The journey
seldom exceeds eight leagues, about four and twenty miles a day:
and as those people have certain fixed stages, you are sometimes
obliged to rise in a morning before day; a circumstance very
grievous to persons in ill health. These inconveniences, however,
were over-balanced by other agreemens. We no, sooner quitted
Lyons, than we got into summer weather, and travelling through a
most romantic country, along the banks of the Rhone, had
opportunities (from the slowness of our pace) to contemplate its
beauties at leisure.
The rapidity of the Rhone is, in a great measure, owing to its
being confined within steep banks on each side. These are formed
almost through its whole course, by a double chain of mountains,
which rise with all abrupt ascent from both banks of the river.
The mountains are covered with vineyards, interspersed with small
summer-houses, and in many places they are crowned with churches,
chapels, and convents, which add greatly to the romantic beauty
of the prospect. The highroad, as far as Avignon, lies along the
side of the river, which runs almost in a straight line, and
affords great convenience for inland commerce. Travellers, bound
to the southern parts of France, generally embark in the
diligence at Lyons, and glide down this river with great
velocity, passing a great number of towns and villages on each
side, where they find ordinaries every day at dinner and supper.
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