EXTENT AND POPULATION
mont, by the Semplon road. It was almost
dark when we entered the city; for one of
our horses, which had crossed the Alps
with us twice, fell lame, when we were
only a few miles from the end of onr
tour. After leaving our passport at the
gate, we proceeded along a gloomy street,
to les Ballances, the principal hotel. The
next morning I sallied forth to reconnoitre
the streets in the vicinity ; a quarter of an
hour’s walk brought me to la Place St.
Antoine, which overlooks the lake, when
I was surprised to discover that I had made
the circuit of more than half the city.
Geneva had, from my earliest recollections,
occupied a large space in my imagination,
as the metropolis of Protestant Europe,
placed in opposition to the mighty papal
Rome; I was, therefore, rather disappointed
to find that this celebrated city covered
only a quarter of a square mile o f the
earth’s surface'^, or about four times the
extent of Russell-square in London. I had
read, perhaps twenty times, statistical accounts
of Geneva; but when early notions
* Viz. the whole city, if reduced to a square, might be
bouuded by a line of half a mile iu length, ou each side,
as I ascertained by measuring the plan of Geneva.
are once deeply fixed in the mind, they
are not easily removed by subsequent information,
unless we are compelled by
circumstances to examine them with attention.
Geneva, as a city, possesses few objects
to recommend it to the notice of those
travellers who view only “ the surfaces of
things.” The public buildings are devoid
of beauty, the streets are dull, and the
houses, though lofty, appear massive and
h eav y ; they are built of sandstone, and
covered with dark tiles. There has been
only one new house built in the city during
tlie last forty years ; the fortifications prevent
its extension on each side.
Many families live under the same roof,
as at Paris, each family generally occupying
one story, or what, in Edinburgh, is called
a f la t; but among th e poorer citizens, one
room often serves for a whole family. A
census was taken while we were at Geneva,
in 1822, and there was one instance of
twenty-two families living under the same
ro o f; several houses in the lower part of
the city contained upwards of fifteen families,
more or less numerous.
D 4