In this way all the walls are built; and by these means they preserve two even faces, and make the walls perpendicular. The inhabitants assert that these houses are very durable, as the clay at last becomes thoroughly hardened by the weather and the heat of the sun; which seems reasonable when we consider Lyons to be seven degrees nearer to the tropics than London. After they are erected and the roof put on (which always projects over the walls to prevent any wet getting to them), they are either stuccoed or coloured over, which gives them a neat appearance. From Lyons I sailed down the Rhone to Avignon, in the barge which goes backwards and forwards for the purpose of carrying passengers, goods, and merchandise of different sorts: but on its return it is drawn against the stream (which always runs one way) by horses. On each side of the Rhone the mountains rise lofty and grand, and present a diversity of wild scenery for the pencil of the landscape painter. At Vienne, a place you pass on the left, there is an ancient church, now little better than a ruin. Opposite the town are the remains of a Roman bridge that appears to have had four arches: one pier stood nearly twenty feet out of the water when I passed it. It is cased with stone on the outside, and filled in with rubble work. A small distance from Valence a rock appears nearly in the middle of the Rhone, on which Henry IV. of France stopped to dine when sailing down this river on a military expedition, It is very properly considered dangerous to the navigation. On the left, not far from Valence, are the mountains known by the name of the Hermitage mountains, famous for the wine they produce. In performing this voyage the vessel got aground several times on sand-banks, which was rather alarming owing to the strong rapidity of the current, that drove her round and round as on a pivot. Some of the passengers jumped into the small boat from fear, and imprudently casting themselves off, they were carried swiftly down the stream, and driven with so much violence against the banks of the river that the boat upset, and they narrowly escaped with their lives. The Rhone, like other winding and rapid rivers, is continually changing its channel, and making depredations on the concave banks. On the tops of the mountains is a multitude of vineyards and huts, belonging to the husbandmen and peasants. In stormy weather the navigation of the Rhone is impracticable; and on this account we were compelled to put in for nearly two days before we reached St. Esprit, where the famous bridge of that name stands. It is supposed to have been built by the Romans, and consists of nineteen arches of different sizes, beside dry ones---that is to say, they are only so when the waters are rather low. The whole length of the bridge is computed at 3000 feet, and built on a curve towards the torrent, with triangular buttresses against the piers. I measured one of the sidearches (which is the segment of a circle), and found it ninety feet span. In the spandrils of the arches are circular flood-arches, which are very serviceable during an inundation : and though this bridge is only fifteen feet wide between the battlements, it has proudly defied the violence of this imperious river for centuries, while other bridges apparently much stronger have from time to time been totally destroyed. At different places on the summits of the mountains are still to be seen the remains of old castles, generally thought to be the works of the Romans. Arriving at Avignon, the place of the boat's destination, I took a general view of the city from the hill on which the pope's palace formerly stood, and where his legate used to reside when this place formed a part of his dominions; but since the Revolution, Avignon has been added to France, and the palace and arsenal are almost wholly demolished.. The city is of considerable extent, surrounded by a wall of free-stone. In the church of the Cordeliers (a religious order that wears a girdle of rope) was the tomb of the celebrated Petrarch and Laura, but there is scarcely a stone of it now remaining. The church is of Gothic architecture, with lateral chapels, and in its proportions very pleasing. In one of the chapels appears the tomb of Louis Berton de Crillon, surnamed the Brave, the great favourite of Henry IV. of France, with the following inscription to his memory, recording the splendid titles and situations he enjoyed in his lifetime.-- LOVIS BERTON DE CRILLON, SVRNOMME LE BRAVE, CONSEILLEVR D'ESTAT, CHEVALIER DES ORDRES DV ROY, DV REGIMENT DES GARDES, GOVERNEVR DE BOLOGNE ET DES BOVLENOIS, PASSANT IL MOVRVT LE 11 DECEMBRE MDCXV. Close to the west end of this church runs a branch from the famous fountain of Vaucluse, five miles distant, and which is the place where Petrarch devoted himself to reading, to poetry, and Laura. Churches and convents abounded at Avignon before the Revolution: they are now nearly all reduced to ruins. Part of the bridge has been thrown down by the Rhone: originally it had five arches of eighty feet span each, or thereabouts. In a chapel of the church of the Celestines (a religious order so called from Pope Celestin V.) is erected a monument to the memory of some shepherds who are said to have been the builders of this bridge. Through the whole of the city are large and magnificent houses in an uninhabited state; and every thing around wears the sad aspect of poverty and desolation. The The weather being favourable, I went from Avignon to Beaucaire (which is a very short voyage) down the Rhone in a small open boat, where there appears a fine bridge of boats stretching from Beaucaire to Tarrascone across a wide part of the Rhone, and where the river is so impetuous that in all probability it would not be possible to construct any other bridge in such a manner as to be durable. The current is always running one way, namely, into the sea. boats are bound together two and two at certain distances, leaving intervals for small craft to pass, and the whole is covered with planking, on which the gravel for the road is laid. The boats being moored only against the stream, they rise and fall with the greatest ease to any level of the water, consequently at the time of great floods and inundations make little or no resistance. At each bank is a broad moveable plane of wood, connecting the bridge and the land together, and which rises higher or lower in proportion to the quantity of water in the river. A bridge of boats answers admirably on some occasions, but in tidal rivers it must be more complicated, and consequently involves greater difficulties in its con struction. At Tarrascone are the remains of an ancient castle, now converted into a prison. The town is badly built, and the streets are literally dark lanes and passages, extremely dirty and miserable. In |