"Saterdaye to Suse, Noualassa, and to Lyungborugh; and at the sayd Noualassa we toke moyles to stey us vp the mountayne, and toke also marones to kepe vs frome fallynge. And from the hyght of the mounte down to Lyuyngborugh I was ramasshed, whiche is a right strange thinge."--P. 80. Sir Henry has not bestowed upon us here any of those erudite annotations, which have customarily enhanced the interest of works edited under his care. Sir Richard Guylforde was on his homeward course from the Holy Places by way of Pavia, where he visited the convent and church which contained the shrine and relics of St. Augustine, as also the tomb of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III., whose monumental inscription (not to be found in Sandford's _Genealogical History_) the worthy knight copied. On the 13th Feb. 1506, Sir Richard approached the ascent of Mont Cenis by the way of S. Ambrogio and Susa. At the village of Novalese, now in ruins, the party took mules, to aid their ascent, and _marroni_, long-handled mattocks, or pick-axes, to prevent their falling on the dangerous declivities of the snow. The journey was formerly made with frightful expedition by means of a kind of sledge--an expedient termed _la ramasse_--which enabled the traveller, previously to the construction of that extraordinary road, well known to most readers, to effect in a few minutes a perilous descent of upwards of 6000 feet. The _ramasse_, as Cotgrave informs us, was-- "A kind of high sled, or wheelbarrow, whereon travellers are carried downe certaine steep and slippery hils in Piemont." Its simplest form had probably been a kind of fagot of brushwood,--_ramazza_, or a besom, not much unlike the rapid locomotive of witches, who were called in old times _ramassieres_, from their supposed practice of riding on a _ramee_, _ramasse_, or besom. At the present time even, it occasionally occurs that an adventurous traveller crossing the Mont Cenis is tempted to glide down the rapid descent, in preference to the long course of the zigzag road; and remember to have heard at Lauslebourg the tale, doubtless often related, of an eccentric _Milord_ who ascended the heights thrice from that place, a journey of some hours, for the gratification of the repeated excitement caused by a descent on the _ramasse_ in about as many minutes. The cranium of a horse, as it was stated, was the vehicle often preferred for this curious adventure: and the {348} traveller guided or steadied his course by trailing a long staff, a practice for security well known to the Alpine tourist. This may probably have been the use of the "marones" taken by Sir Richard Guyldeford and his party at Novalese.