"Leaving the high-road, we turned along one of those pretty paths that look as if they were only made for going to Church, and for Fetes and Festivals. Numerous were the companies who passed, or followed us on this path, through spacious, level, and mostly _verdant_ fields--mountains on all sides, with craggy summits. Behind us was the Town of Schwytz at the foot of the forest steep, overtopped by the two naked Pikes; and to our left what sublime dark clefts!" (From Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, vol. i.)--ED. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote HX: "Nearly 500 years (says Ebel, speaking of the French Invasion) had elapsed, when, for the first time, foreign Soldiers were seen upon the frontiers of this small Canton, to impose upon it the laws of their Governors."--W. W. 1822. Compare the phraseology of Wordsworth's line with a sentence in Dorothy's Journal, given below.--ED.] [Footnote HY: The Lake of the Four Cantons.--D. W. The Vierwald-stätter See.--ED.] XXI ON HEARING THE "RANZ DES VACHES" ON THE TOP OF THE PASS OF ST. GOTHARD I listen--but no faculty of mine Avails those modulations to detect, Which, heard in foreign lands, the Swiss affect With tenderest passion; leaving him to pine (So fame reports) and die,--his sweet-breath'd kine Remembering, and green Alpine pastures decked 6 With vernal flowers. Yet may we not reject The tale as fabulous.--Here while I recline, Mindful how others by this simple Strain Are moved, for me--upon this Mountain named[514] 10 Of God himself from dread pre-eminence-- Aspiring thoughts, by memory reclaimed, Yield to the Music's touching influence; And joys[515] of distant home my heart enchain. "Thursday, Aug. 24.--... On the banks of the infant Ticino, which has its source in the pools above, within a few hundred yards of that which gives birth to the Reuss, D. and I resolved to reject all political boundaries, and thenceforth consider ourselves in _Italy_. With the pure stream we descended; but first were joined by Mr. R., J. M., and Wm., with a young German, whom Mr. R. had picked up in the morning; a Heidelberg student, travelling on foot to Rome. He sang and played to us upon the flute, airs from Rossini, the Swiss Cow Song, etc. Then on we went, wending our way over the grass between the paved road and the brook wherever we could. The Brook dashing down its stony channel, now over rocks, now under shelving snow, and its banks seen clothed with underwood and pines. Passed by its first wooden bridge, leading to the cottages, not unmindful of _our own Duddon_; and presently did it grace such an assemblage of rocks, dells, and woods, forming waterfalls, pools, and all the various charms that a mountain stream can show." (Mrs. Wordsworth's Journal.)