One of the first measures, after getting possession of Mon Repos, was to secure a boat.  This was soon done, as there are several in constant attendance, at what is called the port.  Harbour, strictly speaking, Vevey has none, though there is a commencement of a mole, which scarcely serves to afford shelter to a skiff.  The crafts in use on the lake are large two-masted boats, having decks much broader than their true beam, and which carry most of their freight above board.  The sails are strictly neither latine nor lug, but sufficiently like the former to be picturesque, especially in the distance.  These vessels are not required to make good weather, as they invariably run for the land when it blows, unless the wind happen to be fair, and sometimes even then.  Nothing can be more primitive than the outfit of one of these barks, and yet they appear to meet the wants of the lake.  Luckily Switzerland has no custom-houses, and the King of Sardinia appears to be wise enough to let the Savoyards enjoy nearly as much commercial liberty as their neighbours.  Three cantons, Geneva, which embraces its foot; Vaud, which bounds nearly the whole of the northern shore; Valais, which encircles the head; together with Savoy, which lies along the cavity of the crescent, are bounded by the lake.  There are also many towns and villages on the lake, among which Geneva, Lausanne, and Vevey are the principal.

This place lies immediately at the foot of the Chardonne, a high retiring section of the mountains called the Jorat, and is completely sheltered from the north winds.  This advantage it possesses in common with the whole district between Lausanne and Villeneuve, a distance of some fifteen miles, and, the mountains acting as great natural walls, the fruits of milder latitudes are successfully cultivated, notwithstanding the general elevation of the lake above the sea is near thirteen hundred feet.  Although a good deal frequented by strangers, Vevey is less a place of fashionable resort than Lausanne, and is consequently much simpler in its habits, and I suppose cheaper, as a residence.  It may have four or five thousand inhabitants, and possessing one or two considerable squares, it covers rather more ground than places of that population usually do, in Europe.  It has no edifice of much pretension, and yet it is not badly built.

We passed the first three or four days in looking about us, and, on the whole, we have been rather pleased with the place.  Our house is but a stone’s throw from the water, at a point where there is what in the Manhattanese dialect would be called a battery.[34] This battery leads to the mole and the great square.  At the first corner of the latter stands a small semi-castellated edifice, with the colours of the canton on the window-shutters, which is now in some way occupied for public purposes, and which formerly was the residence of the bailli, or the local governor that Berne formerly sent to rule