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II. MONT VELAN 517
estate. “Voyez. C’était une tour de guerre. J’en ai fait une bouteille!”
44. But that walk by the castle wall was long after the Mont Velan times of which I am now telling;1-in returning to which, will the reader please note the homes of the four Vaudois knights who stood for Queen Bertha’s monastery: Amé of Geneva, Vauthier of Blonay, Conrad of Estaveyer, and Rodolph of Montagny?
Amé’s castle of Geneva stood on the island, where the clock tower is now; and has long been destroyed: of Estaveyer and Montagny I know nothing; but the Castle of Blonay still stands above Vevay, as Chillon still at the head of her lake; but the château of Blonay has been modified gradually into comfort of sweet habitation, the war towers of it sustaining timber-latticed walls, and crowned by pretty turrets and pinnacles in cheerful nobleness- trellised all with fruitage or climbing flowers; its moats now all garden; its surrounding fields all lily and meadow-sweet, with blue gleanings, it may be of violet, it may be of gentian; its heritage of human life guarded still in the peacefully scattered village, or farmhouse, here and there half hidden in apple-blossom, or white with fallen cherry-blossom, as if with snow.2
45. I have already told how fond my father was of staying at the Trois Couronnes of Vevay,3 when I was up among the aiguilles of Chamouni. In later years, I acknowledged his better taste, and would contentedly stay with him at Vevay, as long as he liked,-myself always perfectly happy in the fields and on the hillsides round the Château Blonay. Also, my father and mother were quite able at any time to get up as far as Blonay themselves; and usually walked
1 [The years 1844, 1854, and 1856 are those specially connected with Vevay: see Ruskin’s list below, p. 632.]
2 [The description of the château and the surrounding country still holds; but it has to be added that there is an electric railway from Vevay to Chamby (and thence to Zweisimmen), with stations at “Blonay” and “Château de Blonay.” The walk to the château and the ascent of the neighbouring Pleiades was a favourite excursion of Ruskin’s: see Vol. V. p. xviii.]
3 [See above, pp. 335, 442.]
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[Version 0.04: March 2008]
