18. "DEAR SIR, Winton, Dec. 8, 1795. My Controversies, I hope and believe, are now at an end; the last of them was concerning the point about which you made some inquiries,-the authenticity of the Instrument of Protestation lodged in the Museum *. On a point of this nature, which is capable of mathematical evidence, I may venture to say, that I have demonstrated the spuriousness of the said deed in a pamphlet, copies of which I have ordered to be sent to yourself and to Mr. Nichols †. In case Mr. Coglan has not sent them, I wish, Sir, you would take the trouble to send for them. I have been unwillingly dragged into this dispute, but my taking it up early, I believe, has prevented worse consequences. Our controversies in general seem now to be almost brought to a conclusion. The fact is, we are all of the same faith; but some of our number have been induced, chiefly from motives of ambition, to conceal and disguise their tenets with equivocal words adapted to that purpose. Throughout the whole, however, of this contest, truth and honesty have in the end proved uniformly triumphant. Of those whose names are known, I must except against two persons amongst us, who are not in general considered as orthodox brethren, I mean Dr. Geddes and Joseph Berington. You must have observed how earnestly I have laboured in the Gentleman's Magazine, not to confute those writers, but to pull off their masks and oblige them to declare themselves. The account of the Convents is in a great measure my work. I wish it were in my power to find any of our clergy here capable of giving any information concerning the objects of learned curiosity in their own country; they are pious and edifying men, well versed in theology, ecclesiastical history, and the scriptures, but that is all. I purpose, when I can find leisure for that purpose, to send you a letter for the Society, with a different explanation of our Baptismal Font from that with which you have favoured the public. "I have the honour to remain, dear Sir, "Your very faithful and obedient servant, JOHN Milner." 19. To Mr. NICHOLS. "DEAR SIR, Winton, Nov. 30, 1798. "I cannot fail of being greatly delighted with the honour you have done my Dissertation ‡ in the elegant manner in which you have printed it. You will observe a few errata, which I have noticed on the back of one of the titles; as also the manner in which I think it best to announce the publication of my two volumes, and of the little Essay on St. George. I am fully sensible of the great accession of weight and importance that is added to my work by Lord Orford's letter to Mr. Gough. I beg * See p. 718. + "A Reply," &c. see p. 683. VOL. V. you will present my kind compliments and thanks to the latter for the same. I have taken the liberty of making an alteration in the mode of introducing it, for two reasons, first, because I profess to publish the Dissertation as it was presented at Somerset-house; secondly, because, in page 50, (as well as I can recollect,) I have announced a conclusion to the work. Hence, without some such alteration as that which I have made, there would appear to be two conclusions. I am perfectly sensible of the honour and advantage of having your name to any literary work, especially to one on subjects of antiquity and topography. I have accordingly given directions to have your name announced in the advertisement which will appear next Sunday in the Salis. bury paper. Mr. Robbins, who is absent from Winchester at present, will, I am confident, approve of this step; and will send you copies when he does to the rest of the booksellers in London, which, I suppose, will be early next week. You will gather, Sir, from my preface, that I am no other way concerned in the present work, except by being the author of it, having made an absolute present of my labours to Mr. R. on the sole condition of having a very limited number of copies for my friends. The second volume, containing very little of a controvertible nature, but much new information (as I flatter myself) on subjects of antiquity, will probably be more generally relished than my former volume. When the Dissertation is published, I shall have occasion for eight copies, if you can spare so many; four to be sent down to me by the coach, one for the Marquess of Buckingham, Pall Mall; another for Lord Chief Baron Macdonald; another for the Rev. Mr. Douglas, No. 4, Castle-street, Holborn; and the eighth for the Rev. William Gibson, to the care of Mr. Coglan. Indeed, if all the four last mentioned copies are consigned to Mr. Coglan, it will answer my purpose as well, as he can readily forward them according to my directions. I remain, dear Sir, "Your very faithful and obedient servant, JOHN Milner." 20. Winchester, Dec. 9, 1799. "Mr. Milner presents his compliments to Mr. Nichols, and acknowledges the receipt of half a dozen copies of the Dissertation, exclusive of another half dozen delivered to Mr. Coglan, to be dispersed amongst his friends. The dozen copies for Mr. Robbins were delivered to him the night on which the parcel reached Winton, who promises in a very few days to send up some copies of the History *." The The two following Letters were first printed in Annual Biography and Obituary," to which excellent compilation the preceding memoir, previously printed in the Gentleman's Magazine, is also partially indebted. Of Winchester. 21. "MY DEAR Friend, Rome, Oct. 28, 1814. "You left me in the Christian capital on the 17th of this month, and my object then became, not indeed to forget you, for this were impossible, but to moderate the lively sense I felt at parting with you. For this purpose, I resolved upon making a little tour through that part of the Apennines which lies to the east of Rome, and which I previously knew to be the most interesting portion of the stupendous range of mountains bearing that name. Accordingly I left Rome on the day following that mentioned above, mounted on horseback, as was my servant, and I took the direction of Tivoli, the Tibur of the ancients, so much celebrated by Horace and his contemporaries. On this occasion, I passed by, unnoticed, the Thermæ of Dioclesian, part of which now forms the celebrated Church at St. Maria de Angelis; the venerable Church of St. Lawrence extra Muros (venerable on many accounts, but on none so much as for its possessing the mortal remains of the fellow-deacons and glorious martyrs, St. Stephen and St. Lawrence); the petrifying lake, of which the proofs exist in all the neighbouring walls; the sulphureous river, the stench of which infects the road to a considerable distance, in each direction of it; and the boundless villa of Adrian. In short, after a tedious and scorching ride of eighteen miles, I arrived at the enchanting scenes of Tivoli; in comparison with which, all others that I had hitherto seen, were tame and uninteresting. I speak not of the town itself, which, like the other small towns of Italy, is dirty and inconvenient, (I cannot, however, complain, upon the whole, of the inn, called from its situation the Sybil's Temple, as I there met with civil usage and good fare,) but I speak of the mountains, the woods, and the waters; of the vineyards, the palaces, and the villas; of the temples, namely, those of Tussis, Vesta, and the Sybil; the habitations of Catullus, Vespiscius, and Horace ; but, above all, of the thundering cascade, the spray of which mounts high in the air, and forms an unceasing rain; the broad lofty cascatella, and the terrific grotto of Neptune. These continue to be the inexhaustible subjects of the painter's pencil and of the poet's pen; the most celebrated of whom, describing scenes directly in front of his villa, sings thus : Me nec tam patiens Lacedæmon, Nec tam Larissæ percussit campus opimæ, Et præceps Anio, et Tiburni lucus, et uda HORACE. "Near this villa, now a convent of Franciscans, I met the present great and good Prefect of the Propaganda, Cardinal Litta, with his retinue, a nobleman of Milan, who, having devoted himself to God and the Church, serves them with equal zeal, ability, and disinterestedness. His business lying with persons of different nations, he is enabled to converse with Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Russians, and Greeks, with the same facility as with Italians. His Eminence condescended to accompany me to my inn, and conversed with me for a considerable time. To speak the truth, I find the cardinals and superior prelates, in general, well-informed and sensible men, engaging and edifying in their manners, and taken up with the duties of their respective charges. "Having spent two days at Tivoli, I shaped my course eastward, towards Sublacum, now called Subiaco, a most interesting spot to the Christian antiquary, but mostly neglected by modern tourists. Having passed by Vicovara, I found myself obliged, for the sake both of man and horse, to stop at one of the wretched inns which here and there are to be met with in the wild mountains I was traversing. The one in question, though the best of its kind, consisted of one large cave, crowded with inules, horses, asses, and their drivers, with a dresser at the further end of it, where the landlord and landlady sold coarse bread, sour wine, and horse food. The rain coming on, namely such rain as is usual in this country, resembling a river poured down from the clouds, I thought I should have been obliged to pass the night in this cavern, where a bare board would have been my only bed; but, as the rain ceased for a short time, I again mounted my steed, and hastened with as much celerity as the alternate sloughs and rough loose marble stones, of which the road consists, would permit, towards Subiaco. At length, however, I became convinced of the utter impossibility there was of my reaching that place while the light continued, and of the very great danger of travelling through such roads in the darkness of the night. I therefore, by the advice of my servant, turned out of the road to a castle and town, at the distance of two miles from it, called Arzola. The only inn here was as bad as the one I had left; but one of the most respectable inhabitants of the place, hearing that a traveller was arrived there to pass the night, sent for me to partake of his liberal hospitality, both at board and bed, which he bestowed with a benignity and assiduity as if he was receiving, instead of conferring, a benefit. I never can forget my worthy host, Signor Angelus Marcelli, with his good and edifying wife, brother, and sister, nor that generous confessor of the faith, the present Arch-priest of Arzoli. You will form a judgment of the style in which I was received and entertained here, when I tell you that a band of music, consisting of eight performers, was provided to honour my déjeuné and taking horse the next morning. Nor was my visit confined to pleasure, having here met with a most curious subject of antiquarian information; namely, the only ancient Roman mile-stone which is known to exist. It is a round marble column, about six feet high, and two feet in diameter, which stood in the Via Valeriana, marking its present distance from Rome in the following manner: XXXVIII. Imperator Nerva-Cæsar Augustus Pontifex Maximus-Consul IIII-Pater Patriæ- "I had now twelve miles to ride through a road, the greater part of which the late Pope Pius VI. had made, and tolerably good compared with that which I had hitherto travelled from Tivoli; but among such lofty, rough, and bare mountains, here and there surmounted with ancient castles or ruined cities, that no scenes in Derbyshire or Wales can furnish an idea of this part of the Apennines. At length, on turning the flank of a mountain, the beautiful site and édifices opened to my view. The hills were in some places covered with olives, and other fruit-bearing trees; in others, with various well-grown forest trees; the vallies were watered by the serpentine folds of the murmuring Teverone, and divided into rich vineyards and gardens. These, with the noble entrance gate, the spacious house of the missions, the well-built cathedral and seminary, the episcopal castle, placed on the point of a steep cloud-piercing rock, and the numerous surrounding villas, could not fail to delight the eye, and render the situation of this city highly interesting, however poor and inconvenient the streets and houses of the common inhabitants, like those of other country towns here, are in general. For my own part, however, I found here the comforts of a decent inn, with civil usage, at the hotel of Signior Benedict Cali, which were greatly increased by the hospitality of the amiable bishop of the city, then making his episcopal visit there, Cardinal Galeffi. I was almost sorry to find Sublacum such a beautiful and agreeable place, as I was afraid I should be disappointed in the ideas I had formed of the sublime horrors of the great western Patriarch's grotto and monastery, for the sake of which I had undertaken the present mountainous excursion." 22. "MY DEAR FRIEND, Rome, Oct. 29, 1814. 66 Setting out the next morning, namely, on the 21st instant, for the grotto of St. Benedict, which is situated two miles to the east of the town of Subiaco, my apprehensions of disappointment soon vanished when I beheld the rugged rocks of marble, the bare lofty mountains of granite, the numerous dark caverns, and especially the monuments of ancient piety which marked the whole wilderness through which I sought the habitation of the great Patriarch of western monachism. At one station I came to an oratory, which, by its inscriptions and its paintings, denoted the lake where St. Maurus walked upon the |