Part 4
One is glad indeed that the famous Castle of Chillon, with which we must now conclude our perambulation of the north shore of the lake, and the little walled town of Villeneuve, which now, however, notwithstanding its name, seems ancient and venerable indeed in comparison with this gay modernity that pulsates at its doors, should lie just beyond the limit of this land of ruined Edens, and should thus restore us to the right mood in which to take farewell of the Lake of Geneva. Chillon is far from the finest castle, considered merely as a building, in Switzerland (an honour due to Vufflens), nor, in fact, is it even the most beautifully situated (an honour surely due to the crag-perched residence of the old Bishop-Princes of the Valais on the towering rock of Sion). Its chief curiosity of site is the immense depth of water that lies immediately below its walls, which is sometimes said (I cannot vouch for so astonishing a statement) to have been "fathomed to the depth of 800 feet, French measure"--
"Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls: A thousand feet in depth below Its massy waters meet and flow; Thus much the fathom-line was sent From Chillon's snow-white battlement;"
but it is due neither to its value as a specimen of military architecture, nor to its charm of situation, nor to this marvel of subterraneous precipice, that Chillon maintains the extended reputation that renders it perhaps the most visited and best known of all the many famous castles of the world. Its cult is rather due to its association with Byron's "Prisoner of Chillon," which was written, as we have seen, in the old Ancre Inn at Ouchy in the short course of a couple of days in 1816. Byron himself has entitled this a "fable," and it has certainly little or nothing to do with the historical Bonnivard, who was certainly imprisoned here for six years, between 1530 and 1536, but was released in the latter year, and subsequently became a Protestant, and married four wives in succession! Byron, however, in the last six lines of another poem--the "Sonnet on Chillon"--has paid a stately tribute to the actual Bonnivard, which will be recalled with interest in the striking, half-subterranean dungeon in which he was confined for more than four years of his captivity:
"Chillon! thy prison is a holy place, And thy sad floor an altar--for 'twas trod, Until his very steps have left a trace Worn, as if the cold pavement were a sod, By Bonnivard! May none those marks efface! For they appeal from tyranny to God."
I do not know whether these footmarks are still visible, or, indeed, were ever visible; but if we choose to imagine them--Bonnivard was chained to the fifth pillar from the entrance--we shall not do much amiss. At least it would be better thus to err on the side of imagination than to imitate the English lady of whom Byron complained when he visited Chillon, not for the first time, on September 18, 1816, that he met her on his return fast asleep in her carriage--"fast asleep in the most anti-narcotic spot in the world."
INDEX
Abondance, 37 Chapel of, 37
Aiguille du Gouter, 29 du Midi, 23, 30 du Tour, 29
Anterne, Col d', 30 Lac d', 29
Argentière, 30
Aubonne, 48
Avenches, 53
Avre, River, 13, 24, 27
Bellegarde, 13
Beza, Theodore, 21
Bon Nant, River, 26
Bonneville, 24
Bonnivard, 62
Brévent, the, 30
Brogny, Cardinal Jean de, 10
Buet, the, 28
Byron, Lord, 48, 54, 60, 62, 63
Calvin, Jean, 7, 21 grave of, 5 house of, 9
Chablais, Alps of, 33, 34, 46, 48
Chamonix, 15, 25, 30 Vale of, 23, 30
Champel, 5
Chedde, 26, 27
Chillon, Castle of, 61
Choiseul, Duc de, 42
Clarens, 60
Cluses, 13, 27
Coppet, 42
Cornette de Bise, 46
Dent de Morcles, 32, 58 d'Oche, 32, 46 du Midi, 32, 37, 47, 58
Diosaz, River, 30
Dranse, River, 32, 36, 50
Duquesne, Admiral, grave of, 49
Ecluse, 13
Eliot, George, 17
Enfer, Roc d', 46
Evian, 35, 36
Felix V., Pope, 56
Ferney Voltaire, 39
Flegère, the, 25, 30
Geneva, canton of, 16 City, 5-23 arsenal, 16 Auditoire, Church of, 7 Cathedral, 9 glass, ancient, 11, 22 Maccabées, chapel of, 10 stalls, 10, 11 tower of, view from, 12 Escalade, relics of, 21 fountains, 17 Hôtel-de-Ville, 16 Ile-de-Rousseau, 18, 20 Madelaine, Church of the, 17 Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, 9, 21-23 Plaine du Plainpalais, cemetery of, 5 Pont-du-Mont Blanc, 18 pre-historic relics, 22 Saint Gervais, quarter of, 8 Lake of, 31 colour of, 19 Petit Lac, 44 model of old, 9
Giffre, valley of, 27
Grange, Pointe de, 32, 47
Jura, the, 12, 20, 31, 32, 33, 34, 39
Knox, John, 7
"La Nouvelle Héloïse," 60
Lausanne, 36, 53 Cathedral, 55
Marius, Bishop, 53
Montanvert, the, 25, 30
Mont Blanc, 14, 23, 29, 32, 46
Mont Jorat, 53
Montreux, 59
Morat, 45
Morges, 50
Morgins, 37
Moudon, 53
Necker, 43
Nyon, 44
Ouchy, 54, 62
Peilz, la Tour de, 57
"Prisoner of Chillon," 54, 62
Rhone, River, 18 valley of, 57
Ripaille, 56
Rohan, Duke Henri de, tomb of, 11
Rolle, 47
Rousseau, J. J., 60 birth-place of, 8 house of, 8
Sails, lateen, 12
Saint Gervais, 26 baths of, 24, 26
Saint Jean d'Aulph, 37
Salève, Grand, 13, 33 Petit, 13
Sallanches, 26
Samoëns, 28
Savoy, Alps of, 32, 33, 38, 47, 50
Servetus, Michael, 5
Sion, 62
Sixt, 27, 28
Staël, Madame de, 43
Switzerland, central plain of, 12, 33, 34, 47, 52
Tanneverge, Pointe de, 28
Tavernier, 48
Territet, 59
Tête-à-l'Ane, 24, 29
Thonon, 35, 36
"Usines électriques," 26, 27
Vaud, canton, 42
Versoix, 42
Vevey, 32, 57
Villeneuve, 61
Voirons, the, 14
Voltaire, 40
Vufflens, Castle of, 50
BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND
Transcribers' Notes:
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
This book does not have a Table of Contents.
Index not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references.
Text uses both "Genevese" and "Genevois".
Page 28: "Ano" and "Dni" originally were printed with overscores above the lower-case letters.
Page 42: "a Grand' Place" was printed with the apostrophe.