Roundabout Papers - Penn State University

Roundabout Papersstretches away to Zurich, to Basle, to Paris, to home.From the old southern barriers, before which a little riverrushes, and around which stretch the crumbling battlementsof the ancient town, the road bears the slow diligenceor lagging vetturino by the shallow Rhine, throughthe awful gorges of the Via Mala, and presently over theSplugen to the shores of Como.I have seldom seen a place more quaint, pretty, calm,and pastoral, than this remote little Chur. What needhave the inhabitants for walls and ramparts, except tobuild summer-houses, to trail vines, and hang clothesto dry on them? No enemies approach the greatmouldering gates: only at morn and even the cows comelowing past them, the village maidens chatter merrilyround the fountains, and babble like the ever-volublestream that flows under the old walls. The schoolboys,with book and satchel, in smart uniforms, march up tothe gymnasium, and return thence at their stated time.There is one coffee-house in the town, and I see one oldgentleman goes to it. There are shops with no customersseemingly, and the lazy tradesmen look out of theirlittle windows at the single stranger sauntering by. Thereis a stall with baskets of queer little black grapes andapples, and a pretty brisk trade with half a dozen urchinsstanding round. But, beyond this, there is scarceany talk or movement in the street. There’s nobody atthe book-shop. “If you will have the goodness to comeagain in an hour,” says the banker, with his mouthfulof dinner at one o’clock, “you can have the money.”There is nobody at the hotel, save the good landlady,the kind waiters, the brisk young cook who ministersto you. Nobody is in the Protestant church—(oh! strangesight, the two confessions are here at peace!)—nobodyin the Catholic church: until the sacristan, from his snugabode in the cathedral close, espies the traveller eyingthe monsters and pillars before the old shark-toothedarch of his cathedral, and comes out (with a view toremuneration possibly) and opens the gate, and showsyou the venerable church, and the queer old relics inthe sacristy, and the ancient vestments (a black velvetcope, amongst other robes, as fresh as yesterday, andpresented by that notorious “pervert,” Henry of Navarre6