Montreux . /x6KpaTiKc<i r d6e6<i re, and wherehe composed his poem Mont Blanc, as he lookedup at the mountains, leaning against the bridgeacross the Arve. But they took the tour of thelake together with Byron, and were nearly wreckedupon the rocks of IMeillerie. I ran no risk, writesByron, being so near the rocks and a goodswimmer; but our party were wet, and incom-moded a good deal. Shelley took the mattermore seriously. He writes : One of our boatmen, who was a dreadfullystupid fellow, persisted in holding the sail at atime when the boat was on the point of beingdriven under water by t
Montreux . /x6KpaTiKc<i r d6e6<i re, and wherehe composed his poem Mont Blanc, as he lookedup at the mountains, leaning against the bridgeacross the Arve. But they took the tour of thelake together with Byron, and were nearly wreckedupon the rocks of IMeillerie. I ran no risk, writesByron, being so near the rocks and a goodswimmer; but our party were wet, and incom-moded a good deal. Shelley took the mattermore seriously. He writes : One of our boatmen, who was a dreadfullystupid fellow, persisted in holding the sail at atime when the boat was on the point of beingdriven under water by the hurricane. On dis-covering his error, he let it entirely go, and theboat for a moment refused to obey the helm; inaddition the rudder was so broken as to render the ST. GINGOLPH FROM BOUVERET, AFTERA STORM. BYRON 93 management of it very difficult; one wave fell inand then another. My companion, an excellentswimmer, took off his coat; I did the same, andwe sat with our arms crossed, every moment ex-pecting to be swamped. The sail was, however,again held, the boat obeyed the helm, and, still inimminent peril from the immensity of the waves,we arrived in a few minutes at a sheltered port inthe callage of St. Gingoux. I felt in this nearprospect of death a mixture of sensations, amongwhich terror entered, though but subordinately. The main object of the excursion thus diversifiedwas to identify and weep over the bosquet deJulie, the rock of St. Preux at Meillerie, and theother scenes in La Nouvelle Heloise. It was thefashion of those days to be moved to tears by the more than human sensibility, as Shelley styles it,of Jean Jacques; nowadays even a poet is onlybored by it. One may note, however, withouttroubling to quote Childe Harold, that Byronhad his tears under better control, and gave a
Size: 1081px × 2312px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookau, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidmontreux00gribrich
