It certainly grew more grand and beautiful, however,
till at length I felt that I had never seen anything worthy to be put
beside it. The southern shore has the grandest scenery; the great hills
on that side appearing close to the water's edge, and after descending,
with headlong slope, directly from their rocky and snow-streaked summits
down into the blue water. Our course lay nearer to the northern shore,
and all our stopping-places were on that side. The first was Coppet,
where Madame de Stael or her father, or both, were either born or resided
or died, I know not which, and care very little. It is a picturesque
village, with an old church, and old, high-roofed, red-tiled houses, the
whole looking as if nothing in it had been changed for many, many years.
All these villages, at several of which we stopped momentarily, look
delightfully unmodified by recent fashions. There is the church, with
its tower crowned by a pyramidal roof, like an extinguisher; then the
chateau of the former lord, half castle and half dwelling-house, with a
round tower at each corner, pyramid topped; then, perhaps, the ancient
town-house or Hotel de Ville, in an open paved square; and perhaps the
largest mansion in the whole village will have been turned into a modern
inn, but retaining all its venerable characteristics of high, steep
sloping roof, and antiquated windows.
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