Il est certain d’y recevoir un accueil cordial de la part de nos députés et courtois de la part de nos populations qui n’ont jamais failli aux devoirs de l’hospitalité.
Il y retrouvera, avec un climat plus doux même que celui du Devonshire, des sites plus enchanteurs encore, des sommets plus élevés que le Snowdon, des lacs aussi bleus que le Lomond, des torrents plus impétueux que le Glen et le Liddel.
Si le daim, le cerf et la grouse nous font défaut, nous avons l’izard, la caille savoureuse, la perdrix noire, la perdrix blanche, le coq de bruyère, la bécasse, le lièvre, etc. L’ours même s’y rencontre, mais ... difficilement.
Chose plus importante encore, si l’honorable membre de la Chambre des Communes avait, victime de son éloquence, le larynx fatigué, les eaux merveilleuses de Cauterets seraient là pour le guérir.
De toutes les façons, nous avons la conviction que lord Churchill emportera de nos Pyrénées un bon souvenir.
To his Wife.
Tarbes: August 1, 1888.
Here we are very peaceable and comfortable—beautiful weather, splendid mountains, and nothing to bother about. This is a charming place; house and garden both very pretty. Breteuil’s electors drop in at odd times and some remain to breakfast and some to dinner. They are not very amusing, but very harmless and interesting as types of French provincial society. The worst of the electors is that they will not go to bed; but remain very late. I suppose they are too glad to get an evening out.
The charm of this place is the absence of any crowd. French and Spaniards are the only people who come here and English and Americans are conspicuous by their absence. I tried the ‘douches’ at Cauterets. They are very pleasant at the moment, but, I think, enervating. We dined last night in company with Mons. de Gontaut, formerly Ambassador in Berlin—a charming old man.... Yesterday we drove to Lourdes, a very extraordinary place—a monument of ‘la bêtise humaine.’ A great number of electors are coming to dinner in the evening.
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