A QUAINT TOWN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 9167, 29 July 1890, Page 7

A QUAINT TOWN.

I suppose most English people have heard of Gruyferes, though I should ;imagine that, in the minds of the majority, fit is associated more with the idea of a cheese than with that of. a town, or, rather, ■Gruyferes, and of the cheese of La Gruyfere, that I wish to write. The ignorance of most English on the subject of, Gruyferes arises, I think, from the fact that, though : the English ate a nation of and explorers, yet, in Switzer* >land at all events, they prefer to follow the ;beaten track, and La Gruyfere lies out of it. And long may it continue so, for who i|hat has once visited picturesque, old!world’Gruyares would wish to see it overrun with tourists and all that they bring 'intheir and hotel bills, gas, ■post-office,. railway, and the other necessities of civilisation. It was quite by an accident that we found our,way to Gruyferes. I was travel|ling in thd summer of 1888 with an aunt ‘ana unde,- the former of whom was_very Imuoh interested in .collecting legends of the various countries she visited. In the course of our travels we came to 'Switzerland, and established ourselves for ■a time at Veytaux, on the Lake of Geneva, to my mind the ihofit beautiful end of the We stayed at the Hotel Bonnivard,and, from our windows, looked down on the Castle of Chillon, which was so near that it seemed within a stone’s throw of the hotel. f To our left was the valley of the Rhone, with the Dent dn Midi raising its ■nowy crest, sparkling in the sunshine, in .the background. In front was the lake, backed by the Savoy mountains, and to our right, the lake stretched on towards Geneva. Bat I must not linger on the beauties of Veytaux. To return to my subject. My aunt, on our arrival in Switzerland, bad at once invested in: a' book of Swiss legends, and amongst them, found • several relating to La Grnyfere, which so interested her that she promptly announced her determina-tion-to proceed there. "You may do as you like,” she-said to her husband, “but I shall go to Gruyferes ?” My uncle langhed, and our expedition was settled. So, on Sept. 4, we left Veytaux for Lausanne, where we passed the night at the" Hotel r du 'Faucon, continuing our journey next day to Bulle, where the railway -part of bur travelling came to an end. We left the railway station, and, eluding the Commissionaires of the various hotels, who surrounded us, 'we made our way to the • Cheval Blanc, where my uncle arranged fora-carriage to drive us out to Gruyferes, a distance of some six miles. While the cariage was being got ready, and our luggage was being brought from the station and placed on it, we sat Out on the balcony of the Cheval BlaUc, and refreshed ourselves with coffee, rolls, and delicious butter.

As we entered the balcony, we exclaimed, "Hew lovely!” for there, in front of ua, at the distance of a few miles, what I can only describe as an island of rock, rose out of the plain, portions of the sides and summit of which,' at the end nearest Bulle, were so massed with trees that we could only obtain glimpses of the' wails and towers of a. chateau which, perched on its highest point, seemed to dominate the surrounding plain. Beyond rose the mountains.

“ That must be Gruy&rea,” said my aunt. “ You remember we were told it was on the top of a hill.” And on making inquiry of the landlady, we found our conjecture was correct, and, pleased, with the prospect of visiting so romantic a spot, we discussed our coffee and rolls, and started bn our drive in good spirits. The drive took about an hour, and was very pleasant in the cool of the evening, more especially when we reached the foot, and began the ascent of the hill on the summit of which lies Gruy&res. The road winds round the hill, and you enter the town at the lowest end the one furthest from the chateau. We turned" s .corner of the, road, and found ourselves in the principal street of‘Gruybrea, which runs right through the ville up .to the gate of the ch&teau. We drove a few yards along this and then stopped, in front of what we afterwards discovered to be the only inn in Gtuybres, the " Fleur de Lys.” Here they informed ua the house was full: as it only contained accommodation for about six people it was easily filled. But the mistress of the •' Fleur de Lys ” explained that though the house waa full, they had another house, larger and further up the street, where they could give us bedrooms. We would, however, be obliged to come to the “ Fleur de Lys ” for our meals. Then she escorted ua to the dSpendance, where she showed us our rooms—one very large room with three windows looking on to the street, and three doors, one leading into a still larger apartment, which, in days gone by, had been the kitchen, hut was now rased more as a lumber room than anything else. The second door opened into the passage, and, opening the third door, we found it led into n tiny and very bare apartment more like a cupboard than a room. “This will do for my study,” said my uncle. " It is not much larger than a cupboard, certainly, but I think we can manage to squeeze a table and chair in. Now, H—,” addressing my aunt, “ ask her where the other bedroom is.” My uncle never cared, if he could avoid it, |to air his French. He had no gift for languages, he declared, but he spoke German perfectly; so I fear it was more want of will than want of power which prevented his speaking French. _My aunt, though, made up for all deficiencies in this respect; for she was a noted linguist. Xu response to her inquiry for the other room, the landlady looked surprised, gesticulated, and- finally impressed upon ua that this was to be my room. " That is quite impossible,” said my •nnt. “ Where is the room for a bed, dressing - table and wash - stand ? Besides, there is only the one entrance through pur room. You must find another room for the young lady.” So, very reluctantly, and evidently full of wonder At the idea of people requiring so much - room, our landlady conducted me upstairs and showed me into a room with such a view, that I could not restrain an exclamation of delight; for the window looked towards the valley of the Sarine, with the towering peaks of the Dent du Brock and of the Moleson rising on either side. The hostess seemed pleased with my admiration, and, coming to my side, pointed out the different mountains, and then, after informing me that the other guests’ in the dSpendance were a party of English ladies, she left me. When I was ready I descended to my aunt's room, and we started for the Fleur de Lya for supper, for in this primitive place they dined at noon. We walked upstairs to the salle-H-manger, and found it was a lowroofed room only about half the size of my aunt's bedroom, with two windows looking on the street, and two tables, which, 'with the accompanying chairs, seemed quite to fill the room. Sapper had begun, and the, tables were full, with the exception of three vacant 'chairs, evidently reserved for ua. Of ' course we were well looked at as we entered ■and took our seats, and in our turn,we studied'our neighbours. At our table there were two Scotch ladies—mother and ‘daughter, we .afterwards learned—a ■ French' lady, and two Swiss, brother arid sister, from Fribourg. At the other table wete the eight'English ladies of whom our ; hostess had told me. They were, as we soon found out, six English girls from a : pension school at Lausanne, kept by an I English lady. This lady and her sister were taking their charges a holiday trip, and, in the course of their travels, had , found themselves at Grnybres. So charmed | with the place were they that they bad i lingered on for a fortnight, and intended I to stay another week, at the end jo£ which time they were obliged I to return to Lausanne. Of course, it | was only by degrees that we learnt all-this about our fellow guests, but an amusing incident soon made us very friendly with two of our neighbours at table. My uncle and I eat one side of the end of the table, while my aunt was on the other side. Next bar was the Scotch lady, whom my aunt, believing to be Swiss, addressed in French. The lady responded.

and an animated conversation iu that language ensued, till my uncle, happening to address his, Wife in English, across the table, and she replying in the same— _ “ Why,” exclaimed our new friend in English, "are yon English? So am I. I quite thought you were French." “ And I thought the same of you, re- ■ turned my aunt. “I was certain you were French.” . We all laughed, and then our new friend told us many facts about Gruyferes. She informed us that our house, the Dependant, had evidently once been the home of some one more wealthy than his neighbours, as it was larger and more imposing than most of the other houses in Gruyferes. And wo might judge of the age of the others when our house, which was the most modern, had been last renovated in 1702. The next day we spent the morning making friends with the English party in the dfependance, and, as none of us were afflicted with shyness, we were soon.conversing very sociably, and the girls were showing me round the place with an air of proprietorship which their extra fortnight’s experience of Gruyferes entitled them to assume. The first place we visited was the garden at the back of the hotel, which was a square flat piece of ground, the land sloping steeply down to the valley below, through which ran the river Sarine, while on the other side of the river the mountains rose up abruptly to precipitous heights. On the outermost edge of' this piece of ground was built a pavilion, where we occasionally had our afternoon tea, for all the English party indulged in that luxury. Indeed, that custom of ours was, I think, the only one in Gruyferes which belonged to the nineteenth century. To have been quite in keeping with the place we should certainly have given up our afternoon tea, but that was a sacrifice beyond our power. The pavilion had windows on three sides, and from these you looked sheer down into the valley below. Between the three windows and the door, in the four corners of the pavilion were panels, and while we were at Grnyferes, these 1 were most exquisitely painted by the younger of the Scotch ladies, who gave a tea festival in the pavilion to celebrate the completion of her work. Her design was so original and so well carried out that it seemed a sin that it was not where numbers could have seen ■ and appreciated it. • • One view from the hotel garden was towards the chateau, which showed up well from that side, the opposite one to that seen from Bulled While looking at the chateau I remarked the massive _ walls which surrounded Gruyferes, the line of wall broken .here, and there by,occasional gateways "which'formed the entrances to the villa, and by frequent watch towers. Old 98 was the wall it was in marvellously good preservation; and I was told, what I afterwards verified, that it was almost perfect all round the town. Indeed, if I remember rightly, there was only one place where a break occurred. A portion of one side of the ville certainly had no outside wall, but it was not needed, for there the houses are built compactly in a mass with walls several feet in thickness, and loopholes from which to watch the approach of the enemy, who, besides, would have had to climb the hill to reach the walls, which were a sufficient defence by themselves. One of these houses was that of Chalama, the jester, of which I shall speak again. The afternoon of our first day at Gruyferes. was spent' in a visit to the chateau The chateau has fallen into good hands, for the present owner, _M. Balland, a Genevese, seems to regard himself as the custodian of treasures which have been committed • to his care, and has thoroughly restored the chateau, preserving its old feudal character, and the numerous relics of the Middle £.ges, which abound there. The chateau came into the possession of its present owner by purchase. In the year Toos the last Comte de la Gruyfere was forced to fly ono dark night from the chateau, on account of heavy debts. The State promptly confiscated the chateau, and it remained Government property till recently it was bought by the father-in-law of M.~ Balland, and so passed into the latter’s possession; Inside the outer gate of the chateau we found ourselves ■ on a terrace which commanded a splendid view of Bulle and the surrounding country. We admired the view and then turned to seek the concierge. We found her at the inner gate, having just finished showing three young men, who appeared to be students on a walking tour, over the chateau. She was quite ready to show us over it, informing us that the family had just returned to' Geneva. Then she led us under an arohway into a courtyard, and we found ourselves standing in the centre of the chateau, which was built in a square two stories high on this the inner side. Banning round three sides of the square were balconies on both the upper and lower stories, while the fourth side, which was an older part, had a colonnade, at one end of which a door led into the Bound Tower, the oldest part of the chateau. We followed, our guide through this door, and found ourselves in the old kitchen of feudal times, now an unused apartment. The chief thing that struck me in this kitchen was the huge fireplace, which showed that in those days they did not go in for small joints and dainty dishes, and, indeed, the concierge told us tales of oxen roasted whole, which we could well believe. Prom the kitchen we went up the “ winding turret stair” till we found ourselves in the highest room of the tower, formerly the torture chamber, now devoted to the peaceful recreation of billiards. Would not the old lords of the chateau despise their successors could they revisit earth and see to what a contemptible use the torture chamber has been put ? Instruments of torture, implements of war, and other oldtime curiosities were carefully arranged on the walls and side tables. In contrast to these antiquities was a table in a recess of the room which contained a decidedly modern-looking tray and glasses. The view from either of the windows of this room was magnificent, and I, for one, found it exceedingly difficult to tear myself away; but my aunt called, and I followed the others; We went.along a narrow and dark passage into what the concierge calle’d " la chambre du comte” the sleeping chamber of a count of La Gruyfere. which contained hia bed, with its curious old coveret, tapestry chairs and old tables of the early part of the sixteenth century. The room was hung with tapestry, and from here also we had a fine view; Leading out of this was the bed chamber of the Count’s daughter—" la Belle Louise ” —as the concierge called her. It was a much smaller room than the other; and there was nothing specially interesting, if I except the exquisitely worked coverlet of silk and gold, which strongly appealed to my fancy. From here we continued our way along a dark passage, and down steps till we reached a corridor both wide and light. We turned into a door in this corridor, and found ourselves in the " Hall of the Knights.” This was the ancient banqueting room, and was hung _ round with paintings of scenes in the lives of the Counts of La Gruyfere. It has a grand old fireplace of the early part of the sixteenth century, I forget the exact date. After this we visited some of the other rooms, and finally took our departure} my aunt, who revela in antiquities, charmed to find such a tine specimen of an bid feudal castle in so good preservation. It really is impossible in Gruyeres to imagine oneself as living in the nineteenth ccatury, we have gone hack to tho sixteenth; So much has the spirit of the place infected us that we address one another as " fair Lady Isolde,” and allude to the "beauteous lady baroness.” speak of jousts and tournaments, and are altogether what, in these degenerate times, would be called "high-flown” in our mode of speech. But what care we for what denizens of nineteenth ceiltury Switzerland may say ? We are now living in the sixteenth; and, certainly, as we sit on the benches at our door and look around, sheltered from the sun’s rays by the projecting roof, the delusion that we have gone back in history is strengthened, for this is the scene our eyes rest upon:— The principal street, commencing from the gateway by which we made our first entrance into Gruyferes, is wide and flagged, and dips down towards the centre of tho ville, then rises again till, just past

our house, it branches off into two roads, one continuing to ascend up to the gate Of the chateau, the other descending slightly to the church. The houses are in keeping with the flagged streets—tho upper storeys project over the lower ones, while the roofs again project, in some cages to the extent of several feet, so that perfect shelter from rain and sun is affirded to the occupants of the benches which line the walla of every house in Grqyferes, and which in the evening are occupied by the men of the place, who sit there with their pipes and enjoy the rest after the labours of the day. Tjie houses are picturesque by themselves, but a touch of artistic beauty is addfed to them by the email hut brilliant flower gardens which cluster in every window, not, as would be tho case in England, inside the windows, but on outer ledges, so that each window is set off by the soft gay colouring of flowers. It was this framing of each window in flowers which; I think, charmed ua more than anything in Gruyferes. I have referred to the dip in the street —in this dip tanda the public fountain, surrounded by pumps and troughs, and about these every day in the week, save Sunday, is gathered a group of women chattering, laughing, gesticulating, for this is the public washing place, and here the Qruferiennes meet to wash and gossip. As I write, the scene rises before me, the old flagged street where no cab or carriage ever came, the quaint old houses with the brilliant colouring of their window gardens, the men sitting smoking on the benches awaiting the summons to supper, a few women still busy round the fountain washing and gossiping, young girls going backwards and forwards to the fountain with their water jars, but none too busy that they cannot cast many a glance towards the doorway of one house where a group of Eoglish girls in light dresses have collected round them the children of the place, and are making them shriek with laughter as they induct them into (the mysteries of *• fox and geese,” " oranges and lemons,” and “ hide and seek.” I wonder if the Gruferiens have quite forgotten by this time the English demoiselles who took such an interest in all of them. We were always followed by a crowd of children—such marvellously ■ polite children, too! Every time one approached you, if it were a boy, he took off his cap j if a girl, she courtesied with a grace which filled us with envy. One boy in particular, little Emil, would take off his cap and bow with a courtly grace vfhioh delighted us all. Such:a delightfully primitive life was ours at Gruyferes. We breakfasted at eight, dined at noon, and had supper at half-past five, after which meal we sometimes stayed on alj the Fleur-de-lys till it was time to depart for bed, when, if it was a dark night, the fille-de-chantbre would escort us back to our own quarters, carrying a lighted lantern before us, for there were no gas lamps in Gruyferes and no electric light. Sometimes, though, we preferred to return to our own house immediately after slipper and spend the evening in games—adding games being our favourites. • _ We had other dissipations also in the shape of our afternoon tea parties, for every afternoon we either accepted or gave invitations totea. - We could not complain of our food, for, if plain, it was very wholesome. There was always plenty of trout, beef and veal, eggs, omelettes, salads, Gtuyfere cheese of course, and, what I used to enjoy, at every meal piles of Alpine strawberries and huge dishes of thick cream. The bread was good, and the butter delicious. Friday was fast day, so no meat appeared that day, but they made up for the want on Friday by having extra dishes on Sundays. We were treated more like friends than .lodgers; great interest wad always taken in all our doings, especially in our games and acting, for which they were always ready to, lend us anything, thoroughly enjoying the result. We were made free of every room in the house, and often have I gone into the kitchen and helped myself to milk or cream for afternoon tea.- It was much less trouble to get things for oneself than to hunt up the servant or landlady to get them for one. Firstly, there was no bell in the house, and secondly, both landlady and servant lived in the other house, and, as likely as not, would be out of it. After the first two or three days I changed my room and came downstairs to one smaller, but more convenient, for it was on the first floor, and I no longer ran a risk of breaking my neck some night by falling over any of the stops three or four together, which wont up and down all over the house along dark and ghostly passages. The view.from my new room was a contrast to the other, looking from the back instead of the front. I looked down now on meadows and wooded) low-lying hills, with Bulle in the distance, while immediately below my window, was one of the gateways which gave entrance to pedestrians, who preferred a short cut up the hill to going all the way round by the road. About four or five houses beyond ours, in the narrower street leading to the chateau, was situated a house in which my aunt took much interest, as it had been the property of Chalama, the jester of the last Count of La Gruyfere. Accordingly, one day five of us paid a visit to this house. We were shown over it by a chatty old body who took great delight in telling ua about everything. The house was only a small one of two floors, but there wer'e some finely carved old chests and other carvings, some tapestry and, in two of the rooms painted blue porcelain stoves. On some of the walls we could trace the remains of frescoes. But we were also interested in hearing about the present owner, M. Victor Tissot, the author, a fine portrait of whom hung in one of the rooms. We all felt for him when our guide told us that he had recently lost hia wife, who had died from cancer of the throat, and now he wished to sell this house. • We passed from ancient to modern times when we went out on the balcony and looked down into the plain of La Gruyfere below. And as we looked our eyes were caught by the sight of some figures climbing the hill towards ua, and we shouted and waved our hands, while they held up theirs to show they carried letters and papers, for this was some of our party returning from a visit to the Post Office. Gruyferes, of course, did not indulge in the modern innovation of a Post Office, so we always had to fetch our letters from the Post Office at Epagny on the plain below, where also we had to walk to catch the diligence if we wished to go to Bulle in the one direction or CMteau d’CEx in the other. The sight of the letters brought us speedily from the balcony into the street and on to one of the gateways, where wo met the others and got our letters. The following day we visited a condensed milk factory at Epagnay, where we were shown round by a young American of Swiss parentage, who had come over to learn the process of condensing milk in La Gruyfere. He spoke very broken English, but was quite indignant that we should doubt his being an American. We noticed that the tins bore different brands, and, on enquiring the reason, were informed that some' people fancied one brand and some another, and so they obligingly branded the tins differently, though th® milk in each tin was similar. We wished to inspect some cheesemaking, but were not permitted to do so; the Gr|Uferiens guard their secret jealously. And' so the days passed away at Gruyferes, and we became friendly with many of its inhabitants. Such a simple, honest, and polite race they were; quite distinct from any other Swiss people I ever knew. \The older members of the community spoke a patois of their own, but the children learnt French in the schools on the plain, and some of the younger men and women spoke it also, our landlady being one. They all, old and young, wore their simple provincial costume. I believe some of the Gruferiens possess treasures in the way of old carvings and pieces of old brocade. Certainly there were such in one house into which we penetrated, that of the baker. He took ua upstairs one day to a room where he exhibited to us some of his treasures in carved chests and brocade. My aunt purchased from him some small pieces of lovely brocade. I think I have now told all that comes

back to my memory of Gruyferes, so I shall conclude with some of the words from the patriotic air of " La'Gruyfere,” which we have heard sung by the young men of the ville— Qua La Gray ere out belle Mi eea moots enohanteora Stchons vivro pour elle, Lai devouer nos coeurs. Agatha.