The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, vol 2

The Life and Letters of Maria
Edgeworth, vol 2

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Edgeworth,
Vol. 2, by Maria Edgeworth #8 in our series by Maria Edgeworth
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Title: The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Vol. 2
Author: Maria Edgeworth
Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9095] [Yes, we are more than

one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on September 4,
2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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LETTERS OF MARIA EDGEWORTH ***

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THE
LIFE AND LETTERS
OF
MARIA EDGEWORTH
Edited By
AUGUSTUS J.C. HARE
VOL. II

MARIA EDGEWORTH
MARIA to MISS WALLER.
COPPET, _Sept. 1, 1820_.
I am sure that you have heard of us, and of all we have done and seen
from Edgeworthstown as far as Berne: from thence we went to Thun:
there we took _char-à-bancs_, little low carriages, like half an Irish
jaunting car, with four wheels, and a square tarpaulin awning over our
heads. Jolting along on these vehicles, which would go over a house, I
am sure, without being overturned or without being surprised, we
went--the Swiss postillion jolting along at the same round rate up and
down, without ever looking back to see whether the carriages and
passengers follow, yet now and then turning to point to mountains,
glaciers, and cascades. The valley of Lauterbrunn is beautiful; a clear,
rushing cascady stream rushes through it: fine chestnuts, walnuts, and

sycamores scattered about, the verdure on the mountains between the
woods fresh and bright. Pointed mountains covered with snow in the
midst of every sign of flowery summer strike us with a sense of the
sublime which never grows familiar. The height of the Staubach
waterfall, which we saw early in the morning, astonished my mind, I
think, more than my eyes, looking more like thin vapour than
water--more like strings of water; and I own I was disappointed, after
all I had heard of it.
We went on to the valley of Grindelwald, where we saw, as we thought
two fields off, a glacier to which we wished to go; and accordingly we
left the _char-à-bancs_, and walked down the sloping field, expecting
to reach it in a few minutes, but we found it a long walk--about two
miles. To this sort of deception about distances we are continually
subject, from the clearness of the air, and from the unusual size of the
objects, for which we have no points of comparison, and no previous
habits of estimating. We were repaid for our walk, however, when we
came to the source of the Lutzen, which springs under an arch of ice in
the glacier. The river runs clear and sparkling through the valley, while
over the arch rests a mountain of ice, and beside it a valley of ice; not
smooth or uniform, but in pyramids, and arches, and blocks of immense
size, and between them clefts and ravines. The sight and the sound of
the waters rushing, and the solemn immovability of the ice, formed a
sublime contrast.
On the grass at the very foot of this glacier were some of the most
delicious wood-strawberries I ever tasted.
At Interlaken we met Sneyd [Footnote: Her half-brother, son of the
third Mrs. Edgeworth, and his wife Henrica Broadhurst.] and Henrica
in a very pleasant situation in that most beautiful country. We parted on
the banks of the lake of Brienz. On this lake we had an hour's delightful
sailing, and put into a little bay and climbed up a mountain to see the
cascade of the Giesbach, by far the most beautiful I ever beheld, and
beyond all of which painting or poetry had ever given me any idea.
Indeed it is particularly difficult, if not absolutely impossible, to give a
representation of cascades which depend for effect upon