. Our home in Aveyron : with studies of peasant life and customs in Aveyron and the Lot . d, it is sad! After our pleasant and fertile valley and vine-clad hills, it is difficult to believe that this is alsopart of the fertile province of the Lot. Suddenly we stopped, and releasing our crampedlimbs, we emerged into the blinding sunshine. By Jove ! the priest is right. Look there ! Isntthat splendid ? Isnt it marvellous ? was the in-voluntary exclamation which broke from the writer. We stood upon the brink of a vast chasm in thestony plateau. The earth had been rent open as ifby an earthquake a
. Our home in Aveyron : with studies of peasant life and customs in Aveyron and the Lot . d, it is sad! After our pleasant and fertile valley and vine-clad hills, it is difficult to believe that this is alsopart of the fertile province of the Lot. Suddenly we stopped, and releasing our crampedlimbs, we emerged into the blinding sunshine. By Jove ! the priest is right. Look there ! Isntthat splendid ? Isnt it marvellous ? was the in-voluntary exclamation which broke from the writer. We stood upon the brink of a vast chasm in thestony plateau. The earth had been rent open as ifby an earthquake and had fallen apart, with two hugeprecipices, in the cleft between which was a narrowbelt of verdure bordering a tiny stream. But cling-ing to the nearer precipice, on the brink of which westood, was a village, looking at first a part of therock or debris fallen in a slope. But we soon sawthat it was indeed a village, with one long street,and one only, climbing at an angle along the sideof the cliff until it joined the road at the top onwhich we stood. The houses on the nearer side of. A BOLD ESCARPMENT. 227 this had their backs against the rock, those on thefarther side overhung the steep below. The streetis spanned by three narrow and massive stonearches at equal distances apart. These are said to bethe remains of ancient fortifications ; but the reasonfor them is not apparent, as a few rocks rolled fromthe top of the cliff would smash the village. Upon a gigantic cliff, which rises yet higher witha bold escarpment, to our right stands a chateau, nowthe abode of missionaries, with a church. It over-hangs the buildings below it, which, built againstand forming part of the cavernous rocks, presenta front of imposing walls only, the body of thebuildings, so to speak, being underground. Thesestrong and stately fronts are monastic buildings orchapels. In one of those subterranean chapels it is thuswritten upon a scroll:— 1. Zaccheus, because he was small and could notsee Jesus i
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherlondonwblackwood
