The fifth, or lowest class, besides writing and arithmetic, learn the Latin grammar.

The fourth are taught out of an easy collection of Latin sentences, called Chrestomathia.

The third enter upon the more difficult passages in the Chrestomathia, Phædrus's fables, and the Greek grammar.

The second learn the Greek grammar, Cæsar, Quintus Curtius, and Ovid.

The first class read Cicero, Sallust, Livy, Virgil, Horace, and Greek Testament, and geography.

I did not see any of these authors except in the shape of collections, and select passages; and there were no dictionaries, but such as were lent by the master. The art of prosody and scanning did not form part of the routine of instruction. The price of books is a heavy tax and drawback upon the rustic scholars of the valleys, and it is for this reason, that they have no authors entire. Almost all the books in use come from Lausanne, and the impost at the custom-house is heavy. The first cost of a Greek grammar is three francs; a Latin grammar, two; the Chrestomathia, three; the selection from Livy, Sallust, and Cicero, three and three quarters; a dictionary, nine. The duty and carriage add materially to these charges.

The geographical instruction communicated to these lads is contained in a thin duodecimo, which presents the merest outline, but M. Monastier has taken great pains in drawing up and writing out a

Y

system of his own, which the boys copy for their

use.

The hours of attendance are from seven to ten, and from two to four in the summer; and from eight to eleven, and from two to four in winter. It must be remembered that all the scholars, except two or three who board with M. Monastier, come daily from some distance, from the village and hamlets of La Torre, from Villar, San Giovanni, and Angrogna. At the time of which I am speaking, there were none from Rora or Bobi, in Val Luserna, two only from Villar, and two from Angrogna; not one from the valleys of Perosa and San Martino. San Giovanni and La Torre supplied the greatest number. The reason is, that the parents cannot often afford to pay for the board and lodgings of their children away from home, and such only attend the grammar-school, who can go and return the same day. And yet the sum for which M. Monastier would furnish bed, board, and washing, is only 20 francs a month, reckoning ten months to the year, and charging nothing for vacations.

Under all these disadvantages I was surprised to find how well the boys were grounded. Whatever they learnt, they had learnt well. It was my favourite practice, before the school broke up for the summer holidays, to stroll up to the presbytery, and to see M. Monastier and his scholars at their studies. They answered my questions with

great good humour and readiness, without the least shyness, and did credit both to their master and to themselves. I was particularly pleased with a boy of the first class, only eleven and a half years old, Pierre Meille of San Giovanni, who construed Virgil, in a passage to which I turned at random, and replied to some mythological and grammatical questions, which I put to him, with an accuracy which shewed that he had lost no time. Another boy, Paul Caffarelli, repeated rules from the Greek grammar, which he had learnt some time back, as fluently as if they had been the lesson of yesterday. These were satisfactory proofs that the foundation is well laid, and made me regret the more, that the master and his promising pupils had not more of those advantages, which are indispensable to the prosperity of such an establishment.

CHAPTER VII.

Villar and its hamlets.

Villar.

Hamlet Readers. Gunpowder plot at Present harmony between Protestants and Roman Catholics. The old Soldier of Liossa. The Virgin of the Pillar. Bobi. Ruins of the Fort of Sibaud. The Vaudois Pastor's Charge. The hero Jahier. Octavia Solara.

JULY 7-11. This week was spent in making excursions to various quarters of the Val Luserna. The pastors of Villar and Bobi had put us in requisition, and from their presbyteries we found our way to some of the retired hamlets in the upper part of the valley. The road to Bobi is so far practicable for a carriage, but our only mode of travelling from the time we arrived at La Torre, was on a pony or mule, or on foot.

On our way to Villar, west of La Torre, we visited the small school of the hamlet of Theynaud, held in an out-building belonging to a farm, the property of M. Bonjour's family. The room was about fourteen feet square; and, in the winter, between forty and fifty children of the hamlet congregate together in this small space. Theynaud, the first hamlet after crossing the Carofratre torrent, the boundary stream between Villar and