They now deeply regret this refusal as
few travellers chuse to stop at Glisse.
Passage of the Simplon.
Chi mi dara la voce e le parole
Convenienti a si nobil soggetto?[52]
Who will vouchsafe me voice that shall ascend
As high as I would raise my noble theme?
- Trans. W.S. ROSE.
How shall I describe the Simplon and the impressions that magnificent piece
of work, the chaussee across it, made on my mind? On arrival at the
village of the Simplon, which lies at nearly the greatest elevation off the
road and is more than half-way across, I wrote in my enthusiasm for the
author of this gigantic work, the following lines:
O viaggiator, se avessi tu veduto
Quel monte, pria che fosse il cammin fatto,
Leveresti le mani, e stupefatto
Diresti, "chi l'avrebbe mai creduto?
Son come quel d'Alcide i tuoi miracoli!
Vincesti, Napoleon', piu grandi ostacoli!"
Imagine a fine road or causeway broad enough for three carriages to go
abreast, cut in the flanks of the mountains, winding along their contours,
sometimes zigzag on the flank of one ravine, and sometimes turning off
nearly at right angles to the flank of another; separated from each other
by precipices of tremendous depth, and communicating by one-arched bridges
of surprising boldness; besides stone bridges at each re-entering angle, to
let pass off the water which flows from the innumerable cascades, which
fall from the summits of the mountains.
