The authors of poems and romances, in giving their enchanting descriptions of pastoral life, have excited a deep feeling of regret in sensitive minds, that the originals of their pictures are no where to be found. But I can console these friends of virtue, by shewing them where they may find what they have sought in vain in other parts of the world. And this happy asylum of innocence is no other than the valley of St. Martin. I have known there shepherdesses in every sense of the word, as amiable and interesting as the heroines of these romances. And if the delightful author of Estelle and Galatée had lived among them as I have done, he might have added many a lively tint to his portraits, the more charming as it would have been copied from nature and truth. But let it not be thought that my shepherdesses resemble the smart wives and daughters of our citizens then, indeed, they would have little interest in my eyes. Imagine virtue without pretensions or vanity, grace without frivolity, and amiability devoid of coquetry, and these set off by that true modesty which their simple habits inspire, and you have a true picture of my Vaudois heroines. * The translator saw no wheeled carriage in this valley, and doubts if one of any description could now be used there. ** He writes at Utrecht. Had I been born a poet, they should have formed the subject of my lays. The churches in the Valley of St Martin, as well as those of the other valleys, were formerly much more numerous. In the whole we have now but thirteen parish churches, though in the ancient records, examined by Leger, mention is made of ten other parishes to which pastors were attached; these are now annexed to the thirteen. In the valley of Cluson or Pragela, which adjoins those of St. Martin, and Perouse, were no less than six flourishing Vaudois churches, as late as 1727, when in consequence of the exchange of territory between France and the House of Savoy, all those who remained faithful to their religion, were forced into exile.* The Vaudois were also very numerous in the valleys of Queiras, Mathias, and Meane, until entirely extirpated there by Duke Charles Emmanuel in 1603. As they were in the Marquisate of Sa-luces, in 1633, where they had many churches. * Many hundreds went to Holland. Five villages, and the town of Luzerne, formerly attached to the parish church of St. Jean, have also been taken from them, in the valley of Luzerne; indeed, it is known that the Vaudois had churches in 1560, in Turin, Pignerol, and Quiers.