We rested all night at Susa; and, having bought a very commodious
post-chaise, we proceeded to Turin, where we dined; and from thence, the
evening of May 2, O.S. got to Parma by way of Alexandria and Placentia,
having purposely avoided the high road through Milan, as it would have
cost us a few hours more time.
Sir Charles observed to me, when we were on the plain or flat top of
Mount Cenis, that had not the winter been particularly long and severe,
we should have had, instead of this terrible appearance of snow there,
flowers starting up, as it were, under our feet, of various kinds, which
are hardly to be met with anywhere else. One of the greatest dangers, he
told me, in passing this mount in winter, arises from a ball of snow,
which is blown down from the top by the wind, or falls down by some other
accident; which, gathering all the way in its descent, becomes instantly
of such a prodigious bigness, that there is hardly any avoiding being
carried away with it, man and beast, and smothered in it. One of these
balls we saw rolling down; but as it took another course than ours, we
had no apprehension of danger from it.
At Parma we found expecting us, the bishop of Nocera, and a very reverend
father, Marescotti by name; who expressed the utmost joy at the arrival
of Sir Charles Grandison, and received me, at his recommendation, with a
politeness which seems natural to them.
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