UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 187 



hordes of manuscripts now dormant in the pub- 

 lic libraries !" 



" Yet," said my uncle, " it is not a new dis- 

 covery ; the celebrated Montfaucon endeavoured 

 to draw the attention of the learned world to 

 these palimpsest parchments just a century ago; 

 but antiquaries are not put into zealous activity 

 quite so easily as you imagine. In that long 

 interval, nothing very material seems to have 

 been effected till the present accomplished 

 librarian of the Vatican devoted himself to the 

 subject ; and the success with which his efforts 

 have been already crowned, more than justify 

 the sanguine hopes which I expressed. Other 

 industrious labourers are also in the field, 

 and what has been already achieved is only a 

 pledge of the rich harvest that will distinguish 

 this age." 



6th. In conversing about our approaching 

 journey, and the fine mountainous tracks that 

 we are to see in Wales, Wentworth asked the 

 meaning of the word pen, which is prefixed to 

 some of the Welsh names, as Pen-man-mawr, 

 for instance. 



" It is an old British word," my uncle told 

 him, *' signifying head or summit; and it is joined 

 to the names of several of those hills, amongst 

 the inhabitants of which much of that ancient 

 dialect is still to be found. 



