In A Word It Appears To Me The Grandest Work
Imagined Or Made By Man, And When Combined With Its Extreme Utility, Far
Surpasses What Is Related Of The Seven Wonders Of The World.
There are
fifty-two bridges throughout the whole of this route, which begins at the
distance of three miles
From Geneva, skirts the southern shore of the lake,
runs thro' the whole Valais, traverses the Simplon and issuing from the
gorges of the mountains at Domo d'Ossola terminates at Rho in the Milanese.
From Brieg to the toll-house, the highest part of the road, the distance is
about 18 miles. It made me dreadfully giddy to look down the various
precipices; and what adds to the vertigo one feels is the deafening noise
of the various waterfalls. As the road is cut zigzag, in many parts, you
appear to preserve nearly the same distance from Brieg after three hours'
march, as after half an hour only, since you have that village continually
under your eyes, nor do you lose sight of it till near the toll-house.
Brieg appears when viewed from various points of the road like the
card-houses of children, the Valais like a slip of green baize, and the
Rhone like a very narrow light blue ribband; and when at Brieg before you
ascend you look up at the toll-house, you would suppose it impossible for
any human being to arrive at such a height without the help of a balloon.
It reminded me of the castle of the enchanter in the Orlando Furioso, who
keeps Ruggiero confined and who rides on the Hippogriff.
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