INTERLACHEN.

Drawn by C. Stanfield, A.R.A., from a Sketch by W.

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"Left Thoun in a boat, which carried us the length of the lake in three hours. The lake small, but the banks fine. Rocks down to the water's edge. Landed at Newhaus; passed Interlachen; entered upon a range of scenes beyond all description or previous conception." Byron's Journal, 1816.

INTERLACHEN is a beautiful village, not far from Unterseen, and lying between the two lakes of Thun and Brienz; and if a fashionable term, perfectly understood in London, were applied to it, it might be called, in relation to Unterseen, and disregarding the geographical anomaly-the West End. It is a delightful spot for a summer residence; there are excellent inns and boarding-houses, of which many English families avail themselves to make this spot head-quarters; and whenever the beauty of the weather tempts them to excursions in the valleys and mountains which surround them, they start on such journeys under the favourable circumstance of convenient proximity to the objects of their visits.

VOL. III.

Interlachen has, within a few years, so changed its aspect, that it has become rather an English than a Swiss village-even the Swiss cottage has lost here its peculiar character: the wooden houses, curiously carved with quotations from the Scriptures running the whole length of the front, the sloped enormous roof and small windows, have disappeared, and the houses have now rather the appearance of those smart, English, comfortable country-residences which bear the humble name of cottage, than of the Swiss habitation. Here are reading-rooms, the newspapers, billiards, and excellent tables-d'hôte, provided, and the charges are very moderate.

There is a beautiful look-out point of view about twenty minutes' walk from Interlachen, called Höhebuhl, which every traveller should visit: it commands a prospect of the village, the two lakes, the valley of the Lutchine, leading to Lauterbrunn and Grindenwald, and the glorious surmounting mass of the Jungfrau. Lord Byron ascended this valley to Lauterbrunn, and crossed by the Little Scheidegg, or Wengern Alp, to Grindenwald: the notes which he made were rapid; but to the impressions derived from this journey may be traced all the magnificent descriptions of the Alps which he has given in "Manfred.”

Near the entrance of the valley of the Lutchine are the ruins of the castle of Unspunnen, now pointed out

INTERLACHEN.

to travellers, with a new claim to interest, as the castle of Manfred. This association with the poetry of Byron has obscured the realities of its history in the eventful periods of the struggles of the Swiss for liberty in the fourteenth century. The knoll on which the ruins of the castle stand, and the surrounding valley, are richly wooded. The square structure of the principal building, now falling to rapid decay, is partly concealed by the trees and woods which surround it, from the observation of the traveller who passes through the valley below.