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AGRICULTURE-TRADE.

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and condemned to pay a fine for not observing the sanctity of a saint's day.

Fifteen sous a day in the winter, and twenty in the summer, is the utmost a peasant can earn: take away two or three days from his weekly earnings, and what a pittance is left! Roasted chesnuts, potatoes, and bread, if any, of the blackest and most ordinary sort, are the principal food they can obtain.

The Protestants have to pay a land-tax of 20 per cent.; while the Roman Catholics pay but 13 per cent.

It will be seen from this statement, how very few are the resources of the Vaudois. From the military and civil employments, and from the learned professions, they are excluded. The valley of Luzerna is the only one which can be called productive; and, even there, agricultural pursuits cannot be prosecuted to much advantage, where the duties are high, and the restrictions so burdensome. A small trade is carried on in charcoal; and the silk-worm is reared in some of the hamlets; but there can scarcely be said to be any manufactures, when one woollen manufactory, and two tan-yards, are principally what come within this designation. The looms employ about thirty men, and forty women and children, and make about eight hundred pieces of cloth annually, of about forty yards to the piece. The tanyard at Bobbio finds occupation for four men ; and that at La Torre, for about five.

I did not ascertain what business is done in the few smelting-houses that I observed: the hands at work were not

numerous.

This will not be an improper place to mention, that although La Torre is the principal village or town of the Vaudois, and contains a population of two thousand inhabitants, yet it offers not the least appearance of trade. Few shops are to be seen, and those are of a very humble character. My surprise at this want of shops, led me into a laughable

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LAUGHABLE MISTAKE.

mistake; and it was the more ludicrous, considering the simple character of the people.

"You have no shops at all," I said to M. Vertu; "not even that of a bourreau." I meant to say, boucher. “Bourreau!" he exclaimed, "what do we want with an executioner? Why we have had but one capital conviction among us for a hundred years!"

CHAPTER VI.

Angrogna-La Barricade-Cultivation- Cheerful landscapeSabbath on the mountains-Religious and moral character of mountaineers-Village pastor's house-M. Paul Goante-Alpine cottages-Thuanus-Want of religious books-Peasant of Angrogna-Mode of tillage-Mountain fastnesses-La Vachera-Pre du Tour-Obstinate and gallant conflicts thereSublime mountain scenery-The Bouquetin-The JumarreBeautiful vale-Comparison between solitary and busy life—The fortress of La Torre.

M. VERTU, of La Torre, brother to our friend at Turin, was many years in England during the early part of his life; and his intimate knowledge of the English language, rendered him of great service to us, when we wished to make enquiries connected with local and technical explanations. He had the kindness to accompany us to Angrogna, acting as our interpreter in several conversations which we had with the peasantry, who spoke the patois only of the country; and to him I was indebted for much of the immediate information I picked up, as to the condition of agriculture, and the few manufactures of the Vaudois.

Angrogna lies to the north of La Torre, at the distance of about a mile and a half from the latter, and in the midst of some of the finest mountain scenery of which the Alps can boast. The mountain stream, which is called the Torrent of Angrogna, gives its name to a cluster of valleys which branch out like the boughs of a tree, and runs into the Pelice, just below La Torre. It is supplied by innumerable springs of

8 See Appendix, No. 9.

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water, which gush from the rocks, and by following its course from the vale, the tourist will be conducted to the village itself, and higher up, to such a succession of picturesque spots, and secluded glens, as no description can do justice to. The natural beauties of the scenery of Angrogna, and the sublime objects of crag rising above crag, of enormous masses of rock debouching into the glens beneath, and of abysses, the depths of which the eye cannot penetrate, are rendered still more interesting by their being consecrated to the memory of heroes and martyrs, whose histories are in the mouth of every peasant.

There are few of these Alpine recesses occupied by the Vaudois, which have not legends of their own to amuse the stranger, independent of their local attractions; but no commune is more distinguished in this respect than that of Angrogna. L'éternel nostre Dieu," says Leger, "qui avoit destiné ce Paiis-là pour en faire particulièrement le Theatre des ses merveilles, et l'Asyle de son Arche, l'a naturellement et merveilleusement fortifié." According to the same historian there were formerly two strong forts, or barriers, which defended the entrance of the passes to Angrogna, on the side of Luzerna and Bricherasio, capable of being held for a long time by a very few troops, who, if these were forced, might easily fall back upon a place called La Barricade, about half a league higher up, among the mountains. A reference to the map will shew that La Barricade is a narrow defile, upon the side of the torrent: it is fenced in by steep rocks, and at the spot where the rocks were supposed to leave too wide a passage, a strong wall of flints was thrown up, to add to the natural strength of the position, and so contrived, that one opening only was left, by which the retreating party might escape to the fastnesses behind it.

Angrogna was formerly so often the retreat of the Vaudois, when they were forced to abandon San Giovanni, La Torre, and Villaro, that several geographers, who were ignorant of the true divisions of the country, have spoken of the valley

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of Angrogna as the principal district of the community. The Marquess de Fleuri, in the cruel persecution of the middle of the seventeenth century, met with so many warm receptions from the peasants of Angrogna, that he declared he would never attack the heretics in this quarter again, with less than 10,000 men.

The weather was favourable to our excursion, which could be made on foot only; for there is no approaching these higher regions in any sort of vehicle; and saddle-horses for a large party cannot easily be procured. There is a road from San Giovanni to the village of Angrogna, which is practicable for small "chars à bouf;" but nobody would think of riding in such awkward machines as these. It was the first time of our ascending the mountains, and of penetrating into the heart of those seclusions, which have such charms for the imagination; and we set out in high spirits upon the expedition. Pomaretto is much less out of the common track of travellers, than Angrogna; and may be seen from the road to France from Pinerolo; but nothing less than a visit to the spot itself, is likely to conduct to the retired habitations of which we were now in search.

Upon leaving La Torre and the vale of the Pelice, we came to a smooth and level piece of grass-land, at the foot of a chain of heights, which divides two valleys; and there we crossed the torrent, and took the direction of the valley to the right. The ascent soon became more and more abrupt; and the path-way at one time wound up the mountain in the midst of chesnut and walnut trees, whose aged trunks and branching arms have perhaps afforded shelter to many a persecuted fugitive. At other times we suddenly emerged from gigantic fragments of rock, that had rolled from the steeps above, and covered whole tracts of ground with their ruins, and found ourselves walking over well cultivated plots of corn-land, which extended to the brink of precipices, and made us wonder what industrious hand could have made grain to spring up on such repulsive soil. Ridges of

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