Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino | Page 9

below. There was no
sound save the subdued but ceaseless roar of the Ticino, and the
Piumogna. Involuntarily I found the following passage from the
"Messiah" sounding in my ears, and felt as though Handel, who in his
travels as a young man doubtless saw such places, might have had one
of them in his mind when he wrote the divine music which he has
wedded to the words "of them that sleep." {2}
[At this point in the book a music score is given]
Or again: {3}
[At this point in the book a music score is given]
From Calpiognia I came down to Primadengo, and thence to Faido.

CHAPTER III
--Primadengo, Calpiognia, Dalpe, Cornone, and Prato

Next morning I thought I would go up to Calpiognia again. It was
Sunday. When I got up to Primadengo I saw no one, and heard nothing,
save always the sound of distant waterfalls; all was spacious and full of
what Mr. Ruskin has called a "great peacefulness of light." The village
was so quiet that it seemed as though it were deserted; after a minute or
so, however, I heard a cherry fall, and looking up, saw the trees were
full of people. There they were, crawling and lolling about on the
boughs like caterpillars, and gorging themselves with cherries. They
spoke not a word either to me or to one another. They were too happy
and goodly to make a noise; but they lay about on the large branches,
and ate and sighed for content and ate till they could eat no longer.
Lotus eating was a rough nerve-jarring business in comparison. They
were like saints and evangelists by Filippo Lippi. Again the rendering
of Handel came into my mind, and I thought of how the goodly

fellowship of prophets praised God. {4}
[At this point in the book a music score is given]
And how again in some such another quiet ecstasy the muses sing
about Jove's altar in the "Allegro and Penseroso."
Here is a sketch of Primadengo Church--looking over it on to the other
side the Ticino, but I could not get the cherry-trees nor cherry-eaters.
On leaving Primadengo I went on to Calpiognia, and there too I found
the children's faces all purple with cherry juice; thence I ascended till I
got to a monte, or collection of chalets, about 5680 feet above the sea.
It was deserted at this season. I mounted farther and reached an alpe,
where a man and a boy were tending a mob of calves. Going still higher,
I at last came upon a small lake close to the top of the range: I find this
lake given in the map as about 7400 feet above the sea. Here, being
more than 5000 feet above Faido, I stopped and dined.
I have spoken of a monte and of an alpe. An alpe, or alp, is not, as so
many people in England think, a snowy mountain. Mont Blanc and the
Jungfrau, for example, are not alps. They are mountains with alps upon
them.
An alpe is a tract of the highest summer pasturage just below the
snow-line, and only capable of being grazed for two or three months in
every year. It is held as common land by one or more villages in the
immediate neighbourhood, and sometimes by a single individual to
whom the village has sold it. A few men and boys attend the whole
herd, whether of cattle or goats, and make the cheese, which is
apportioned out among the owners of the cattle later on. The pigs go up
to be fattened on whey. The cheese is not commonly made at the alpe,
but as soon as the curd has been pressed clear of whey, it is sent down
on men's backs to the village to be made into cheese. Sometimes there
will be a little hay grown on an alpe, as at Gribbio and in Piora; in this
case there will be some chalets built, which will be inhabited for a few
weeks and left empty the rest of the year.
The monte is the pasture land immediately above the highest enclosed
meadows and below the alpe. The cattle are kept here in spring and
autumn before and after their visit to the alpe. The monte has many
houses, dairies, and cowhouses,--being almost the paese, or village, in
miniature. It will always have its chapel, and is inhabited by so
considerable a number of the villagers, for so long a time both in spring

and autumn, that they find it worth while to make themselves more
comfortable than is necessary for the few who make the short summer
visit to the alpe.
Every inch of the ascent was good, but the descent was even better on