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This valley, extending from the foot of Monte Viso to Mont Dauphin, comprises the whole length of the river Guil, to its junction with the Durance, together with the lateral glens through which descend the mountain torrents that fall into the Guil. The western quarter of the section consists of the valley of Fressinière, watered by a torrent which pours itself into the Durance half-way between Briançon and Embrun. Sixty miles of rugged road must be trodden by the pastor stationed at La Chalp, near Arvieux, before he can perform his duties at Champsaur, at the eastern extremity of his parish. San Veran, at the opposite extremity, is twelve miles west of La Chalp; he has also a distance of twenty miles towards the south and of thirty-three towards the north, when his services are required by the little flocks at Vars and La Grave. The contrast which these savage defiles on the wrong side of the Alps, present to the Piedmontese valleys, is very striking. The latter are, for the most part, beautifully diversified by green meadows and rich corn-fields; the declivities are clothed with thick foliage, and the innumerable flocks and herds browsing on the mountain sides, present an animated picture. They form, in fact, Mr. Gilly remarks, a garden with deserts in view. Some are barren and repulsive, but they are exceptions.

'On the contrary, in the Alpine retreats of the French Protestants, fertility is the exception, and barrenness the common aspect. There, the tottering cliffs, the sombre and frowning rocks, which, from their fatiguing continuity, look like a mournful veil which is never to be raised, the tremendous abysses, the comfortless cottages, and the ever present dangers, from avalanches and thick mists and clouds,-- proclaim that this is a land which man never would have chosen, even for his hiding-place, but from the direst necessity.'—p. 113.

The Pass of the Guil, which is one of the keys of France on the Italian frontier, presents scenery of the most terrible magnificence, that might amply repay the summer traveller for the fatigue of exploring this savage defile; but, in winter, it is so perilous that lives are lost almost every year. Yet, Neff repeatedly forced his way through it in the middle of January, when it is notoriously unsafe. We must make room for the following description and the reflections which are subjoined.

On issuing out of the depths of the defile, the frowning battlements of Château Queyras, built on a lofty projecting cliff, on the edge of the torrent, and backed by the barrier wall of Alps, which, at this season of the year, towers like a bulwark of ice between the dominions of France, and those of the king of Sardinia, present a picture of the most striking magnificence. Every thing combines to give an interest to the scene. In the far distances are the snowy peaks of Monte Viso, of dazzling white, and in the fore-ground, the rustic aqueducts, composed

I in the simplest manner of wooden troughs, supported on lofty scaffolding, and crossing and recrossing the narrow valley; which form a striking contrast between the durability of the works of God's hands, the everlasting mountains, and the perishable devices of men.

a mile and a half, on the Guillestre side, from Château Queyras, a rough path, on the left, conducts to Arvieux: and here a different prospect opens to the view. The signs of cultivation and of man's presence increase: some pretty vales, and snug-looking cottages please the eye; and in one spot, a frail but picturesque foot-bridge of pines carelessly thrown across a chasm, invites the stranger to approach and inspect it. He is almost appalled to find himself on the brink of an abyss, many fathoms deep, at the bottom of which a body of water foams and chafes, which has forced itself a passage through the living rock. The narrowness and depth of this chasm, and the extraordinary manner in which it is concealed from observation, till you are close to it, form one of the greatest natural curiosities in a province which abounds in objects of the same sort.

Neff followed the custom of those who directed him to his pastoral dwelling-place, and called it Arvieux in his journals. It is not, however, situated in the principal village of the commune so called, but at La Chalp, a small hamlet beyond. The church is at Arvieux, but the minister's residence is, with the majority of the Protestant population, higher up the valley; for in this glen, as in all the others where the remains of the primitive Christians still exist, they are invariably found to have crept up to the furthest habitable part of it. In the Valley of Fressinière, the Protestants, in like manner, have penetrated to the edge of the glacier, where they were most likely to remain unmolested; and again, in the commune of Molines, Grosse Pierre, and Fousillarde, are at the very furthest point of vegetation; and there is nothing fit for mortal to take refuge in, between San Veran and the eternal snows which mantle the pinnacles of Monte Viso.

In the page which records his arrival at the humble white cottage, which had been recently prepared for the pastor, in La Chalp, Neff has not inserted any observation about the comforts or conveniences of the habitation designed for his future dwelling-place. It is a small low building, without any thing to distinguish it but its white front; such at least was its aspect when I saw it: but there was an air of cheerfulness in its situation, facing the south, and standing in a warm sunny spot, which contrasted strongly with the dismal hovels of Dormilleuse, where he afterwards spent most of the winter months. It is most probable that he found it totally devoid of every thing which administers to comfort, beyond locality; for a memorandum, written a few days after his arrival, mentions his having made a journey to Guillestre, for the purchase of some household utensils. Once for all, therefore, I may remark, that the reader, whose notions of the happiness of a pastor's life have been formed in the smiling parsonage or snug manse, or who has considered it as deriving its enjoyment from a state of blissful repose and peacefulness, has widely erred from the mark in Neff's case. His happiness was, to be busily employed in bringing souls to God: he seems not to have set the slightest value on any of the comforts of a home: or, if he valued them, to have sacri

ficed them cheerfully to his sense of duty. One of the principal charms in the recital of a good clergyman's life, is the character of the clergyman at home. But Neff had none of the comforts of this life to cheer him. No family endearments welcomed him to a peaceful fireside after the toils of the day: nothing of earthly softness smoothed his pillow. His was a career of anxiety, unmitigated and unconsoled by any thing but a sense of duties performed, and of acceptance with God. The commune of Arvieux, and the cheerful hamlets of La Chalp and Brunichard, were the brightest spots in his extensive parish; but they were not the fairest to his eye, for he complains in several of his letters, that the people there were spoiled by the advantages of their situation, and were by no means so well inclined to profit by his instructions, as the inhabitants of less favoured spots.' pp. 115–119.

The natives of Arvieux are almost all Roman Catholics. Those of La Chalp and Brunichard are, for the most part, Protestants. San Veran is the highest village in the valley of Queyras, and the most pious. It is, in fact, said to be the most elevated village in Europe; and it is a provincial saying relating to the mountain of San Veran, that it is la piu alta ou l'i mindgent pan, the highest spot where bread is eaten. It contains about twenty-three Protestant families. Mr. Gilly was only the second Englishman who had penetrated to this obscure nook of the Alps. He found the men intelligent, well read in the Scriptures, and eager to converse on spiritual subjects. The village is so fenced in by rock and mountain barriers, that not a road approaches it, over which a wheel has ever passed. None of the comforts and few of the conveniences of life have yet been introduced there. But, says Mr. Gilly,

San Veran is a garden, and a scene of delights, when compared with Dormilleuse, to which the pastor hastened, as soon as he had put things in order in this part of his parish. Here the houses are built like log-houses, of rough pine trees, laid one above another, and composed of several stories, which have a singularly picturesque look, not unlike the chalets in Switzerland, but loftier and much more picturesque. On the ground floor the family dwells; hay and unthrashed corn occupy the first story, and the second is given up to grain, and to stores of bread-cakes and cheeses, ranged on frame-work suspended from the roof. But at Dormilleuse, the huts are wretched constructions of stone and mud, from which fresh air, comfort, and cleanliness seem to be utterly excluded. Cleanliness, indeed, is not a virtue which distinguishes any of the people in these mountains; and with such a nice sense of moral perception as they display, and with such strict attention to the duties of religion, it is astonishing that they have not yet learnt to practise those ablutions in their persons or habitations, which are as necessary to comfort as to health. Even among the better provided, for they are all peasants alike, tillers of the earth, and small proprietors, the wealthiest of whom (if we can speak of wealth, even comparatively, on such poor soil,) puts his hand to the

spade and hoe with the same alacrity as the poorest, the same uncleanliness prevails; their apartments are unswept, their woollen garments unwashed, and their hands and faces as little accustomed to cold water, as if there was a perpetual drought in the land. I should fear that the excellent Neff, with all the improvements which he introduced into his parish, either omitted, or failed to convince the folks there, that cleanliness is not a forbidden luxury, but one of the necessary duties of life.

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But though their habitations and their persons are, thus far, likely to leave some disagreeable impressions on those whose sensations have been rendered quick and impatient by English habits, yet the simplicity, amiability, and good manners which prevail among these children of nature, are so winning, and the images and associations that rise up in the mind, in this retreat of Protestantism in France, supply such profuse enjoyment, and give such a grace, as well as a charm, to any intercourse with them, that it is impossible not to write down the time that may be spent in San Veran and in its contiguous hamlets, among the most interesting of one's life. To those who understand the patois, or to whom it is accurately translated, as it was to us, the poetical and elegant turn which is given to conversation, by the constant use of figures and metaphors derived from mountain scenery, and from the accidents and exposures of Alpine life, enhance the pleasure, and send the traveller home well satisfied with his excursion. In short, it is the moral and intellectual refinement about these mountaineers, which renders their society interesting in a high degree, and furnishes matter for reflection long afterwards.' pp. 124-6.

The rock on which Dormilleuse stands, is almost inaccessible even in the finest months in the year. From the village of La Roche, where the Durance is crossed by a long timber bridge, it is one continued ascent of five hours, the latter part steep and dangerous, to this bleak and gloomy spot. Nature is there stern and terrible, without offering any boon but that of per'sonal security from the fury of the oppressor.' When the sun shines brightest, the side of the mountain opposite to the village, and on the same level, is covered with snow; nor is any thing seen that relieves the forlorn prospect. Yet, in this wretched place, Neff, relinquishing the scanty comforts of his station at La Chalp, took up his head-quarters from November to April, because there his services seemed to be most requisite, and because he had every thing to teach the poor inhabitants, even to the planting of a potato. But his whole life was a sacrifice.' The population consisted of forty families, every one Protestant, and, though sunk in ignorance and degeneracy, interesting to him, as of the unmixed race of the ancient Waldenses, who never bowed 'their knee before an idol, even when all the Protestants of the ' valley of Queyras dissembled their faith."

"The aspect of this desert," (writes Neff,) "both terrible and sublime, which served as the asylum of truth, when almost all the

VOL. IX.-N.S.

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world lay in darkness; the recollection of the faithful martyrs of old, the deep caverns into which they retired to read the Bible in secret, and to worship the Father of Light in spirit and in truth;-every thing tends to elevate my soul, and to inspire it with sentiments difficult to describe. But with what grief do I reflect upon the present state of the unhappy descendants of those ancient witnesses to the crucified Redeemer! A miserable and degenerate race, whose moral and physical aspect reminds the Christian, that sin and death are the only true inheritance of the children of Adam. Now you can scarcely find one among them who has any true knowledge of the Saviour, although they almost all testify the greatest veneration for the Holy Scriptures. But, though they are nothing in themselves, let us hope that they are well beloved for their fathers' sakes, and that the Lord will once more permit the light of his countenance and the rays of his grace to shine upon those places, which he formerly chose for his sanctuary." p. 134.

It was the wretchedness of these poor mountaineers in the three highest villages of Val Fressinière, that induced Neff to devote more of his time to them than to any other quarter of his parish: seeing them deprived of almost every temporal enjoyment, he determined to give them all the spiritual comfort he 'could impart. Nor were his labours bestowed upon an ungrateful soil. For the details of his proceedings and their results, we must refer our readers to the Memoir. In emulation of the example of Oberlin, he became for their sakes, mason, carpenter, architect, engineer, agriculturist; working with his own hands at the head of his reluctant parishioners, and by this means shaming them into exertions for the common benefit. In order to qualify himself to become their schoolmaster also, he determined to make himself master of the patois of Dauphiné; and in this he succeeded. In a miserable stable, the only schoolroom, this admirable man was to be seen patiently teaching his young parishioners the elements of the French language; and then, to vary the dull routine of reading and spelling, and to keep his pupils in good humour, giving them lessons in music. The happy result of his experiments made him feel anxious to have a better accommodation for his school; and having persuaded each family in Dormilleuse to furnish a man to work under his directions, the good Pastor undertook to build a schoolroom, which was speedily completed. His crowning work was the institution of a normal (or model) school for training adults to become teachers. It was the most difficult and irksome, but the most important of all his labours. And it was his last; for, the unremitted attention which it required, added to the severity of the winter of 1826, 7, broke up his shattered constitution. He has left an interesting record of the motives which induced him to undertake this drudgery, and of the difficulties he had to surmount. Dormilleuse was the spot which he chose for his scene

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