96 ISLAND OF NAXOS. 
CHAP. hi s invitation. By his kindness we were admit- 
ted to the churches, which have the privilege 
of being furnished with bells, as at Patmos. A 
Greek priest, in answer to our inquiry for Manu- 
scripts, produced from beneath an altar, lying 
upon the damp pavement of one of the sanctu- 
aries, a quarto Codex of selections from the 
Gospels, written upon vellum for the use of 
the Greek Church: this, as usual, had been 
condemned as soon as a printed copy had 
supplied its place. We easily contrived to 
purchase it; and afterwards obtained, for a 
small sum, by means of the same priest, a 
similar Manuscript, apparently of the same age, 
from one of the Greek families in the place 1 . In 
this manner, antient copies of the Gospels may 
be procured in the Archipelago, by persons who 
will be at the pains to seek for them; as, 
in our own country, the rarest English editions 
of the Scriptures may be found in counties at a 
distance from the metropolis ; where they have 
either been banished from the churches to 
make way for more modern Bibles, or laid up 
in the vestry; or in store-rooms, as waste paper, 
in private families, being too antiquated and 
(l) These are the same Manuscripts mentioned by * Professor 
Gwford, Nos. 47. 48. p. 100. of his Catalogue. Oxon. 1812. 
