The valley from Wallenstadt to Sargans, just beyond which our route,
after crossing the very low watershed, joined the valley of the Rhine,
was strikingly beautiful. Its ecclesiological features were not,
however, remarkable, if I except the constant repetition of what I have
often noticed in the Catholic cantons of Switzerland and in Tyrol--the
occurrence, namely, of grated openings on either side of the western
door-way, commanding the interior and protected by an open porch,
through which passers-by, though not able to enter, might still see the
altar. On our journey from Basel to Zurich we passed a church the altar
of which was lighted up, and the doors behind these gratings left open
very late at night. It was in a lonely place, and when I passed there
was no one in or near the church. I never see this arrangement without
wishing to introduce it in England. There are so many of our Churches
which cannot conveniently be left always open, and where such a
provision might suggest to passers-by, as it does here, the propriety of
using a church at other times than those of public service.
The cultivation of this valley is not so uninteresting as its
ecclesiology. Here we first found the vines trained about in the
horizontal Italian fashion, whilst under them great gourds and pumpkins
developed themselves to a prodigious size.
Sargans is a very picturesque old town, and has some capital examples of
good Swiss carpentry in its houses; in addition to which there is a
picturesque and antique-looking castle, rising high above the houses on
a rock, guarding the eastern entrance to the town, and commanding the
junction of our road with that of the valley of the Rhine leading to the
Lake of Constance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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