Читать книгу Notes and Queries, Number 79, May 3, 1851 - Various - Страница 4

In the curious volume recently edited by Sir Henry Ellis for the Camden Society, entitled The Pilgrymage of Syr R. Guylforde, Knyght, a singular term occurs, which may claim a note of explanation. It is found in the following passage:

"Saterdaye to Suse, Noualassa, and to Lyungborugh; and at the sayd Noualassa we toke moyles to stey us vp the mountayne, and toke also marones to kepe vs frome fallynge. And from the hyght of the mounte down to Lyuyngborugh I was ramasshed, whiche is a right strange thinge."—P. 80.

Sir Henry has not bestowed upon us here any of those erudite annotations, which have customarily enhanced the interest of works edited under his care.

Sir Richard Guylforde was on his homeward course from the Holy Places by way of Pavia, where he visited the convent and church which contained the shrine and relics of St. Augustine, as also the tomb of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III., whose monumental inscription (not to be found in Sandford's Genealogical History) the worthy knight copied.

On the 13th Feb. 1506, Sir Richard approached the ascent of Mont Cenis by the way of S. Ambrogio and Susa. At the village of Novalese, now in ruins, the party took mules, to aid their ascent, and marroni, long-handled mattocks, or pick-axes, to prevent their falling on the dangerous declivities of the snow. The journey was formerly made with frightful expedition by means of a kind of sledge—an expedient termed la ramasse—which enabled the traveller, previously to the construction of that extraordinary road, well known to most readers, to effect in a few minutes a perilous descent of upwards of 6000 feet. The ramasse, as Cotgrave informs us, was—

"A kind of high sled, or wheelbarrow, whereon travellers are carried downe certaine steep and slippery hils in Piemont."

Its simplest form had probably been a kind of fagot of brushwood,—ramazza, or a besom, not much unlike the rapid locomotive of witches, who were called in old times ramassières, from their supposed practice of riding on a ramée, ramasse, or besom. At the present time even, it occasionally occurs that an adventurous traveller crossing the Mont Cenis is tempted to glide down the rapid descent, in preference to the long course of the zigzag road; and remember to have heard at Lauslebourg the tale, doubtless often related, of an eccentric Milord who ascended the heights thrice from that place, a journey of some hours, for the gratification of the repeated excitement caused by a descent on the ramasse in about as many minutes. The cranium of a horse, as it was stated, was the vehicle often preferred for this curious adventure: and the traveller guided or steadied his course by trailing a long staff, a practice for security well known to the Alpine tourist. This may probably have been the use of the "marones" taken by Sir Richard Guyldeford and his party at Novalese.

The terms, to be "ramasshed," is not, as I believe, wholly disused in France. It was brought to the metropolis with the strange amusement known as the Montagne Russe. In the valuable Complément du Dictionnaire de l'Académie, compiled under the direction of Louis Barré, we find the following phrase:

"Se faire ramasser, se dit aujourd'hui, dans une acception particulière, pour, Se faire lancer dans un char, du haut des élévations artificielles qui se trouvent dans les jardins publics."

Such a disport had been known previously to the expedition to Moscow, and the favourite divertisement à la Russe, so much in vogue amongst the Parisians for a few subsequent years. Roquefort informs us that—

"Ramasse étoit le nom d'un jeu que nous avions apporté des Alpes, où il est encore en usage pendant l'hiver, et principalement en temps de neige."

Albert Way.