PIEDMONT. 
405 
in the 13th century, was annexed, by conqueft, to 
Savoy. Its prefent name it has acquired, probably from 
its fituation ad Pedem Monliurfi , at the Foot of the 
Mountains, or Alps, which feparate France from Italy. 
This country is in fome parts mountainous, but is every¬ 
where very fruitful. The plains produce fine corn, and 
Montferrat and the Milanefe yield great quantities of 
Turkey wheat, which commonly ferves for bread, and 
with which the people of the middle rank mix rye ; the 
pods are ufed for fuel, and the llalks being thick ferve 
to mend the roads. The hills produce plenty of wine, 
which, like the Italian wines, is very lufcious when new, 
efpecially the white. There is alfo a tartilh red wine 
called vino brufco, faid to be very wholefome for fat 
people; and, on the other hand, the fweet wine is re¬ 
commended as a ftomachic. The neighbourhood of 
Turin is famous for its fine fruits, and many long walks 
of chefnut and mulberry trees, which produce both 
pleafure and profit. Marons, or large chefnuts, are a 
favourite dainty among the common people; thefe are 
put into an oven; and, when thoroughly hot, and cooled 
in red wine, are dried a fecond time in the oven, and 
afterwards eaten cold. Truffles grow here in fuch abun¬ 
dance, that Piedmont has obtained the name of the 
truffle country. Some are black, others white marbled 
with red. Their price is rated according to their fize. 
Sometimes they are found of twelve or fourteen pounds 
weight; and many country people earn from fixty to 
feventy dollars a-year merely by digging for them. The 
trade in cattle is faid to bring into Piedmont no lefs than 
three millions of livres per annum. The cultivation of 
filk is alfo a profitable article ; the Piedmontefe filk 
being, on account of its finenefs and ftrength, efteemed 
the belt in Italy. The Piedmontefe gentry breed vaft 
numbers of filk-worms under the care of their tenants, 
who have the eggs and mulber r y-leaves delivered to them, 
and in return they give half the filk to their mailers. 
This principality comprehends ten fmall provinces : 
Piedmont Proper, the valleys between France and Italy, 
the valley of Saluza, the county of Nice, the marquifate 
of Sufa, the duchy of Aoft, the Canavefe, the lordfhip 
of Vetfail, the county of Aft, and the Langes. It con¬ 
tains many high mountains, among which there are rich 
and fruitful valleys, as pleafant and populous as any part 
of Italy. In the mountains are mines of feveral kinds, 
and the forelts afford a great deal of curious game. “ The 
mules (fays Mr. Watkins) are very fine in this country; 
but the inhabitants have other beads, or rather monfters, 
which they find very ferviceable, though vicious and 
obftinate. Thefe are produced by a cow and an afs, or 
mafe and bull, and called jumarres or gimerri. I cannot 
fay that I have ever feen any of them, but I am told they 
are very common.” 
The Piedmontefe are faid to be more intelligent than 
the Savoyards, but lefs fincere. Some authors reprefent 
them as lively, artful, and witty, the inhabitants of the 
mountain of Aofta excepted, who are farther diftinguiflied 
by large wens, as are their horfes, dogs, and other animals. 
Mr. Barerti, however, in his account of Italy, vol. ii. p. 
116. gives the following account of them. “ One of the 
chief qualities (fays he,) which diftinguilh the Pied- 
montdle from all other Italians, is their want of cheer- 
fulnefs. Piedmont never produced a fingle good poet, 
as far as the records of the country can go; whereas 
there is no other province of Italy but what can boaft of 
fomc poet ancient or modern ; and yet the Piedmontefe 
are not deficient in feveral branches of learning, and fome 
of them have fucceeded tolerably well in civil law, phyfic, 
and the mathematics. It is likewife obl'erved of this 
people, that none of them ever attained to any degree of 
excellence in the polite arts ; and it is but lately that 
they can boall of a painter, Cavaliero Bomente; a fta- 
tuary, Signor Lodetto; and fome architects, Conte 
Alfieri, Signor Borra, and others, who yet, to fay the 
truth, are far inferior to numberlefs artifts produced by 
Vol. XX. No. 1378. 
the other provinces of Italy. They have, on the other 
hand, greatly advanced when confidered as foldiersj 
though their troops have never been very numerous, 
every body converfant in hiltory knows the brave (land 
they made for fome centuries pad againlt the French, 
Spaniards, and Germans, whenever they have been in¬ 
vaded by thefe nations. The (kill of the Piedmontefe in 
fortification is likewife very great, and their Bertolas 
and Pintos have ftiown as much genius as the Vaubans 
and Cohorns, in rendering impregnable feveral places 
which inferior engineers would only have made fecure.” 
We mud add Lady Morgan’s account of the women. 
“ The ladies of Piedmont univerfally adopt the French 
toilet and language, and they exhibit fomething of that 
peculiar tourneur and light and pleafing pcrjiflage which 
conftitutes the principal charm of French converfation. 
But they have a grace which is not French, a grace which 
is purely Italian, the grace of fimplicity. Nothing ma- 
niere, noting conventional, nothing affeded or formal, 
can be found in the charafler of a genuine Italian woman. 
For this very reafon, perhaps, underall the difiadvantages 
of a bad education, bad government, and bigotred reli¬ 
gion, they are dill found, by thofe who are admitted to 
their intimacy, fafcinating beyond the reach of art to 
imitate.” 
In the valleys of Lucerne, Peyroufe, and St. Martin, 
which have always belonged to Piedmont, live the cele¬ 
brated Waldenfes, or Vaudois, a name which fignilies 
“ People of the Valleys.” Thefe have rendered them- 
felves famous in hiltory for their diffent from the Romifh 
church long before the time of Luther and Calvin, and 
for the perfecutions they differed on that account. 
Since the year 1730, however, they have not been openly 
molefted for their religion ; but, in order to fupprefs 
them by degrees, a popifii church has been built in every 
pariffl. They are heavily taxed, and labour under great 
oppreffions. The number of people in thefe valleys 
fcarcely at prefent exceeds 10,000, of which 1000 are Ca¬ 
tholics. The chief river of Piedmont is the Po, which 
flows out of Mount Vifo. The river Sefia, the Doria, 
Baltea, the ancient Druria, the Tenaro, and feveral others, 
run into it. The Var, anciently called the Varus, rifes 
in the county of Nice, and after watering it, empties 
itfelf into the Mediterranean. The language of the 
Piedmontefe is a mixture of French and Italian. In 
this country there are about 50 earldoms, 15 marquifates, 
a multitude of lordlhips, and 20 abbeys. Though the 
country is entirely popifti, except fome valleys inha¬ 
bited by the Waldenles, the king referves to himfeif the 
greatell part of the power in church-affairs, which in 
many other places is given up to the pope, and the con- 
ftitution unigenitus is here univerfally oppofed. Towards 
the end of the 17th century, the French king perfuaded 
the duke of Savoy to drive the Waldenfes out of the 
country; in confequence, 200,000 of them retired to Ger¬ 
many, England, and Holland; and yet they are not all 
extirpated, though, as we have obferved, they are obliged 
to have a Roman-Catholic church in every pariffl. 
With regard to its revenue, when that of Sardinia 
was eftimated at 1,085,0001. Piedmont contributed 
953,75°1. Savoy 87,500k and Sardinia only 43,750k Pied¬ 
mont contains a great number of cities, towns, and 
villages, fo that the whole country has been denominated 
a large city. Its capital is Turin, which is an archiepif- 
copal fee; befides which, there are eight bilhoprics. 
In the year 1802, the whole country was annexed to 
the French republic, and divided into fix departments, 
under the names of the Po, Doria, Marengo, Sezia, 
Stura, and Tanaro. But the whole was reftored, at the 
general peace of 1815, to Viflor-Errianuel V. king of 
Sardinia, Charles-Etnanuel IV. having abdicated in 1802. 
The king, therefore, now returned to the birth-place 
of his anceltors; and he had fcarcely repaffed the Alps, 
when the Cengrefs of Vienna aggrandized him with the 
whole territory of Genoa. Turin now recovered much 
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