – road in some parts cut out of a rock at the top of a deep valley; one of the prettiest vallies [valleys] we have seen – lunched at Arvier, pretty little Church on top of  hill, triumphal arch, temporary erection, to celebrate the arrival of the two Sardinian Princes (eldest about 12 years of age) at Cormayeur, where they were expected next day – arrived at Aosta about 6.15 all Ecu de France engaged for Princes except one room close to salle à manger – went to Hotel de la poste – comfortable apartment walked about town – saw some Candlesticks beautifully carved in oak – they were for one of the Churches & were to be gilt – went to the Church – bought some ribbon for habit, & some soap – dined in salle à manger at 8.15 – went to bed – had first Apricots this year – bother about passport not able to get it done that night –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale WYC:1525/7/1/5/1/15

[up at] 5 1/4

[to bed at] 10 20/..

not with her at all last night but saw her into bed – rain about and before 5 a.m. George told me – so determined to go to Aoste instead of crossing the col de Ferret – Fahrenheit 64° at 6 35/..– threatening more rain – off at 7 1/2 from Courmayeur hotel de L’Angel /L’Ange/ – good rooms and beds, but all the servants not yet come (the season only just commencing) so could get nothing – George a mile off – and determined to breakfast at Près St. Didier – For information respecting the Vaudois valleys our host had told us we should consult Captain Bonnetti d’Aoste, a native of these valleys – we had had a bottle of vin d’Asti rouge (first time we saw the red) excellent far to[o] superior to the bottle of white we had even here – could not spare us another bottle of the red – said he had but one left of that quality – At Près St Didier in an hour at 8 1/2 – large hotel, but not very clean and tidy – the season hardly begun – good bread and milk – Adney ate some of our cold fowl – Près St Didier beautifully situated at the bottom of deep green valley – went to the old baths (close to the source) – 20 baths – old wooden erection – 1/2 way between these and the hotel, new baths 3 finished – called the Pavillon – consisting of one bedroom 3 dressing rooms, nice salon, gallery at the back and in front, and portico of 2 square pillars and the side ones – 2 minutes distant from the Inn – very pretty – the baths wooden tubs as in the old establishment – the building has already cost 18000 francs – emplacement for 16 more baths in progress – the whole to cost 42000 francs – the princes (2 of the King’s sons) expected tomorrow or next day – water chalybeat here – sulphurous at Courmayeur – Left Adney lying down for 1/2 hour while I saw the baths – Off from Près St. Didier at 10 5/.. At Morgex (pronounced Morgé) little narrow street town at 11, and at Villard /Villair/ at 11 40/.. – peeped into old church – 1 large undivided space – no aisles – boarded floor, and gilded alter –

at 11 55/.. at the turn in the road, just out of the town (5 or 10 minutes out of Villard) from which remarkably fine view of Mont Blanc – the top quite découvert – had been on the watch ever since leaving Près St. Didier and had often seen bits of the top, but never the whole together as now – clouds still floating across and hiding the middle of the mountain –

Adney walked 50 minutes – a Lady and gentleman said to be English passed us just before remounting our mules at 12 1/2 – at 1 pass good bridge over the Doria, and from here for about 100 yards length or more nice new road about 15 feet wide, at the other end of which people busy filling up with green branches of fir the charpente of a triumphal arch for the princes to pass under – it had really a very good effect – several pieces of new road afterwards cut out of the rock – very fine – the rapid white Doria deep below – at 1 1/2 the road winds and we lose our full view of Mont Blanc – I had had a clear full view of him unimpeded by clouds for 2 or 3 minutes – all below the perpetual snow (about in a line with the base of the above diagram) seemed one enormous mass of yellowish-hoary rock hérissé et crenellé with points of rock almost like the minarets of a gothic church – everything about this king of European mountains interests me – at 1 40/.. neat white convent and church and old castle-house and a few cottages on the hill (left) other side the river – (St. Nicolas, probably) – pass thro’ the little village of Livrogne /Leverogne/, and 20 minutes after (at 2 8/..) stop at Arvier to bait the mules, at a worse looking auberge than the one we had passed at Livrogne – annoyed at this – however Adney ate her cold fowl, and lay down as usual and we managed very tolerably – the English lady and gentleman, the people told as we passed were at the auberge at Livrogne – all the villages and little towns have very narrow streets (and channels in the middle) 9 to 11 feet wide, the overhanging roofs very nearly meeting at the top, as at Dolina near Courmayeur. Off from Arvier at 3 22/.. – 1st view of Aoste, in the distance, from the top of the hill at 4 3/4 – then lost till near arriving – Adney and I walked from 5 to 5 3/4 – At the Ecu du valais (kept by the master of l’Ange at Cormayeur) at 6 1/4 –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale, SH:7/ML/E/17/0053 & SH:7/ML/E/17/0054