generous founder and father of the present owner died a few years ago. Just beyond is the Piano di Latte, one of the most favoured little valleys in the Riviera. Mortola is nearly an hour’s drive from Bordighera.
Les Moulins. Monti. Hermit’s Grotto.
The most important drive towards the interior is to Sospel, 14 m. N., on the road between Nice and Cuneo by the Col di Tenda (see [p. 182]). Excellent carriage-road all the way, ascending by the western or railway station side of the Carrei. In the lower part of the valley are large plantations of lemon trees. To the left of the road near the octroi are Les Moulins olive-oil mills, with four stages of water-wheels. 4 m. farther up the valley of the Carrei, on a eminence considerably above the stream, are the church and straggling village of [Monti]. The bridle-road that descends here to the Carrei crosses over to Castellar, well seen on the opposite side. About a mile beyond Monti, opposite the part of the road where it makes a sudden bend to the left, is seen a small stone bridge on the other side of the Carrei. This bridge crosses the stream that forms the cascade called the Gourg-d’Ora.
About a hundred yards to the west of the bridge, on the face of an almost vertical rock, and at a considerable height, is a kind of window or cavity called the [Hermit’s Grotto]. Over the entrance is an illegible inscription in red hieroglyphics. By the side is another inscription giving the name of a hermit who once lived in this cave:—
CHRISTO LA FECE. BERNARDO L’ABITO.
1528.
(Christ made it. Bernard inhabits it.)
The inside of the grotto is composed of two rooms; the first, 6 yds. by 4½, is continued by steep staircases up into the mountain for about 27 yds. At this extremity a large cavity leads into a second room, 3 yds. long, with a floor sloping in the opposite direction to the opening. Into this cave the crusader Robert de Ferques is said to have retired from grief.
At the time when King Philip Augustus had summoned all his nobility to take part in the third crusade, a lord, named Robert de Ferques, hastened to join the banner of the Count of Boulogne, his sovereign. This Robert de Ferques had been recently married, and his young bride, Jehanne de Leulinghem, unable to bear the thought of separation, resolved to follow her lord and share his toils. She succeeded by concealing her sex under a man’s dress, and set out with joy in the capacity of esquire. Unhappily, during the journey she fell from her horse, and was forced to stop at an inn. Robert de
Ferques was obliged, with broken heart, to follow the army, and abandon his young wife to the care of a faithful servant. But in a few days the old esquire came with tears in his eyes to announce to his master the death of the courageous Jehanne. The poor knight was so overwhelmed with grief that, with the consent of the Count of Boulogne, he resolved to give up the world, and consecrate to God, in the most austere solitude, a life which he had already almost sacrificed to Him in war with the infidels. In 1528 he seems to have been succeeded by the anchoret Bernard.
Castellon. Climate.
The Sospel road now begins to ascend the Col de Guardia, pierced near the top by a tunnel 260 ft. long, and shortly after it reaches the walled town of [Castellon] or Castiglione, on an eminence 2926 ft above the sea, commanding an extensive view, 8¼ m. from Menton, pop. 320. 5¾ m. farther is [Sospel], pop. 3500 (p. 182).