ANTIQUITIES. 



423 



written on vellum in the 12th 

 century^ and given to the Char- 

 treuse of Shene b}' king Hen- 

 ry V. its founder ; it was in 

 perfect preservation . There 

 were likewise preserved many 

 other manuscripts, and many 

 church ornaments and paint- 

 ings, which had been brought 

 over from England in 1 559- At 

 the final suppression in 1783, 

 all these were dispersed, and 

 many of them lost. The ma- 

 nuscript Bible, spoken of above, 

 was destined for the royal li- 

 brary at Brussels, but never 

 got thither, nor could I ever 

 learxi what became of it. 

 2. Brigittine Nuns. 



These religious women were of 

 Sion-house, in Middlesex, now 



a seat of the duke of Northum- 

 berland, where they had been 

 re-established by queen Mary. 

 In the year 1559 they obtain- 

 ed, by means of the Spanish 

 ambassador, duke of Feria, a 

 safe conduct to leave the na- 

 tion ; and they retired first into 

 Zealand : from thence they 

 went to Antwerp, where they 

 resided in 1571, and some 

 time after. Civil wars raging 

 in the Low Countries, and 

 especially at Antwerp, these 

 nuns were obliged to seek some 

 other refuge, and fled into 

 Normandy, and from thence 

 they went to Lisbon,* where 

 they had obtained a settlement 

 which subsists to the present 

 time, and is now almost the 



" The following curious particulars respecting tliese nuns were communicated 

 by the learned Mr. Correa de Serra, F. S. A. &c. in a letter to the secretary, dated 

 Pentonville, 10th of March, 1800. — " Sir, from the two Portuguese books, quoted 

 in the end of this note, and which are in the library of chevalier d'Almeyda, our 

 ambassador, I have been able to collect the following information : 



"On the fourth day of May, in the year 1594, arrived in the port of Lisbon 

 fifteen English nuns of tiie order of St. Bridget, with a novice, accompanied by 

 three fathers of the same order. They were the only remaining part of the com- 

 munity of Mount Sion, near London, which, before the abolition of that monastery, 

 consisted of sixty nuns and twenty-five friers, who after that disastrous event had 

 Afandered through France and Flanders, in an unsettled state, and forced by the war? 

 to change often their asylum. On their arrival at Lisbon, they were hospitably re- 

 ceived by the Franciscan nuns of the monastery of our lady la Esperanca, and in 

 that convent they lived, till Isabel de Azevedo, a noble lady, made them a gift of 

 some houses and grounds in the place called Mocambo, where they built their church 

 and monastery. The then reigning sovereign Philip 11. endowed them with a pen- 

 sion of two milreas per diem (1 1 shillings 1 penny halfpenny), and twelve mayos of 

 wheat yearly (^36 English quarters), paid from the revenue of the fens belonging to 

 the crown at Santarem . This revenue they enjoy at present, and besides that, several 

 legacies of houses and lands. As far back as 1712, their revenue was valued at five 

 thousand cruzados. The sacraments are administered to them by two secular priests, 

 one of whom is also the administrator of the temporal concerns of the community. 



"On the 17th of August, 1651, both church and monastery were burnt to the 

 ground, and the nuns of Esperanca afforded again for five years an asylum to the 

 distressed English nuns. In the same year, 1651, on the second of October, the 

 first stone was laid in the foundations of the new building, and in 1656 they returned 

 to their present monastery. The church was finished some time after, by the 

 benefaction of Ruy Correa Lucas, and his wife, D. Milicia, who remained with the 

 honours and profits of the advowson. 



Geografia Hi^torica of Lima, t. II. p. 150. 



Corografia Portuguesa of Carvaliio, t. III. p. 515, and following. 



