alueless to the monks,
and were not saleable in the bazaar at Constantinople, Smyrna, Salonica,
or any neighbouring city? However, before I went away, as a salve to my
conscience I gave some money to the church. The authorities accompanied
me beyond the outer gate, and by the kindness of the agoumenos mules
were provided to take us down to the sea-shore, where we found our
clerical mariners ready for us. One of the monks, who wished for a
passage to Xeropotamo, accompanied us; and, turning our boat's head
again to the north-west, we arrived before long a second time below the
lofty rock of

SIMOPETRA.

This monastery was founded by St. Simon the Anchorite, of whose history
I was unable to learn anything. The buildings are connected with the
side of the mountain by a fine aqueduct, which has a grand effect,
perched as it is at so great a height above the sea, and consisting of
two rows of eleven arches, one above the other, with one lofty arch
across a chasm immediately under the walls of the monastery, which, as
seen from this side, resembles an immense square tower, with several
rows of wooden balconies or galleries projecting from the walls at a
prodigious height from the ground. It was no slight effort of gymnastics
to get up to the door, where I was received with many grotesque bows by
an ancient porter. I was ushered into the presence of the agoumenos, who
sat in a hall, surrounded by a reverend conclave of his bearded and
long-haired monks; and after partaking of sweetmeats and water, and a
cup of coffee, according to custom, but no pipes--for the divines of
Mount Athos do not indulge in smoking--they took me to the church and to
the library.

In the latter I found a hundred and fifty manuscripts, of which fifty
were on vellum, all works of divinity, and not above ten or twelve of
them fine books. I asked permission to purchase three, to which they
acceded. These were the 'Life and Works of St. John Climax, Agoumenos of
Mount Sinai,' a quarto of the eleventh century; the 'Acts and Epistles,'
a noble folio written in large letters, in double columns: a very fine
manuscript, the letters upright and not much joined together: at the end
is an inscription in red letters, which may contain the date, but it is
so faint that I could not make it out. The third was a quarto of the
four Gospels, with a picture of an evangelist at the beginning of each
Gospel. Whilst I was arranging the payment for these manuscripts, a