Chapter I: Front Matter

[Picture: Public domain book cover]

[Picture: Mortuary Chapel at Soazza (etching)]

ALPS AND SANCTUARIES
Of Piedmont And the Canton Ticino
(Op. 6)

By Samuel Butler

Author of “Erewhon,” “Life and Habit,” “The Way of All Flesh,” etc.

_New and Enlarged Edition_, _with Author’s Revisions_
_and Index_, _and an Introduction by R. A. Streatfeild_

[Picture: St. Maria della Neve]

London: A. C. Fifield, 13 Clifford’s Inn, E.C.
1913

* * * * *

WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD., PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH

Introduction

THE publication of a new and revised edition of “Alps and Sanctuaries” at a much reduced price and in a handier and more portable form than the original will, I hope, draw general attention to a book which has been undeservedly neglected. “Alps and Sanctuaries” has hitherto been the Cinderella of the Butler family. While her sisters, both elder and younger, have been steadily winning their way to high places at the feast, she has sat unrecognised and unhonoured in the ashes. For this, of course, the high price of the book, which was originally issued at a guinea, was largely responsible, as well as its unmanageable size and cumbrousness. But Time has revenges in his wallet for books as well as for men, and I cannot but believe that a new life is in store for one of the wisest, wittiest and tenderest of Butler’s books.

“Alps and Sanctuaries” originally appeared at a time (1881) when the circle of Butler’s readers had shrunk to very narrow dimensions. “Erewhon” (1872) had astonished and delighted the literary world, but “The Fair Haven” (1873) had alienated the sympathies of the orthodox, and “Life and Habit” (1877) and its successors “Evolution, Old and New” (1879) and “Unconscious Memory” (1880) had made him powerful and relentless enemies in the field of science. In 1881 Butler was, as he often termed himself, a literary pariah, and “Alps and Sanctuaries” was received for the most part with contemptuous silence or undisguised hostility. Now that Butler is a recognised classic, his twentieth-century readers may care to be reminded of the reception that was accorded to this—one of the most genial and least polemical of his works. Very few papers reviewed it at all, and in only four or five cases was it honoured with a notice more than a few lines long.

Strange as it may seem, Butler’s best friends were the Roman Catholics. _The Weekly Register_ praised “Alps and Sanctuaries” almost unreservedly, and _The Tablet_ became positively lyrical over it. The fact is that about this time Butler was dallying with visions of a _rapprochement_ between the Church of Rome and the “advanced wing of the Broad Church party,” to which he always declared that he belonged. In the second edition of “Evolution, Old and New,” which was published in 1882, there is a remarkable chapter, entitled “Rome and Pantheism,” in which Butler holds out an olive branch to the Vatican, and suggests that if Rome would make certain concessions with regard to the miraculous element of Christianity she might win the adherence of liberal-minded men, who are equally disgusted by the pretensions of scientists and the dissensions of Protestants.

“Alps and Sanctuaries” contains nothing like a definite eirenicon, but it is pervaded by a genuine if somewhat vague sympathy for Roman institutions, which, emphasised as it is by some outspoken criticism of Protestantism, will serve to explain the welcome that it received in Roman Catholic circles. Nevertheless, one may venture to doubt whether Butler felt altogether at ease in the society of his new friends, and it was probably with rather mixed feelings that he read _The Tablet’s_ description of “Alps and Sanctuaries” as “a book that Wordsworth would have gloated over with delight.” On the other hand, the compliment paid to his little discourse on the “wondrous efficacy of crosses and crossing,” which the pious _Tablet_ read in a devotional rather than a biological sense and characterised as “so very suggestive and moral that it might form part of a sermon,” must have pleased him almost as much as _The Rock’s_ naïf acceptance of “The Fair Haven” as a defence of Protestant orthodoxy.

“Alps and Sanctuaries” is essentially a holiday book, and no one ever enjoyed a holiday more keenly than Butler. “When a man is in his office,” he used to say, “he should be exact and precise, but his holiday is his garden, and too much precision here is a mistake.” He acted up to his words, and in “Alps and Sanctuaries” we see him in his most unbuttoned mood, giving the rein to his high spirits and letting his fantastic humour carry him whither it would. Butler always spent his holidays in Italy, a country which he had known and loved from his earliest childhood, and for which the passing years only increased his affection. Few Englishmen have ever studied her people, her landscape and her art with deeper sympathy and understanding, and she never received a sincerer tribute than the book which Butler dedicated to his “second country” as “a thank-offering for the happiness she has afforded me.”

Butler used to declare that he wrote his books so that he might have something to read in his old age, knowing what he liked much better than any one else could do. But though he cared little for contemporary popularity, no man valued intelligent appreciation more highly. He recorded in his “Note-books” with evident delight the remark made by a lady after reading “Alps and Sanctuaries”: “You seem to hear him speaking,” adding, “I don’t think I ever heard a criticism of my books which pleased me better.” The story of another unsolicited testimonial I must give in his own words:

“One day in the autumn of 1886 I walked up to Piora from Airolo, returning the same day. At Piora I met a very nice quiet man whose name I presently discovered, and who, I have since learned, is a well-known and most liberal employer of labour somewhere in the north of England. He told me that he had been induced to visit Piora by a book which had made a great impression upon him. He could not recollect its title, but it had made a great impression upon him; nor yet could he recollect the author’s name, but the book had made a great impression upon him; he could not remember even what else there was in the book; the only thing he knew was that it had made a great impression upon him.

“This is a good example of what is called a residuary impression. Whether or no I told him that the book which had made such a great impression upon him was called ‘Alps and Sanctuaries,’ and that it had been written by the person he was addressing, I cannot tell. It would have been very like me to have blurted it all out and given him to understand how fortunate he had been in meeting me. This would be so fatally like me that the chances are ten to one that I did it; but I have, thank Heaven, no recollection of sin in this respect, and have rather a strong impression that, for once in my life, I smiled to myself and said nothing.”

Butler always remembered with satisfaction that “Alps and Sanctuaries” gained him the friendship of Dr. Mandell Creighton. In her biography of her husband, Mrs. Creighton mentions that the Bishop had been reading “Alps and Sanctuaries,” which charmed him so much that he determined to visit some of the places described therein. On his return to England, Dr. Creighton wrote to Butler, telling him how much “Alps and Sanctuaries” had added to the pleasure of his trip, and begged him to come to Peterborough and pay him a visit. The story is told in Butler’s “Note-books,” but I cannot resist the temptation to repeat it:

“The first time that Dr. Creighton asked me to come down to Peterborough, I was a little doubtful whether to go or not. As usual, I consulted my good clerk Alfred, who said:

“‘Let me have a look at his letter, sir.’

“I gave him the letter, and he said:

“‘I see, sir, there is a crumb of tobacco in it; I think you may go.’

“I went, and enjoyed myself very much. I should like to add that there are few men who have ever impressed me so profoundly and so favourably as Dr. Creighton. I have often seen him since, both at Peterborough and at Fulham, and like and admire him most cordially.”

“Alps and Sanctuaries” was published a few months before the opening of the St. Gothard tunnel in 1882. That event naturally made many and great changes in the Val Leventina, and we who know the valley only as a thoroughfare for shrieking smoking expresses, can scarcely realise its ancient peace in the days of which Butler wrote. But apart from the incursion of the railway, Butler’s beloved valleys have changed but little since “Alps and Sanctuaries” was written. A few more roads have been made, and a few more hotels have been built. Butler’s prediction to the effect that the next great change in locomotion in the Ticinese valleys “would have something to do with electricity”—a prediction which in 1881 was by no means so obvious as a twentieth-century reader might suppose—has been strikingly fulfilled. Electric railways now run up the Val Blenio from Biasca to Acquarossa, half-way to Olivone; up the Val Mesocco from Bellinzona to Mesocco, and from Locarno up the Val Maggia to Bignasco. Ere long they will doubtless penetrate the higher recesses of the valleys. Many of the “nice people” mentioned in “Alps and Sanctuaries” have passed away. Signer Dazio no longer reigns in Fusio; his hotel is in other hands, “and from the sign is gone Sibylla’s name.” Signor Guglielmoni has long since fallen a victim to the rigours of the Alpine winter, which Butler so feelingly describes. At S. Michele, however, there are still some monks who remember Butler and a copy of “Alps and Sanctuaries,” given by him to the Sanctuary, is one of their most cherished possessions. The lapse of thirty years has left S. Michele unaltered, so far as I could see a few years ago, save for the arm-chairs made out of clipped box-trees. These have fallen grievously from their high estate as depicted on p. 103, and are now deplorably thin and ragged.

I think that Butler must at one time have intended to bring out a new edition of “Alps and Sanctuaries”—the so-called second edition published in 1882 by Mr. David Bogue being merely a re-issue of the original sheets with a new title-page—since he took the trouble to compile an elaborate and highly characteristic index, the manuscript of which is bound up in a copy of the so-called second edition now in my possession. This idea he seems to have abandoned, and he did not revise the text of the book, beyond correcting two or three misprints. He continued, however, to accumulate material for a possible sequel, and at his death he left a large mass of rough notes recording impressions of many holiday expeditions to various parts of Italy, in particular to his favourite Lombard and Ticinese valleys. Mr. Festing Jones and I have examined these notes with great care, and from them Mr. Jones, who was, I need hardly say, Butler’s constant companion both at home and abroad, and his collaborator in the original “Alps and Sanctuaries,” has constructed one entirely new chapter, “Fusio Revisited,” and made considerable additions to Chapter X. I have, in addition, borrowed two passages, relating respectively to Bellinzona (p. 198) and Varese (p. 257) from Butler’s recently published “Note-books,” and Mr. Jones has kindly allowed me to take the note on Medea Colleone and her _passero solitario_ (p. 23) from his “Diary of a Journey through North Italy and Sicily.” I have revised the original text of the book, into which some trifling errors had crept, and have completed the index by adding references to the new matter. I have also ventured to consign to an appendix the original Chapter IX, “Reforms instituted at S. Michele in the year 1478,” which contains a summary of certain documents relating to the Sanctuary. These are valuable to scholars and students, but are not likely to interest the ordinary reader, and I am following the suggestion of a friend in transplanting the chapter bodily to the end of the book. The illustrations, all save six which the reader will easily distinguish, are printed from the original Dawson-Process blocks, which are interesting examples of early photo-engraving work.

Mr. Fifield’s determination to make the present edition handy and portable has unfortunately compelled him to abandon Mr. Charles Gogin’s design for the original cover, which requires a larger volume than would in the present case be convenient. Readers who propose to carry the book from S. Ambrogio up to the Sanctuary of S. Michele will, I am sure, acquiesce in the sacrifice.

My last words must be an expression of cordial thanks to Mr. Festing Jones, whose help and counsel have been invaluable to me in preparing the book for republication.

R. A. STREATFEILD.

_May_, 1913.

Author’s Preface to First Edition

I SHOULD perhaps apologise for publishing a work which professes to deal with the sanctuaries of Piedmont, and saying so little about the most important of them all—the Sacro Monte of Varallo. My excuse must be, that I found it impossible to deal with Varallo without making my book too long. Varallo requires a work to itself; I must, therefore, hope to return to it on another occasion.

For the convenience of avoiding explanations, I have treated the events of several summers as though they belonged to only one. This can be of no importance to the reader, but as the work is chronologically inexact, I had better perhaps say so.

The illustrations by Mr. H. F. Jones are on pages 95, 211, 225, 238, 254, 260. The frontispiece and the illustrations on the title-page and on pages 261, 262 are by Mr. Charles Gogin. There are two drawings on pages 136, 137 by an Italian gentleman whose name I have unfortunately lost, and whose permission to insert them I have, therefore, been unable to obtain, and one on page 138 by Signor Gaetano Meo. The rest are mine, except that all the figures in my drawings are in every case by Mr. Charles Gogin, unless when they are merely copied from frescoes or other sources. The two larger views of Oropa are chiefly taken from photographs. The rest are all of them from studies taken upon the spot.

I must acknowledge the great obligations I am under to Mr. H. F. Jones as regards the letterpress no less than the illustrations; I might almost say that the book is nearly as much his as mine, while it is only through the care which he and another friend have exercised in the revision of my pages that I am able to let them appear with some approach to confidence.

_November_, 1881.

Table of Contents

PAGE
INTRODUCTION, BY R. A. STREATFEILD 5
AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 11
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 15
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTION 17
II. FAIDO 22
III. PRIMADENGO, CALPIOGNIA, DALPE, CORNONE, AND 33
PRATO
IV. ROSSURA, CALONICO 49
V. CALONICO (_continued_) AND GIORNICO 59
VI. PIORA 77
VII. S. MICHELE AND THE MONTE PIRCHIRIANO 86
VIII. S. MICHELE (_continued_) 92
IX. THE NORTH ITALIAN PRIESTHOOD 106
X. S. AMBROGIO AND NEIGHBOURHOOD 113
XI. LANZO 131
XII. CONSIDERATIONS ON THE DECLINE OF ITALIAN ART 141
XIII. VIÙ, FUCINE, AND S. IGNAZIO 160
XIV. SANCTUARY OF OROPA 169
XV. OROPA (_continued_) 175
XVI. GRAGLIA 188
XVII. SOAZZA AND THE VALLEY OF MESOCCO 198
XVIII. MESOCCO, S. BERNARDINO, AND S. MARIA IN 207
CALANCA
XIX. THE MENDRISIOTTO 228
XX. SANCTUARY ON MONTE BISBINO 237
XXI. A DAY AT THE CANTINE 243
XXII. SACRO MONTE, VARESE 249
XXIII. ANGERA AND ARONA 258
XXIV. LOCARNO 268
XXV. FUSIO 277
XXVI. FUSIO REVISITED 287
APPENDIX A. WEDNESBURY COCKING 305
APPENDIX B. REFORMS INSTITUTED AT S. MICHELE 309
IN THE YEAR 1478
AUTHOR’S INDEX 326

List of Illustrations

MORTUARY CHAPEL AT SOAZZA (ETCHING) _Frontispiece_ STA. MARIA DELLA NEVE _Title-page_ PRATO FROM NEAR DAZIO 26 TICINESE BARLEY-STACKS 29 CAMPO SANTO AT CALPIOGNIA 30 PRIMADENGO 35 DALPE 37 PRATO, AND VALLEY OF ST. GOTHARD 43 PRATO CHURCH PORCH, NO. 1 45 PRATO CHURCH PORCH, NO. 2 48 ROSSURA CHURCH 49 ROSSURA CHURCH PORCH 50 ROSSURA CHURCH PORCH IN 1879 53 TENGIA, NO. 1 56 TENGIA, NO. 2 57 CALONICO CHURCH, NO. 1 64 CALONICO CHURCH, NO. 2 65 MAIN DOORWAY, S. NICOLAO 73 INTERIOR OF OLD CHURCH, GIORNICO 74 CHAPEL OF S. CARLO, PIORA 81 S. MICHELE FROM NEAR BUSSOLENO 86 S. MICHELE 86 S. MICHELE FROM S. PIETRO 93 S. MICHELE, NEAR VIEW 95 S. MICHELE, FROM PATH TO AVIGLIANA 95 MAIN ENTRANCE TO THE SANCTUARY 96 STEPS LEADING TO THE CHURCH, NO. 1 98 STEPS LEADING TO THE CHURCH, NO. 2 100 GARDEN AT THE SANCTUARY OF S. MICHELE 103 INN AT S. AMBROGIO 113 S. GIORIO—COMBA DI SUSA 115 CASINA DI BANDA 119 VOTIVE PICTURE 121 MEDIÆVAL TOWER AT LANZO 132 PIAZZA AT LANZO 133 STUDY BY AN ITALIAN AMATEUR, NO. 1 136 STUDY BY AN ITALIAN AMATEUR, NO. 2 137 STUDY BY A SELF-TAUGHT ITALIAN 138 PARADISO! PARADISO! 145 BY AN ITALIAN SCHOOLBOY 147 AVOGADRO’S VIEW OF S. MICHELE 149 FUNERAL OF TOM MOODY 159 S. IGNAZIO, NEAR LANZO 161 FRESCO NEAR CERES 161 VIÙ CHURCH 162 FUCINE, NEAR VIÙ 164 FAÇADE OF THE SANCTUARY OF OROPA 172 INNER COURT OF SANCTUARY OF OROPA 174 CHAPELS AT OROPA 175 CHAPEL OF S. CARLO AT GRAGLIA 189 SANCTUARY OF GRAGLIA 194 SOAZZA CHURCH 203 CASTLE OF MESOCCO 208 S. CRISTOFORO 209 FRESCO AT MESOCCO—MARCH 211 FRESCO AT MESOCCO—APRIL 211 FRESCO AT MESOCCO—MAY 212 FRESCO AT MESOCCO—AUGUST 212 APPROACH TO STA. MARIA 224 STA. MARIA, APPROACH TO CHURCH 225 FRONT VIEW OF STA. MARIA 226 TOP OF MONTE BISBINO 238 VEDUTA DEL MONTE BISBINO 240 TABLE ON MONTE BISBINO 241 CHAPEL OF S. NICOLAO 241 SOMMAZZO 247 SACRO MONTE OF VARESE 253 SACRO MONTE OF VARESE, NEARER VIEW 254 TERRACE AT THE SACRO MONTE, VARESE 255 SACRO MONTE FROM ABOVE 256 CASTLE OF ANGERA 259 CASTLE OF ANGERA, FROM S. QUIRICO 260 TERRACE AT CASTLE OF ANGERA, NO. 1 261 TERRACE AT CASTLE OF ANGERA, NO. 2 262 ROOM IN WHICH S. CARLO BORROMEO WAS BORN 263 SACRO MONTE, LOCARNO, NO. 1 269 SACRO MONTE, LOCARNO, NO. 2 270 CLOISTER AT SACRO MONTE, LOCARNO 271 FUSIO FROM THE CEMETERY 279 STREET VIEW IN FUSIO 280