The church
where Laura lay has quite disappeared, and her tomb along with it. The
town reminds me of Chester, though it does not in the least resemble it,
and is not nearly so picturesque. Like Chester, it is entirely
surrounded by a wall; and that of Avignon--though it has no delightful
promenade on its top, as the wall of Chester has--is the more perfectly
preserved in its mediaeval form, and the more picturesque of the two.
J----- and I have once or twice walked nearly round it, commencing from
the gate of Ouelle, which is very near our hotel. From this point it
stretches for a considerable distance along by the river, and here there
is a broad promenade, with trees, and blocks of stone for seats; on one
side "the arrowy Rhone," generally carrying a cooling breeze along with
it; on the other, the gray wall, with its battlements and machicolations,
impending over what was once the moat, but which is now full of careless
and untrained shrubbery. At intervals there are round towers swelling
out from the wall, and rising a little above it.
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