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characters afterwards deified, when those celebrated beings lived long before the very acts ascribed to them were achieved. In the same way may a story, similar to that of Tell, have been interpolated in a portion of the early history of an obscure country, where any such deed was before wholly unheard of or unknown.

Be this method of argument allowable or not, from the days in which he lived to the present time the tale of William Tell shooting the apple with an arrow off his son's head, at the command of Gessler, has been the fire-side tradition of every cottage in the cantons; - and not only that story but his whole history is so spirit-stirring and heroic, that all lovers of the romance of history would wish it might remain undisturbed in the general acceptation of its truth, more especially as it affords the best apology that can be urged for Tell's murder of Gessler, an act which was certainly a violation of that magnanimous oath to which he had responded at the Grutli.

But I will add no more to this letter: it is

already so long, I must reserve for my next an

account of our visit to the lake of Lucerne.

Dear Brother,

Ever your affectionate Sister,

ANNA ELIZA BRAY.

LETTER XVI.

TO A. J. KEMPE, ESQ., F. S. A.

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Excursion on the Lake of Lucerne. The Steamer. Company on board.-Lake of the four Forest Cantons. -Promontory. - Meggenhorn.-Island. Bay of Küssnacht. Pilatus. - Sublimity of the Scene: its Characteristics. Gulf of Buochs. The Bouchser and Stanzerhorn. Gersau: its Independence. The Mitres. Town of Schwytz.-Bay of Uri: its magnificent Features. Effects of Snow, Sun, and Shadow on the Mountains. The Wytenstein. Village Churches; their lofty Site. The Grutli. -Miraculous Springs. - Landslip: its AppearThe Frohnalpstock.

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dote of an Infant.- Heights of Archsenburg. Tell's Rock. Tell's Chapel.

of Uri.- Mountains.

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turn to Lucerne.

My dear Brother,

A STEAMER goes every morning at eight o'clock from the quay opposite the Swan inn, to give

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strangers an opportunity of traversing the lake of Lucerne. It takes them as far as Fluellen, a village situated at the extremity of the bay of Uri, the most magnificent part of the lake, which is about twenty-five miles in length.

On Monday, the 15th of July, we embarked in the steamer in order to view the whole of the lake. It was one of the very hottest days ever known in Europe. The East Indies could scarcely have supplied one that was more fiery; the very air you breathed was as if it came from a heated stove, and there was not the lightest breeze stirring.

Yet, notwithstanding this, and though I felt at times faint, and quite overpowered by the sultriness of the air and the intense heat of the sun, I was so delighted with what I saw, that never, never can I forget the excursion of that day. I shall, however, touch but very lightly on the principal points of the lake, since the little outline sketches which Mr. Bray contrived to make, as the steamer went on, will give you a much better idea of them than all I can say. I also attempted to sketch, but my hand shook

so from heat, I was obliged to give it up. To sketch very rapidly (as you must do whilst the steamer is in motion) requires a quick eye, nerves perfectly undisturbed, and a steady and firm hand, so that every line of the pencil may tell. This was the case with Mr. Bray; and though his sketches are little more than outlines of the general forms of the mountains, &c. they are so true in their proportions, and he had so well caught the character of each striking object, that I have seen no drawings, however finished, that gave me such correct notions of the lake of Lucerne as these memorandums of its beauties. We met on board the steamer an English clergyman and his agreeable daughters, with whom we had become acquainted at our inn; indeed this gentleman had performed the service on the Sunday at the English church. He was now going with his family, under the conduct of a guide engaged for that purpose, to make an excursion as far as Mont St. Gothard. All travellers bound for that expedition were to leave the steamer on its arrival at Fluellen before she turned her head back to Lucerne. We

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