1809.] 
endowed by different persons, at Hae 
ent times, which contain, one with ano- 
ther, upwards of two hundred monks, 
in the whole making nearly six thousand,’ 
who are highly esteemed by all who ad- 
here to the Greek church. These mo- 
nasteries are encompassed. with strong 
and high walls, both to defend! them. 
_ from the sea and the assaults of pirates, 
most of them being built near to the 
shore. Vhe monks all live a rigid and 
asceuc lifewearing only a russet woollen 
garment, without any linen, and faring 
very hard. - They eat no flesh, and there- 
fore keep no tame creatures, neither 
fowls nor beasts of any kind. Their 
principal food is dry olives, raw onions, 
beans soaked in water and then salted; 
bisket bread, and fish, either fresh or 
salted. But, in lent time, they eat no 
sort of fish that bas blood in it. They 
are all employed in some manual busi- 
ness, and perform all the common of- 
fices of life for each other, without call- 
ing in any foreign assistance: They are 
extremely ignorant; and it is a rare 
thing to find one or two in a monasiery 
who can write or read: But where any 
one has so much knowledge of the Greek 
tongue as to read their public service, 
(which is written in that language), it 
commonly gives him some authority 
among them, and he leads the rest in 
chanting their. devotion. They have 
some divinity books, but none of poetry, 
history, or philosophy; and would be ex- 
communicated, if they read any thing but 
divinity. They are sttbject to the juris- 
diction of the’ Patriarch of Constanti- 
nople. As they are not allowed to 
marry, their numbers are kept up by per- 
sons who go among them, and take upon 
 themselvesithat way of life: 
their first coming, deliver | up their ef- 
fects for the common use of the monas- 
tery. They are hospitable to strangers, 
and treat them in the manner they live 
» themselves, without expense.* 
This is the substance of that writer’s 
account. But John Comenus, a_physi- 
cian of Wallachia (who staid in Mount 
Athos a considerable time), at the begin- 
“ping of this century, published a more_ 
particular description of their monaste- 
ries in the vulgar Greek language, which 
was afterwards translated into Latin, by 
the learned. father Montfuucon, and put 
 at_the énd of his Paleograpbia Greca. 
Though the greatest part of what he says, 
* Tes observations de~ plusicurs singularités 
tugt choses memor ables, trouvées en Gréce, Se, 
a Lib, 7. ¢. BO, ett. en Anvers, Sve. 1555. 
*" e 
we 
Contreras of W ales, tis Marches, Ke. 
‘others in binding them.” 
who, upon 
At 
relating to the vast number of relics pre= 
served in them, and the miracles per- 
formed there, seem entirely fabulous; 
for, if any credit isto he given to his 
narrative, the monks were not altogether 
so ignorant in his time, as father Belon, 
represents them, For he tells us “some of 
them were emploved in copying books,and 
And, in speak- 
ing of their libraries, he says, “‘ You may, 
see there a great number of ancient ma-, 
nuscripts, never yet published, and to 
many unknown, full of all wisdom, di- 
vine knowledge, and sublime thought; 
books of divinity, and many in every 
other science.”* So that father Belon, 
seems not to have been very inquisitive in 
examining their libraries; and though 
father Montfaucon tells us, ** That he 
had never seen one buok that was writ- 
ten at Mount Athos,” when he published — 
his Palezographia Greeca, in 1702, yet, 
afterwards, in drawing up the catalogue 
of Greek manuscripts, in the Bzblzotheca 
Coislincaria, or Segueriana, published by 
him, in 1715, wherein were upwards of 
400, he says, ‘‘ He was surprised to 
find, that near half of them were brought 
from the moiastenesian that Mount.”# ~ 
And.it appears, by the account he has. 
given of them, that they consisted of va- 
rious kinds Gf lf rate: divinity, philo- 
sophy, mathematics, history, philology, 
some of them of a considerable age, and 
likewise that inany of them had been 
written there. Since the publication of 
that book, two parcels of Greek manu- 
scripts have also been brought froin 
thence into England; one, about twelve 
years since,} which was purchased by 
the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Uni- 
versity of Oxford, Dr. Mead, and ee 
Bentley; and more are yet expected, 
person being gone thither for ‘that a es 
pose, — 
I 
A short Account of the GovERNMENT of 
the PRINCIPALITY of WALES; and its 
MARCHES, or BORDERS, fromm the lime of 
the NORMAN conguestT, down to the 
REIGN Of QUEEN ELISABETH, from a 
MANUSCRIPT, written by an eminent 
WELSH HISTORIAN, about the muddle 
of the siwteenth century. 
HE principality of Wales, it is well 
known, before its conquest by King 
Edward I, was gov erned by princes 
* P, 449. 
+ In prefat. 
{ It is to be recollected, that this account 
was tigi in 1740, 
of 
