On The Left Of The Road, As You Enter It,
By The Gate Of Avignon, There Is A Handsome Obelisk, Or Rather
Pyramid, About Thirty Feet High, Raised Upon A Vault Supported By
Four Pillars Of The Tuscan Order.
It is certainly a Roman work,
and Montfaucon supposes it to be a tomb, as he perceived an
oblong stone jetting out from the middle of the vault, in which
the ashes of the defunct were probably contained.
The story of
Pontius Pilate, who is said to have ended his days in this place,
is a fable. On the seventh day of our journey from Aix, we
arrived at Lyons, where I shall take my leave of you for the
present, being with great truth - Yours, etc.
LETTER XLI
BOULOGNE, June 13, 1765.
DEAR SIR, - I am at last in a situation to indulge my view with a
sight of Britain, after an absence of two years; and indeed you
cannot imagine what pleasure I feel while I survey the white
cliffs of Dover, at this distance. Not that I am at all affected
by the nescia qua dulcedine natalis soli, of Horace. That seems
to be a kind of fanaticism founded on the prejudices of
education, which induces a Laplander to place the terrestrial
paradise among the snows of Norway, and a Swiss to prefer the
barren mountains of Solleure to the fruitful plains of Lombardy.
I am attached to my country, because it is the land of liberty,
cleanliness, and convenience:
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