1.4.2017 SWITZERLAND (1928) by Arnold Lunn

this book, while very old, may still prove to be an accurate travel guide to scenic sites and  routes that contain great natural beauty and historical/aesthetic treasure troves. i will focus, with God's help,  on things that may help in understand the people and history of a land much loved because it was for centuries the home of the Waldensians...my dear brothers and sisters in Christ..

chapter 1 - introduction

5  ...first, is choice of season.
the Alps in winter...is ..one has the best opportunities for observing the Alpine peasant unaffected by the parasitic. tourist traffic. you have only to escape from the fashionable winter-sports centers to the remoter Alpine glens to discover that the old form of life has not changed in essentials since the middle Ages. nobody really knows the Alps until he has seen the mountains in all their moods, in the dawn of spring, the high tide of summer, the twilight of autumn and the long sleep of winter...October may be the most beautiful..can explore the Alps on foot, on ski or by car; but ..of course, they reserve the greatest rewards for those who are prepared to pay for their right of entry by the toil and effort inevitable in mountaineering.

10  after mountaineering and ski-ing there is no more delightful method of Alpine travel than to cross the great historic passes of the Alps by car.

chapter 2 - the gates of switzerland

18  i can conceive of no finer introduction to the snows than to tramp through the jura gorges, fenced in by limestone cliffs and then suddenly  from the crest of the Weissenstein to look out beyond the misty plains. the lakes and rivers, to the 'far-flung battle line of the Alps.

here is what Hilaire Belloc saw from the crest of the Weissenstein:
'I saw between the branches of the trees in front of me a sight in the sky that made me stop breathing, just as great danger at sea or great surprise in love or a great deliverance will make a man stop breathing. i say something i had known in the West as a boy, something I had never seen so grandly discovered as was this. in between the branches of the trees was a great promise of unexpected lights beyond...
here were these magnificent creatures of God, I mean the Alps, which now for the first time i saw from the height of the jura; and because they were 50 or 60 miles away and because they were a mile or 2 high, they were become something different from us others, and could strike one motionless with the awe of supernatural things.  up there in the sky, to which only clouds belong and birds and the last trembling colours of pure light, they stood fast and hard; not moving as do things of the sky. they were as distant as the
19  little upper clouds of summer, as fine and tenuous; but in their reflection and in their quality as it were of weapons (like spears and shields of an unknown array) they occupied the sky with a sublime invasion: and the things proper to the sky were forgotten by me in their presence as I gazed...
these, the great Alps. seen thus, link one in some way to one's immortality. nor is it possible to convey, or even to suggest, those few 50 miles, and those few thousand feet; there is something more. let me put it thus:  that from the height of the Weissenstein i saw, as it were, my religion. I mean, humility, the fear of death, the terror of height and of distance, the glory of God,  the infinite potentiality of reception whence springs that divine thirst of the soul; my aspiration also towards completion and my confidence in the dual destiny. for I know that we laughers have a gross cousinship with the most high and it is this contrast and perpetual quarrel which feeds a spring of merriment in the soul of a sane man.
since I could now see such a wonder and it could work such things in my mind, therefore, some day I should be part of it. that is what I felt.
that it is also which leads some men to climb mountain-tops, but not me, for I am afraid of slipping down.
21  ...Les Verrieres witnessed the crowning humiliation of the French army in the 1870 war. Bourbaki's' 'Army of the East', broken and routed, was thrust back on the Swiss frontier near Pontarlier. Bourbaki demanded an asylum. a convention was arranged between Bourbaki and General Hertzog, commanding the Swiss army and on january 31. 1871, the French army crossed the frontier.

the officers were allowed to keep their swords, but the rest of the army had to pile up their arms. Les Troncons du Glaive, by the brothers Margeritte, contains a vivid description of the surrender.

'the darkness had fallen when the tragic procession began to file through the ravine behind Pontarlier. by the road of Les Verrieres and Les Fougs the compact stream flowed and trickled.  a confused mob of calvary, infantry, and gunners moved forward in a dark torrent, dense and continuous. the roar of the cannon and the furious rattle of musketry covered their retreat through the defile of la Cluse.

the Prussians were still attacking. two of the regiments, 'the only troop which had not lost heart, made a half-circle. these, at least, were heroes. for 7 hours they tramped through blood and snow, striding over corpses...to a flag of truce and to the suggestion that he had no choice but to yield, General Robert replied, 'Death still remains.  until nightfall the cannon and musketry covered the crossroads and the retreat of the artillery proclaimed that even in the hour of disaster honour was not lost. nearly 90,000 men had already been thrown on Swiss
22  soil. the tragic procession lasted for 2 days. the tide flowed on through the defile formed by the Swiss troops, who leant motionless upon their arms. as the French entered they heaped up their rifles and ammunition, their sabres and revolvers, into 2 enormous piles on each side of the road. lances stuck into the ground bristled like a leafless forest. along the whole length of the moving line nothing was heard except a complaining murmur raised by thousands of dry, hacking coughs. and so they limped past, with bleeding and swollen feet, shivering in rags which swarmed with vermin, with unkempt hair and shaggy faces. the inhabitants assembled by hundreds, laden with gifts. they wept for compassion. the very poorest gave...into great wooden troughs they poured warm milk barns and stables were soon full. a boundless charity held out its arms, touched to pity by a flood of horror such as no man remembered to have seen.

chapter 3 - Bienne, Neuchatel and Morat

24  Neuchatel and the surrounding district is the centre of the watchmaking industry of Switzerland. watch-making ranks as third among the Swiss export industries, and dates from 1587, when it was introduced by a French refugee to Geneva. according to Dr. Muirhead, however,

25  its real importance dates from a century later, when Daniel Jean Richard, a locksmith of Neuchatel, repaired an English watch that came into his hands and at once set to work to manufacture a proper tool for himself, with which he made the first Neuchatel watch.

30 basel, or Basle, derives its name from basilia, meaning 'a royal residence' and is first mentioned as a Roman fort in AD 374.

chapter 7 - Zurich (Z)

Z must have been one of the first inhabited places in Switzerland (SW). it is certainly older than Lucerne (L).  traces of lake dwelling have been found throughout the district. Z in roman times was known as Turicum - a word of celtic origin - and became a free Imperial city in 1218 and a member of the Swiss Confederation in 1351.
Z fought on the Austrian (AU) side at morgarten and even after joining the SW Confederation indulged in the foolish war against Schwyz.  fortunately this did not wreck the young Swiss  state.
at the battle of Morat Z rendered very valuable services to the Confederation,  but it5 was not by wars,  but by her leadership in the Reformation, that Z first became a leader of the Swiss Confederation.
in the Middle Ages the Swiss were distinguished by their devotion to the Holy See, but though they were deeply religious they were profoundly jealous of ecclesiastical  interference in political affairs.  they might reverence the pope, but they were determined to secure the maximum of control over their priests. even to this day the parishes in Canton Uri retain the right to elect their own priests in accordance with a decree of Pope Julius II.
the Reformation in SW was hastened by the evil effect of the Swiss (S) mercenary system. the rulers of SW had discovered in their negotiations.
56  with the pope that the Roman See, so far from being engaged in a purely spiritual struggle for spiritual supremacy, was behaving exactly like all other great "Powers and pursuing the same plans of aggrandizement, indifferent to the rights and liberties of the nations involved. they observed that the mercenaries who returned to SW  had been corrupted and rendered unfit for the duties of citizenship..  the trouble thus cause disgusted the more far sighted S with the whole mercenary system and with the chief supporters of that system, the Papal emissaries.
Ulrich Zwigli (Z)  was born on 1.1.1484, at Wildhaus, in the Canton of St. Gall. the house in which he was born still stands. W lies so exactly on the central watershed of europe that the rain which falls on the one side of the red-tiled church roof feeds a streamlet which joins the Rhone, whereas the rain which falls on the other side of the roof finds its way into the Rhine.

Z's family, though not rich, were comfortably circumstanced and his boyhood was happy and carefree.  in the long winter evenings the family gathered in the Stube and sang patriotic songs, fired by memories of Morgarten and Morat. 'when i was a child..Z..if anyone said a word against  the Fatherland i resented it at once.
his education was comprehensive. he was sent to school in Basel and Bern, and matriculated at the U. of vienna. in 1506 he was appointed parish priest of Glarus and as army chaplain he twice accompanied the S troops into Italy and was present at the battle of Marignano.  the S Cardinal Schinner noticed his zeal on the pope's behalf
57  and secured his appointment as papal Court chaplain and obtained for him a pension, which he continued to receive from the pope for many years.

the pope, however, had put his money on the wrong horse, for even the Papal pension had not convinced Z that the mercenary system was anything but essentially vicious.

at that time Glarus (G) was the happy hunting-ground for intriguing ambassadors from the great powers ,  who competed against each other in their attempts to bribe the authorities to provide troops. Z's outspoken condemnation of the whole system was displeasing to the rulers of G and he was forced to leave. he took refuge at Einsiedeln, where he remained for 2 years. in 15.18 he was elected rector of the minster at Z, where his real career as a reformer began.

Z was something more than a theologian. he was a great patriot and in his first sermon on New year's Day, 15.19, he did not confine himself to religious exhortation, but attacked the political degradation of Z owing to its internal dissensions, and above all its dependence on foreign powers.

owing to Z's influence, Zurich in 1521 abolished the mercenary system, much to the annoyance of the 12 other members of the S Confederation, who had just signed a military convention with Francis I.

A made an impassioned appeal to Schwyz to break loose from the mercenary system. he wrote:

our forefathers did not slay their fellow-christians for pay, but fought for liberty only, that their bodies and lives, their wives and children, might not be in miserable subjection to a wanton nobility. therefore
58  God gave them ever the victory and increased their honour and possessions in our own wars we have ever been victorious, but in foreign wars often defeated.

these words had only a momentary effect. Scwyz passed laws against the mercenary system, but found it impossible to reform.
Z's career illustrates the political character of the S nation. as ..McCrackan observes:

'Z began his work as a political reformer; his first efforts were directed against political abuses and some of his noblest words were spoken in the cause of a distinct national life, free from foreign interference...
Z was a Reformer in the widest sense of the word. he conceived his mission to be nothing less than the complete political, religious and moral regeneration of SW;  so that whatever may be the reader's particular estimate of the religious teachings which he introduced, no one can deny him an honourable position amongst the great-hearted and fearless seekers after the truth.

in 1522 Z turned his attention to theological reform. he began with an attack on fasting and the celibacy of the clergy, which prepared the way for his final onslaught on Rome. in january, 1523, he obtained from the Council of Z permission for a public religious discussion before the whole clergy of the canton, including a representative from the Bishop of Constance. the Council wholeheartedly approved of his exposition of the principles of the Reformation and Z was definitely lost to Rome.

the Nation Church at Z severed itself from the diocese of Constance and placed itself under the control of the Council of Z and of a clerical synod.

the Reformation (REF) slowly penetrate into other parts of SW. bern adopted the REF.  in 1528, Basil and Schaffhausen in 1529,  but the new faith met with fierce opposition in the central and Forrest Canons.  the old religion was entwined with great memories of their glorious past. the simplicity of their lives had kept them in ignorance of the degeneration of the Church and their priests were simpler and more moral than the priests of the cities.

the Forest Cantons also very much disliked the reforms which Z had inaugurated,  for the mercenary system was a considerable source of profit to the cantons in question.

the relations between Zurich and the Forest Cantons consequently became very strained and at length Z declared war. in june, 1529, the armies met at kappel, but no fighting actually took place. a little group of jolly Catholics got hold of a bowl of milk, but lacking bread they place the bowl on the boundary-line between Zug and Zurich. soon the Z men turned up with loaves and presently the whole party were eating the Milchsuppe merrily together. this incident, which was known as the Kappel Milch-suppe, prevented bloodshed, for the armies parted without a blow being struck and peace was signed in june 1529,  guaranteeing freedom of worship to both parties.

peace was, however, short-lived. a year later the armies met again at Kappel and on this occasion no friendly Milchsuppe changed the tide of war. the Z army was defeated and Zwingli himself was killed. his body was quartered, burnt and scattered to the winds. but the Reformation was too deeply rooted in the life of Zurich to disappear with Zwingli.
A was succeeded by Bullinger, known in England
60  as the friend of Lady Jane Grey. her last message on the scaffold was for her Surich friend.

Zwingli was the most human of the great reformers. he was less austere than Luther and Calvin, probably because he was more a humanist than them and far less of a theologian. his uncle Bartholomew was a great enthusiast for the new Learning and in Z he found a disciple to his taste. Z soon developed into a fine scholar. throughout his life he drew his inspiration from the classics no less than from the Bible and it was from the classics that he imbibed his liberal and tolerant ideas.

Luther's training was monastic and L viewed the Renaissance on its intellectual side with suspicion. the SW Reformation owed far more to great scholars than did the Reformation in germany. there gathered found Z men like Lupulus Platter and the poet Glareanus. the genial humanism of the Renaissance tempered the austerity of the Reformation.

no sense of sin had troubled Z's youthful years. he took life as it came. he never shuddered at the wrathful face of Jesus the judge which looked down upon him from the stained-glass windows of the little church in which he worshipped. Z was no more troubled than other boys of his age by that dime and distant prospect of the Last Judgement. id he was tempted to become a monk, it was in order to develop his remarkable musical talents in the peace and security of a monastery. he drifted into the priesthood by accident, without any obvious vocation for the sacred office. he entered the priesthood not to save his soul, nor to win pardon from an angry God for his sins, but simply because it offered a pleasant career for a man who wished to have ample leisure for study.

61  it was his intellect, not his heart, which made him a Reformer. the shams and deceptions and impostures practised in the name of religion outraged his sense of intellectual fitness. they affected him like a discord in music. he attacked indulgence not with the burning indignation of a Luther, but with the quizzical irony of an Erasmus. he was a Reformer first because he was a patriot. his religion was founded not on any deep consciousness of sin, not on any urgent need for personal salvation. unlike other great religious leaders, he was not responsible for any great religious leaders, he was nto responsible for any great revival of personal religion. but because his religion was largely a matter of the intellect he could combine enthusiasm for the Reformation of the Church with a curious lack of enthusiasm for the reformation of his own character. he did questionable things. he retained the papal pension long after he had begun to oppose the pope. his private morals were not worse, but were certainly no better than the clerical morals of the day. he and 10 other priests petitioned the Bishop of Constance to permit their marriage.  'Your honourable wisdom, Z wrote, has already witnessed the shameful and disgraceful life we have led with women, thereby giving grievous scandal to everybody.

this letter has at least the saving merit of candour. of course the petition was refused and it was not till 1524,  after his final breach with Rome, that Z legalized his relations with Anne Reinhard.

Z was a far more drastic Reformer than Luther. L wished to retain oral confession and the altar, and insisted on a literal interpretation of the words 'This is My Body' in the Communion service. Z would admit only a symbolic meaning in these
62  words and desired to abolish all vestiges of the Roman system. it is therefore not surprising that the two men could not reconcile their differences and that the meeting between them in 1529, arranged by landgrave Philip of Hesse, proved to be a complete failure. the conference ended in open rupture. Z at least was anxious to avoid a breach and before he parted he held out his hand in toke of friendship. Luther refused to take the outstretched hand.

on one point Z was in advance of his age. he was one of the first to reject the doctrine of exclusive salvation and with that doctrine its logical consequence, the belief in persecution. true, he was not guiltless, for at times he persecuted Catholics and Anabaptists, but his severity was always inspired rather by political than by theological motives.

in a confession of faith which he wrote just before his death and which marks, to quote Lecky, 'an important epoch in the history of the human mind, he described in magnificent language

that future assembly of all the saintly, the heroic, the faithful and the virtuous, when Abel and Enoch, Noah and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, will mingle with Socrates, Aristides and the Catos and when every upright and holy man who has ever lived will be present with his God.

'in our age, writes Lecky,
when the doctrine of exclusive salvation seldom excites more than a smile, such language appears but natural, but when it was first written it excited on all sides amazement and indignation. Luther on reading it said he despaired of the salvation of Z: Bossuet quotes the passage as a climax to his charges against the S Reformer, and quotes  it as if it required no comment,

63  but was in itself sufficient to hand down its author to the contempt and indignation of posterity.

Z died believing that he had failed. but he had not failed. it is always easy to take the past for granted and to assume that the causes which failed were doomed to failure. the Counter-Reformation, to Z  and his contemporaries, did not look as if it was doomed to failure. it was largely due to the S Reformers that Rome did not regain the ground which she had lost. loyola might have led Europe back to the feet of Peter had not A and Calvin provided a focus and a rallying-ground for the revolt against Rome...

Chapter 9 - the birth of the swiss confederation

70  The Swiss Confederation was born on the shores of the lake of Lucerne. the reader must forgive a historical digression before we resume our journey along the shores of the lake. I must remark in passing that 'Lake Lucerne' is a misnomer;  the correct title is the Vierwaldstattersee - that is, 'the lake of the four Cantons...
...the Forrest Cantons owe their name to the primeval forests which at one time covered them. Ruskin points out that to the S the mountains were less shrines of beauty than fortresses of defence.

it was not for their lakes, nor their cliffs, nor their glaciers, though these were all peculiarly their possession, that the three venerable cantons or states received their names. they were not called the State of the Rock, now the State of the Lake, but the State of the Forest. and the one of the three which contains the most touching record of the spiritual power of S religion  (Unterwalden) in the name of the Convent of the Hill of Angels (Engelberg) has for its own none other than the sweet childish name of Under the Wood.
71  Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, three of these four Forest Cantons, are first mentioned in the 7th century. according to ..W.D. McCrackan, whose book The Rise of the Swiss Republic i cordially recommend to the reader, the original colonists of these valleys were Alamanni and there is no evidence for the older belief that they were Swedes of Friesians.

the Forest Cantons were surrounded by a cordon of Habsburg estates and they were forced into alliance by the natural instinct of self-protection.
the S Confederation dates from 8.1.1291. on that date the 3 Forest Cantons concluded a perpetual league.
1294 was another important date in the history of SW,  for in that year  the first landesgemeinde met in Schwyz.  the Landesgemeinde endures to this day and in its ancient and in its present form is at once the simplest and most thorough expression of democracy in action. all the adult citizens of the canton assemble together to elect officers and to pass laws. it is, indeed, THE GOVERNMENT OF THE WHOLE PEOPLE BY THE WHOLE PEOPLE and not merely by the representatives of the people. at this first historic meeting a law was passed which laid the foundation of modern SW. the assembled peoples of Schwyz agreed that it should be forbidden to sell land either to the monasteries or to strangers outside the valley. this decree established for all time the PRINCIPLE OF PEASANT PROPRIETORSHIP (note - we missed that in the American Revolution...!) and marked the first dawn of revolt against absentee landlords and against the monopoly of land by ecclesiastical corporations.
these first tentative experiments in democracy provoked, of course, suspicion and resentment. the inevitable conflict was hastened by a marauding band
72  from Schwyz which in 1314 attacked the Abbey of Einsiedeln,which was under the stewardship of Habsburg. both sides prepared themselves for the struggle.

in the autumn of 1315 Duke Leopold of Austria mobilized his army in Aargau. 'the men of his army, writes a contemporary chronicler, Joanes Vitoduranus, came together with one purpose - utterly to subdue and humiliate those peasants who were surrounded with mountains as with walls.

Leopold's plan was to march on Schwyz over the low Sattel pass across the Morgarten ridge, a few miles north of Schwyz. morgarten is not a dizzy mountain pass, but a gentle depression in an undulating ridge of hills. the scenery has none of the grandeur of the authentic Alps. but has its own quiet charm, all the more persuasive by contrast with the more rugged glories of the mountains which have just disappeared from view as one crossed the low-lying hills which open out on the gentler beauties of the Aegeri Lake...
on 11.15.1315, the men of Schwyz, reinforced by men from Uri and Unterwalden, posted themselves on the Sattel Pass, unseen and unsuspected by the Austrian knights who rode gaily to their doom along the shores of lake Aetgeri. their burnished armour glittered in the morning light and against the sombre greens of the forest their fluttering pennons made a brave show. they laughed and jested and inquired anxiously whether their attendants had provided themselves with sufficient rope to lead back the captured cattle. they were much amused by the

73   Duke's fool, who, when asked what he thought of the plan of invasion, replied: 'you have all taken counsel how best to get into the country, but have given no explanation of how you are going to get out again.
they  climbed slowly in single file toward the pass, their line of battle necessarily broken. near the top of the pass the leaders halted and looked anxiously up toward the steep hillsides, down which a few stray rocks and pebbles had just fallen. suddenly an avalanche of huge boulders and tree-trunks crashed down the slopes. the narrow pass of morgarten was turned into a death-trap, a desperate, struggling confusion of men and horses. and then came the human avalanche, an irresistible torrent of peasants, swinging their deadly halberds and scythes. beneath these rude weapons the chivalry of the Empire fell. some died on the spot, others were driven into the lake, while others were killed by falling boulders. the rout was complete, but let us hope that the Duke's fool, at least, escaped.

Morgarten was perhaps the first battle of the Middle Ages in which an army of mounted knights was beaten by peasants on foot.
on 12.9.1315, the Confederates renewed their first league at the Village of Brunnen and three years later the Dukes of Austria decided to make peace with them.

the Confederation rapidly expanded. Lucerne was naturally the first to join. Zurich, Glarus, Zug and Bern all followed the examples of Lucerne in the course of the following year. the growth in strength of the young Confederation was, of course, viewed with alarm by Austria and in 1386 Duke Leopold III, nephew of the Leopold who was defeated at Morgarten, mobilized

74  a large army, the immediate object of which was to chastise Lucerne. the Duke's army was utterly defeated and the Duke himself lost his life on the battlefield of Sempach, 10 miles from Lucerne. it was in this battle that Arnold von Winkelried gathered the Austrian spears in his bosom in order to force a breach in the enemies' ranks by which his countrymen could enter. there is some reason to suppose that this story is not altogether legendary, for a man of that name was certainly living in
Stans at the time of the battle, and as Stans fought on the Confederates' side it is at least probable that
arnold von Winkelried fought with them.
a few years later Austria suffered her third defeat in an attempt to reduce the rebellious peasnts of Galrus. here again they were heavily routed, this time at Nafels, at the foot of the Linthal. after various attempts to seduce Zurich from the Confederation , Austria bowed to the inevitable and signed a treaty of peace.

Chapter 10 - The Lake of the Four Forrest Cantons

83  ...the women of Buochs,  in the absence of their menfolk, who were fighting at Morgarten, beat off the invaders and in recognition of their gallantry obtained the right, which they still enjoy, of approaching the Communion rail before the other sex...

...in 1798 Stans was the scene of a terrible massacre. Revolutionary France had imposed upon SW the Helvetic Confederation, which put an end to the existing inequalities between nobles and peasnts and between the various states and subject territories of SW. the innate conservatism of the Catholic cantons was incensed by these reforms.
Schwyz, Rui and Unterwalden accepted them only after a spirited though ineffective attempt at resistance. Nidwalden continued to resist. the French general Schauenbourg attacked the half-canton both from the lake and from the direction of the Brunig. two divisions, 10000 strong, met in the meadows round Stans, where the inhabitants, some 3000 in number, fought with the courage of despair. women and children hurled themselves into the fray. every house outside

84  the town was burnt and Stans itself narrowly escaped the falmes. the infuriated mountaineers refused all quarter, but the French, once the battle was decided, were the first to succour their gallant foes. Schauenbourg etablished a school for orphand and selected as a teacher the famous
Pestalozzik, of Bern. according to ...Edmund d'Auvergne, whose very readable book Switzerland in Sunshine and Snow I recommend to the reader,  'as the Nidwaldeners had refused civilized government, so they thwarted all attempts to educate their children...

85  Gersau is the next port of call. G for 500 years was the smallest sovereign state of Europe, 3 miles by 2 in area, containing less than 2000 inhabitants. g was originally bought by the Habsburgs from two of its richest inhabitants. the villagers saved up their pence and in the course of time bought their own village from the mortgage-holders
86  the relations between G and Lucerne were often strained. L laid claim to the little state, but the liberties of this tiny republic were reaffirmed by the Emperor Sigismund in 1433.  in the course of these disputes the Lucernois carried out a nocturnal raid on G and hung a man of straw on the gallows as a token of their contempt for the claims of G to jurisdiction over life and limb. the men of G replied by decking the corpse in the colours of L. this effective retort enraged L and would doubtless have led to bloodshed had not the Confederates imposed a compromise. the men of G were told to remove the colours of L, and the men of L had to remove the corpse.

88  near Maloja there is a similar inexpensive memorial to Huxley and one to Nietzsche,  but I know of no other examples of this form of native art here, perhaps, I might add that though the S hate wasting money, no people are more generous to respond to a call on their charity. the gay prodigal who gives the taxi-driver a shilling tip seldom figures conspicuously in the list of subscribers to charity. the frugal S does not open his pockets readily, but he opens them with a royal gesture  once his heart is touched. no nation had a finer record for service and philanthropy throughout the war than the S.
in many ways the S resemble another mountain race, the Scots. like them, they have inherited a tradition of husbanding the resources won from the scanty hills. they cannot afford the easy generosity of those who live where the earth herself is prodigal of riches. but the same hill tradition which forbids waste encourages large-hearted generosity in times of distress.

89  ...they will lose very little time if on reaching Brunnen they follow the road which runs around to the north of the Rigi, passing through Schwyz, the capital of the Forrest Cantons, which gives its name to SW,  and by the pretty lake of Lowerz to Goldau. G was the scene of a famous catastrophe alluded to by Byron in Manfred. the Rossberg consists of beds of sandstone and conglomerate resting on soft argillaceous layers. the upper strata were soaked by the heavy rains of the winter of 1806, and suddenly slid off the underlying beds, and swept down across the valley. G and 3 other villages were buried in the debris. part of the Lake of Lowerz was filled up and more than 450 people were killed in this catastrophe. the scar on the Rossberg from which this avalanche descended is still clearly visible...

Chapter 11 - Bern

93  the name Bern may be derived from the bears which

94  once infested the neighbourhood and which figure so conspicuously in the coat of arms of B, ...

in 1353 B was admitted into the Swiss Confederation.

Bern, though in the forefront of the battle for national independence, did not believe that democracy should begin at home. the Government of the city was patrician and aristocratic. the patricians of B had induced their fellow-citizens in 1293 to entrust the government of the city to a council of 200 members selected from the patrician orders. the council renewed itself by co-option among the

95  patrician families and the tradesmen and artisans retained only some shadowy and nominal control of the Government. it is true that in 1470, exercising this shadowy control, they so far forgot themselves as to elect a butcher named Kistler as mayor of the town, but this base magistrate was soon forced to retire.
the Bernese patricians exercised a tyrannous sway not only over their own fellow-townsmen, but also over 52 bailiwicks. B ruled despotically over the Canton of Vaud. the statute of Major Davel at Lausanne still recalls a desperate and ineffective rising led by Major Davel against Bern.

B also had trouble with her own people a rising of the local peasantry in 1653 was, however, easily crushed and the patricians remained in power until the French invaded SW in 1798. meanwhile, the patriots of Vaud had been carrying on a systematic propaganda against B and when B sent troops into Vaud to counteract this campaign Vaud asked for help from the French. Napoleon responded by officially recognizing the Republic of Lake Leman and sent an ultimatum to B, which B refused to accept. the French mustered 25000 men, whereas B could put only 15000 men into the field. a decisive battle was fought at Gruholz and the Bernese troops were defeated. Vaud obtained her liberty, but it was only in 1831 that B became definitely democratic.

Bonstetten, a friend of Mme. de Stael an himself a patrician of B, has described the empty life led by his fellow-aristocrats. they divided their time between eating and drinking and strolling down the arcades for which B is still famous. the common fold were forbidden to use these arcades during many

96  hours of the day and no market produce could be deposited in the garden market before 11 in the morning, lest patrician noses might take offence.

Bern still possesses patrician families who claim descent from the great families who at one time ruled over the town. the descendants of these patricians have no political influence, except in so far as they have acquired individual distinction on their own merits. they still take themselves seriously and there is a small club in B composed entirely of descendants of these noble families. there is, however, no country in the world  where aristocracy counts less than in SW.

Chapter 13 - The Bernese Oberland

every mountaineer has some pet corner in the Alpine chain. to some the Mont Blanc range is the beginning and end of Alpine scenery. others find full satisfaction only in the Monte Rosa group or in the Dolomites. I confess that i am an impenitent 'Oberlander'.  I am prepared to maintain that no range can show more variety of mountain form than the Oberland.  there are domes which remind one of Mont Blanc, pyramids which resemble the Weisshorn and countless needles which recall the Chamonix aiguilles. but were in the world will you find mountains like the Wetterhorn or the Jungfrau?  there are no peaks with such character and such sharply contrasted individuality as these lords of the Oberland. here, more than elsewhere, it is impossible not to contribute some shadowy personality to the mountains. the Wetterhorn is as impressive as the Matterhorn, but whereas the cliffs of the Matterhorn are only 5000 feet in height from the crest to the glacier, the Wetterhorn  sweeps down in one unbroken curtain of rock for 7000 feet to the pastures of the Scheidegg. can you suggest any parallel to the Jungfrau from Interlaken  or to the Wetterhorn and the Eiger from Grindelwald? I cannot. these mountains, once seen, are never forgotten. they have no peers. God made them and broke the mould.
and in the Oberland mountain nomenclature is not unworthy of mountain form.

107  a rose would not smell as sweet if dubbed a turnip. there is more in names than Shakespeare seemed prepared to admit. call a peak Mount Mackenzie and half its romance has faded.  the epic of Everest would lose some of its appeal if the surveyor whose name this mountain bears had been called Smith.
the men who first felt the need to name the oberland peaks were happy in their choice. think of Zermatt, with 126  its 'meadow peak' - most absurd of names for the Matterhorn - with its 'Red peak' and 'White Peak', its 'Rosy Peak' and 'White Tooth'; think of Chamonix, with its 'White Mountain' and 'Green Needle', or of any other Alpine district with its inevitable collection of red, black and white horns, and you must admit that except  in the Oberland the primitive races showed a pitiful barrenness of invention. but in the oberland at least the poetry of primitive wonder is crystallized and finds expression in the peaks of 'Storm' and of 'Dread',  the 'Ogre', the 'Monk', and the 'Maiden'.

126  the Shreckhorn is just visible from the village it is seen on the journey to Grindelwald at a point where the valley opens out just byond Burglauenen. "Xchreckhorn' may be a corruption of 'Schraghorn' - Schrag meaning 'peak' - but, whatever was its original meaning, the name has been for centuries and always will be in the popular imagination, the 'Peak of Dread'.  it is one of the most difficult climbs in the Oberland, the two small crests of snow near the summit are supposed to be the imprisoned souls of two nuns from the old convent at Interlaken who broke their vows.

the Schreckhorn was first climbed by Sir Leslie Stephen in 1861, who describes the ascent in The Playground of Europe, perhaps the best book ever written about mountaineering. thosee who have read Frederic William Maitland's delightful Life and Letters of Leslie Stephen will remember that Mr. Hardy was impressed by a certain fanciful resemblance between the peak and its conqueror. 'in 1897, he writes,
I was in the Bernese Oberland, when the opening scenery revealed the formidable peak of the Great Schreckhorn...then and there I suddenly had a vivid sense of him (Leslie Stephen), as if his personality had informed the mountain - gaunt and difficult, like himself...

Chapter 14 - The Grey Leagues

129  the Grisons, or Graubunden, is the largest canton in Switzerland. it owes its name to the alliance of the three leagues. these three Leagues derived their title from the ligia Grigia (that is , the Grey League) of the Border-Rheinthal, the first to assert its democratic independence of authority. the historical career of the three Leagues really opened in 1471 and the state thus formed was called Graubunden or, in Romance, I signori Grigioni, whence the modern name 'the Grisons'...

133  the League lost 300 men, the Imperialists no less than 5000 and much booty. the Rhaetians sacked and burnt every village within reach and the Austrians answered by dragging the 36 hostages captured on a previous expedition into the market place at meran and hurrying them to death with their lances.
meanwhile, Maximilian arrived and on May 28 rode over the field of Calven, where a 1000 of his men lay unburied. he burst into tears and swore to be avenged on the insolent peasants. the Imperial army which he led on June 6 into the Engadine over the Casanna Pass fared no better. the Rhaetians had withdrawn into the mountains and had burnt every hut and house which would give refuge to the invaders. the Imperialists marched through Ponte and Pontresina, a desert and a waste and were forced back into their own country over the Ruorn Pass, a dispirited and broken army, harassed at every step by guerilla warfare. on september 22, 1500, Maximilian was

134  forced to conclude peace and to recognize the independence of the Free State of the Three leagues. the Rhaetians had emerged from their fiery trial.
battered with the strokes of doom to shape and use,
reduced in numbers, impoverished in possessions, but free men in a free country.

...the Valtelline had been transferred in 1404 to the bishopric of Coire by Mastino, Visconti di Milano. meanwhile the Leagues regarded themselves as the political heirs of the bishop and they forced the bishop to transfer this provice to them in return for an annual payment. the Valtelline was destined to prove the damnosa hereditas of Rhaetia. the Valtelline is one great highway between Italy and Germany and, as such,  was of vital importance to 2 great powers. the mountaineers of the Grisons found themselves in consequence courted by kings and princes. the great families were drawn into an unseemly competition for money, pensions and titles.

135  then came the Reformation. owing to its decentralization, the leagueland was able to survive this crisis with less strain than elsewhere. a diet in 1526 showed a tolerance which was at least 400 years ahead of its age and declared that a man's religion was an affair between himself and god and that each commune should be left free to choose its own faith.

had it not been for their foreign policy, the League might have survived the Reformation without shipwreck, but so long as they retained their hold on the Valtelline they could not expect to be allowed to work out their own religious salvation without outside interference.

at that time Europe was divided into two hostile camps. to Austria the Reformation was anathema. Cardinal Richelieu in france exterminated the Huguenots at home and opposed the champions of religious liberty abroad. the Leaguers inclined first to one Power and then to the next, their policy  being entirely dictated by their desire to retain control of the Valtelline.

the Refomation provoked Austria to renew her old attempts to subjugate the Grisons. she appointed as governor a certain Baldiron, a humiliating settlement at Milan giving Austria control. Baldiron began by banishing all the Protestant pastors from the Pratigau and installed in their place the Capuchins, perhaps the most fanatical of all the Orders of Rome. the Leaguers rose in rebellion under Rudolf de Salis and Jurg Jenatsch. the rebellion was annexed to Austria and the Bishop of Coire was reinstated in his ancient rights, the church being made over to Capuchin.

136  Jurg Jenatsch, who had taken a leading part in this ill-starred rebellion, began his career as Protestant pastor of the little village of scharans. he first came into prominence as the avenger of those protestants who had been massacred in the Valtelline, the so-called Grisons St. Bartholomew. with a few staunch Protestant friends he attacked the castle of Ponteius Planta, the instigator of the massacre, and killed him and his supporters.
help came from an unexpected quarter. Cardinal Richelieu, who hated Austria more than he love the Catholic Church, dispatched the Duc de Rohan to the Grisons in order to assist the Engadiners to eject the Austrians and Spaniards with their Capuchins from the leagueland and from the Valtelline.  the Cardinal desired to reduce the League to the condition of a state absolutely dependent on France. Jurg Jenatsch determined to prove that Protestants could play the game of duplicity as skilfully as a cardinal. he reversed his whole policy, abjured his Protestant faith, submitted to the Church of Rome and carried the leaguers with him into the austrian camp. this strange alliance once against drove the French out of the Leagueland and the Valtelline.
on May 25, 1637, the Leaguelanders concluded a treaty with Austria, whereby the League retained the Valtelline and the guarantee of freedom of religion within the Leagueland.

139  Davos (5,134 feet) is, of course, famous for its consumptive sanatoria, and, like its near neighbour Klosters, is no less well known to the world of sport as a magnificent centre for ski-ing expeditions.
it was a german doctor, Spengler by name, who in 1865 first discovered and proclaimed the value of an Alpine winter for sufferers from consumption. but english patients really made Davos famous. Robert Louis Stevenson spent 2 winters at Davos, 1880-1 and 1881-2.  he was a troublesome patient, who declined to follow the regime of resting and smoked, tobogganed and skated in spite of his doctors. ...the english name most closely associated with the modern development of Davos is, of course, that of John Addington Symonds. S was a wholehearted lover of Switzerland. (SW)

140  there is no passage in literature which expresses more poignantly the joy of coming back to SW than the passage from his work which i have quoted on page 13 (Sketches and Studies of Italy and Greece, First Series) Davos was.. his home from 1877 until his death in 1893. Symonds and his family were much beloved at Davos and they all took a wholehearted interest in the welfare of the little community. S learnt to love and to understand the Graubundners and they in turn reciprocated his affection.
Margaret Symonds, his daugher, has written 2 books which may be commended for their sympathetic and brilliant descriptions of Graubunden life. the books are A Child of the Alps and Out of the past.  another daughter of ..S, well known for her work in the war and perhaps equally well known as one of the very best lady ski-runners, is Dame Katharine Furse. in her youth she was an excellent tobogganer...
in the old days Davos was the headquarters of a free and powerful Government. the language of Davos must have been a form of Latin before it was superseded by German. local names like scaletta, from the Roman scala, 'a ladder',  and Pedra, from petra 'a rock', prove the Latin origin of the Davos language. in the 13th century, however, the Freiherr von vatz, whose family extended their suzerainty to Davos, resolved to establish a colony of Germans at Davos. he sent 12 families, of whom 4  where noble and among the noble families were the Buols, Sprechers, and Guers, names which are still well known in the district...
141  ...it was the conquest of the Valtelline which gave the men of Graubunden a position of political and strategic importance.  ambassadors went forth from Davos to the crowned heads of Europe and the ruling families of the district sent their pro-consuls and praetors, podestas and proveditori, as they were styled, to administer the wealthy italian provinces over which the Grisons ruled. Davos was one of the 3  centers of a sovereign federated state which dealt on equal terms with princes. those noble familes of Davos, the Buols, Gulers and Sprechers, were knighted and ennobled by kings. their portraits were painted in armour or in the dress of ambassadors. they were men of great culture, writing an elegant and easy Latin. the Courts of Spain, France and Austria intrigued for their support, owing to their command over the strategically important Valtelline. ...Davos ..bears no witness of these ancient glories. many of the patrician homes may have been destroyed in the Austrian

142  invasion of 1622, but it is none the less surprising that the customary signs of vanished splendour which we find in all countries once ruled by great nobility, ruined castles and stately halls,are practically non-existent in Davos.

Chapter 15 - The Engadine

157  Ponte village has lost much of its importance since the tunnel was built below the Albula. in the old days travellers across the Albula usually started from Ponte. the church of Ponte became Protestant in 1561. here, as elsewhere in the Engadine, the villagers were most anxious to avoid dissension. they allowed the old priest to continue his ministrations undisturbed, but when he died they decided to leave the decision to the priest of Bergun. he was invited over to officiate and the congregation waited eagerly to discover whether he would say Mas or preach a sermon. he preached a sermon, which was considered to be the characteristic Protestant service, and the commune became Protestant. with the spirit of concession and tolerance which distinguished the Engadiners from the rest of the world, the Protestants decided not to expel the sacred images from the Church.  time passed and all would have been well had the images not possessed a money value. a speculative corn-chandler provoked a crisis by offering a 100 guldens' worth of rye for the images. the conservatives rebelled. they were prepared to tolerate Protestant sermons, but they were not prepared to sell  their heritage for a mess of rye. finally it was decided that the images should be burnt, an admirable compromise, for though the Catholics were not allowed to

158  keep their images they had at least the consolation of knowing that the Protestants did not get their rye. mr. Musson writes:
it is but just to remember that the Engadiners' readiness for religious compromise was the result of their strong sense of corporate life. a schism in the body politic appeared so great an evil, that any reciprocal concessions that could avert it should be made. and no doubt they were wise in their generation; in those rude times...a highly decentralised state, such as that of the leagues, made up of communes divided against themselves, would certainly not have weathered the stormy days that were ahead.

Chapter 17 - The Great Road Passes of Switzerland

192 the Simplon Pass (6582) is first mentioned in 1235. the hospice on the pass originally belonged to the Knights Hospitallers of ST. John of Jerusalem, but was sold in 1655 to the famous Stockalper family, of Brigue, whose chateau at Brigue is well worth a visit.

the pass had no great importance, being overshadowed y other and easier passes, until Napoleon realized its strategic importance. his decision to build a road across the Simplon was taken after the battle of Marengo. the difficulties of the st. Bernard route and the almost fatal check at Fort Bard on the other side of the St. Bernard, were fresh in Napoleons's mind. the carriage-road was built between the years 1801-5. N also built a barrack on the top of this pass which forms the present hospice and which was bought by the Austin canons of the St. Bernard in 1825.

the Valais was detached by N from the Helvetic Republic in 1802 and transformed into a separate state known as the Rhodanic Republic and was finally annexed to the French Empire in 1810 as the 'Departement du Simplon'. this ephemeral arrangement, of course, disappeared with N.

john Evelyn, the diarist, has left an interesting account of his passage across the Simplon in 1646.  the dog belonging to a member of his party had accidentally killed a goat, then as now a terribly serious crime, as E found, and as I have since found to my cost. E, with the travelling Briton's  traditional contempt for mere natives, was pained and surprised when the natives ventured to complain.

193  'impatient of staying in the cold, we set spurs and endeavour'd  to ride away, when en a multitude of people being by this time  gotten together about  us (for it being Sunday morning and attending for the priest to say masse) they stopp'd our mules, beate us off our saddles, and disarming us of our carbines, drew us into one of the toomes of our lodging and set a guard upon us. thus we continu'd prisoners until masse was ended, and then came halfe a score grim Swisse, who taking on the to be magistrates sate downe on the table, and condem'd us to pay a pistole for the goate and 10 more for attempting to ride away, threat'ning that if we did not pay it speedily, they would send us to prison and keep us to a day of public justice, where, as they perhaps would have exaggerated the crime, for they pretended we had prim'd our carbines and would have shot some of them (as indeed the Captaine was about to do), we might have had our heads cut off, as we were told afterwards, for that amongst these rude people a very small misdemeanor dos often meet that sentence...therefore we patiently layd down the mony and with fierce countenances had our mules and armes deliver'd to us and glad we were to escape as we did'...

Chapter 21 - The Rhone Valley

253...the ladies of Champery were dress reformers while our grandmothers still wore crinolines (def - petticoat of hair cloth or other stiff material, worn under a full skirt to keep it belled out) for generations they have looked after their cows and gone about their business in sensible trousers.
(see p111... the Lotschenthal is Catholic and has no use for the modern world. recently the priest of one of the Lotschenthal villages issued a solemn order for the prompt arrest of any strangers of the female sex who offended the modest Lotschenthalers by appearing in skirts which did not stretch right down to their ankles)
256  Sierre, the next town in the valley, is on the linguistic border between French-speaking and German-speaking  SW. a funicular (def - of or pertaining to a rope or cord or its tension) runs from Sierre to Montana (4920 feet), once a winter-spots centre, but now chiefly famous as a consumptive resort. M can be reached by car, but the road is steep and narrow. M is, however, well worth a visit for 2 good reasons. the views from the Montana plateau, which, incidentally, has an excellent golf course, are among the lovliest in SW, extending, as they do, form the simplon range to Mont Blanc and including the Weisshorn and other great Zermatt peaks. the

257  Bisse du Layston is another good reason for visiting Montana

the bisse is an artificial watercourse. the southern slopes of the Wildstrubel-Wildhorn range on which M lies receive a smaller rainfall than almost any district in SW. the rain that does faoll tends to flow away in little rivulets, useless for irrigation and, consequently, from time immemorial the Valaisians have tried to convey the glacier steams in channels and troughs down to their fields and vineyards. these troughs are often carried along the face of the precipices, supported on wooden pegs driven horizontally into the rock. resting on the pegs beside the troughs are a series of planks, along which there is a right of way.
anybody with a steady head can follow the Biss du Layston, which extends for three or four miles, of which probably an aggregate of at least a mile lies along the face of tremendous cliffs. the scenery is magnificent and 2000 feet below the river winds its way down to the Rawyl gorge. on each side rise steep slopes mantled in pine and larch.
these bisses, or, as they are sometimes called, Wasserleiter, are often of considerable antiquity. the following description is borrowed from sir martin Conway's book The Alps from End to End:

in the Valtournanche are ruins of two, of the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries respectively. others are mentioned in the earliest archives. for instance, the will, dated 11th December 1366, of Bishop Guichard Tavelli refers to them and earlier examples might be quoted.
in many cases  the water had to be brought from a
258  source in one commune and through the lands of other communes before it reached the commune that needed it. the building, maintenance and distribution of such canals involved the negotiation of regular treaties between the communes interested and formed a valuable training in local government and administration.  the canal that irrigates the lands of Torbel, above Visp, is of this character..
one of the most famous bisses in the Alps conveys water from the Brozet and Zanfleuron glaciers down to the Sviese commune in the vine-region of Sion. this Bisse de la Saviese can be proved to have existed as early as the 13th century. it is remarkably engineered, for it had to be carried long distances across the face of precipices. without it Saviese would be a wilderness...

the use of the water is divided into 1830 shares, the property of shareholders, who must be burghers of the commune of Saviese. each share entitles the owner to have water turned on to a certain area of land for three hours daily, but he may underlet his 3 hours in subdivisions of not less than three-quarters of an hour. the council of the commune appoint 2 registrars, who control the distribution of the water and keep the books, wherein the rotation of hours is recorded. these books go back to the beginning of the 16th century.
Sierre is also the starting-point for the Val d'Anniviers, inhabited by the Anniviards, who are said to be the descendants of the Huns. after the death and defeat of Attila a remnant of his broken and scattered hordes are said to have taken refuge with their flocks in the Val d'Anniviers. be this as it may, it is significant that many of the names (Ruaz, a well-known Anniviers name, was the name of Attila's brother), and that the
259  crosses in the cemeteries are similar to those in use in Hungarian cemeteries and that the physical features of the Anniviards recall the Hungarian type, with their black hair and eyes, high cheekbones and hooked noses. they have also much the same nomad habits, for whole villages migrate from time to time to the plain or to the mountains.

the reader will perhaps forgive me if I save myself trouble by quoting a description of these people form my book the Mountains of Youth.
'Zinal is one of those queer backwaters which have remained untouched by the tourist industry and Knubel, a citizen of the great town of Zermatt, felt a genial contempt for these simple rustics. he pointed out a quaint little village high above Vissoye, called Pain Sec because its natives only bake their bread twice a year and spend the rest of the year trying to eat it the richer peasants will often  own a house in Zinal, a vineyard at Sierre and a winter residence in Vissoye. they live a hard, narrow life with few pleasures and with no interest save those bound up with the soil. the young people occasionally dance, but once they marry there is an end to pleasure. they work with grim earnestness. in the early summer you will see men trooping down to work in their vineyards at Sierre. most of them have never travelled in a train and, though many of them are rich, they will cheerfully walk from Sierre to Dion to save an odd franc or so in railway fares. they are rich not in money, but in property, for all profits are promptly converted into cows or land. they never spend money on food, for they eat the bread which they bake themselves and the bread is always old and very hard. their cheeses often date back thirty or forty years and they have a special affection for the cheesage of 1885 - a good
260  year for cheese; it has a strong, acid taste like vinegar. they will not touch meat unless it has been cured for several months and thy never taste sugar.

until recently they evaded military service with great success. in the old days the valley might contribute 2 or 3 men who happened o be passing through the village when the gendarme arrived in search of unwilling conscripts, but most of the peasants had never been in uniform and had never seen any other valley excepting Zinal. when the War broke out and the military authorities began to force them into service they were greatly distressed. they were convinced that fierce battles must be raging at Marigny, this being the limits of their known world.  'if there is no war in SW why do you fetch our young men?' they wept bitterly at first, but as the price of cheese rose steadily they began to feel that there was something to be said for the War and when peace broke out they were much depressed.

Chapter 22 - Zermatt and the Matterhorn

265...from Stalden the road climbs steeply to St. Niklaus (3678 feet) St. Niklaus lies some little distnce below the hamlet of Niedergrachen, where the great reformer Thomas Platter was born. the chalet, 400 years old, in which he was born still stands. his grandfather lived to the ripe old age of 156, and told his grandson that he knew 6 men in the parish of Visp who were older than he was. at the age of 100 he married a woman of 30, and had a son by her.

Randa is the next place of importance in this valley. it is the starting-point for the ascent of the Weisshorn (14,803 feet), first climbed by Professor Tyndall, led by the famous guide J.-J. Bennen, and also of the Dom (14,941 feet), the highest mountain completely in SW. though the summit of Monte Rosa is in SW this mountain is partly in Italy. the Dom is a very easy mountain, in spite of its great height and the present  writer succeeded in reaching the actual summit without removing his skis and in starting a ski descent from the roof of SW itself.

I cannot close this chapter without giving an outline at least of the dramatic story of the conquest of the matterhorn.
266  the Matterhorn was almost the last of the great Alpine peaks to be conquered. it owed its long immunity less to the intrinsic difficulties of the ascent than to the atmosphere of inaccessibility with which its great cliffs were haunted.
there seemed o be a cordon drawn around it, up to which one might go, but no farther. within that invisible line gins (def. - a spirit?) and effreets  were supposed to exist - the Wandering jew and the spirits of the damned. the superstitious natives in the surrounding valleys (many of whom still firmly believe it to be not only the highest mountain in the alps, but in the world) spike  of a ruined city on its summit herein the spirits dwelt; and if you laughed, they gravely shook their heads; told you to look yourself to see the castles and the walls and warned one against a rash approach, lest the infuriated demons from their impregnable heights might hurl down vengeance for one's derision.

in 1860 Messrs. Alfred, Charles and Sandbach Parker of Liverpool, without guides, attacked the Swiss face and reached a height of 12000 feet. in the same year Prof. Tyndall reached a height of 13000 feet on the Italian ridge.
in 1861 a young man arrived at Breuil in the Valtournanche, at the italian foot of the M. this was Edward Whymper, a wood-engraver by profession who was sent to the Alps to make a wood engravings of the Dauphine. he had fallen a victim to

267  the mountain fever and after making some brilliant ascents in the French Alps he decided to attempt the M.
he got into touch with Jean-Antoine Carrel, the leading spirit among the guides at Breuil, who had already explored the italian ridge of the Matterhorn. Whymper and Carrel were destined o e the 2 leading actors in the great drama of the A. they were not unlike. both were born leaders, but neither was prepared to play second fiddle.
Carrel was something moe tha a great guide. as a young man he had helped to hunt the Austraians from his native soil. the 2 great moments of his life were those in which he heard the shouts of victory at Colle de Santiarno and the cry of triumph on the summit of the italian ridge. he remained a soldier long after he had laid down his sword. he was a great italian patriot, determined to climb the M  by the great Italian ridge, and if possible to lead an Italian party to the summit. he was an awkward man to deal with, for he had the rough, undisciplined nature of the mountain that he loved. he looked on the M as a kind of preserve and was determined that he and no other should lead on the final and successful ascent.
during the years that followed Whymper made six unsuccessful attempts on the Matterhorn. meanwile other rivals appeared on the scene. Prof. Tyndall, led by the S guide Bennen, hd arrived within 800 feet of the summit and might conceivably have reached the top if he had engaged Carrel as the leading guide  rather than as a second guide. Bennen could proceed no farther and C was appealed to for his opinion and replied, 'we are porters, ask your guide'
268  and refused to take over the leadership. he was not prepared to share the honours with a S guide.

in 1863 the italian Alpine Club was formed. the founders determined that they would have their revenge on the English, who had robbed them of Moute Viso, monarch of the Piedmontese alps and that they would steal from Whymper the blue ribbon of the alps.

in July, 1865, Giordano, one of the founders, was in Breuil. he had engaged Carrel and his plans were laid when Whymper arrived on the Scene. Whymper asked Carrel if he would join him in an attack on the s face and Carrel replied that he had been engaged to travel 'with a family of distinction' in the valley of Aosta. the 'family of distinction' was no other than Giordano, who had just written to sella as follows;
'I have tried to keep everything secret, but that fellow, whose life seems to depend on the M, is here suspiciously prying into everything. I have taken all the competent men away from him and yet he is so enamoured of the mountain that he may go with other and make a scene. he is here in this hotel and I try to avoid speaking to him.
on July 10th Whymper discovered the identity of the 'family of distinction'. he was furious. he considered that he had been 'bamboozled and humbugged'.
Carrel and 2 other guides had already started for the M as an advance party designed to find and facilitate the way. Whymper dashed across the Theodule to Zermatt with Lord Francis Douglas, a young climber who had just made his second ascent of the Gabelhorn. at Zermatt they discovered Mr. Hudson, a great mountaineer, accompanied by the famous

269  guide Michel Croz, who had arrived at Zermatt intending to climb the M. hudson was, perhaps, the greatest mountaineer of the day. he was one of the first to practise guideless climbing. he was a great strategist. few men at that time had a keener eye for a weak point in a moutain's defence. Hudson was accompanied by Hadow, a young boy of 19 who had just left Harrow.

on July 13th Whymper, Hudson, Hadow and Lord Francis Douglas, with the guides Croz and the two Taugwalders from Zermatt, camped high up on the M. they started next morning at dawn for this, the first really determined onslaught on the Swiss face, whic proved far less formidable than they had anticipated. they reached the summit without undue difficulty, walked along to the Italian end of the ridge and to their great joy saw the Italians some distance below them.

after an hour on the summit they prepared to descend. when they reached the difficult portion hadow's inexperience began to tell. Croz, the guide who was below him, was putting his feet one by one into their proper positions. 'then, writes Whymper
'I heart one startled exclamation from Croz, then saw him and mr. Hadow flying downwars; in another moment Hudson was dragged from his steps and Lord R. Douglas immediately after him. all this was the work of a moment. immediately we heard Croz's exclamation, old Peter and I planted ourselves as firmly as the rocks would permit; the rope was taut between us and the jerk came on us both as on one man. we held; but the rope broke midway between Taugwalder and lord Francis Douglas. for a few seconds we saw
270  our unfortunate companions sliding downwards on their backs and spreading out their hands, endeavouring to save themselves. they passed from our sight uninjured, disappeared one by one and then fell from precipice to precipice on to the Matterhorngletscher below, a distance of nearly 4000 feet in height. form the moment the rope broke it was impossible to help them.

the accident created a world-wide impression and for weeks the columns of the Times were filled with correspondence on this subject. wild rumours were circulated to the effect that Taugwalder had cut the rope and Whymper, of course, came in for his full share of the criticism.

Gustav Dore painted a picture, famous at the time, of the M catastrophe, a picture now chiefly of interest because it served to inspire Hodler's famous painting absturz. Hodler was shown Dore's picture. he looked at it for a few moments and remarked; 'there is something wrong here. he does not get the effect of falling or of terror.
he then seized a pencil and proceeded to emphasize the vertical lines in order to give the impression of depth and the result was a masterpiece which makes a peculiarly vivid appeal to those who have themselves experienced the sickening horror of a big fall among the mountains.

two days after the catastrophe Carrel succeeded in forcing the Italian ridge and in making the first ascent from Italy. his position as the greatest of all the M guides was unchallenged until his death, which occurred appropriately enough on the M in his sixty second year. his party was stormbound in the Italian hut more than 13000 feet above the sea. Carrel, who was far from well, led them down

271  to safety, piloting them with determination and courage through all the horrors of a mountain storm. when at last they reached the easy slopes down which a man can run Carrel lay down and died. a cross still marks the place where the first and perhaps the most gallant, if not the most fortunate, of all that gallant company of Matterhorn men fought his last and greatest fight.