the spot, so calculated for retirement, induced the latter to follow the example of his brother: and having sold their estates, they founded the order of Carthusians,' and gave themselves up to meditation and devotion. In the year ****, a gentleman of Holland sought permission of the family of the De Coninks, to erect a small hermitage, at Dronningaard, near the city of Copenhagen. He had fought the battles of his country; he had mingled in the bustle of a court; he was rich; and he was honoured. One fatal step marred all his happiness. He married! But, marrying to gratify his ambition, he became weary and disgusted with life. Travelling into Denmark, he was captivated with the romantic beauties of Dronningaard; and obtained permission to erect a cell in a small wood, consisting only of a few pines. It was built of moss and the bark of birch trees. A few paces from this cell, he dug his dormitory with his own hands, and caused an epitaph to be engraven on a stone, he designed for his monument. In this total seclusion, the enthusiast resided several years. The Stadtholder, however, being upon the eve of a war, wrote him a letter, and desired his assistance. He did not hesitate to obey the call. On the evening, previous to his departure, he signalized his gratitude to Dronningaard, by writing a farewell address to the spot, in which he had enjoyed so much repose and content. The first account, that reached Denmark, after the Life of Petrarch, p. 207. Some have attributed the foundation of this order to St. Bruno, A. D. 1084. departure of the unfortunate recluse, was, that he had fallen, covered with glory, at the head of his regiment! As a testimony to his virtues, his Danish friends erected in a grove, adjoining his hermitage, a small tablet of marble, on which is inscribed his farewell address to the landscapes of Dronningaard.' X. The sacred character assigned to mountains, may, perhaps, have been the original cause of the custom of raising tumuli over the dead. This practice has prevailed in all countries of Europe and Asia. It may be traced from the tomb of Tityus, at the foot of Parnassus, to every district in Greece :-along the shores of the sea of Ozof;-in Troas ;-Circassia ;-the Cimmerian Bosphorus ;-in ancient Scythia ;-in Kuban Tartary ;-through Russia into Scandinavia ;-and thence to Germany, France, England, Scotland, and Wales. It has, also, been observed in New Holland and America. In every instance it bears the character of a sepulchral monument; whether known under the title of mound, barrow, tumulus, cairn, or têpe. Churches, chapels, and convents are more frequently situated on hills, and on the sides of mountains in Italy, than in vales. In the year 1764, three thousand peasants climbed up Notre Dame de la Niege (said to be the highest elevation in Europe), in order to hear mass in a chapel, erected on that aspiring eminence:and pilgrims, to the amount of eight or ten thousand resort annually to pay their vows to St. Michael, at Tour round the Baltic, p. 248. Mount St. Michael, rising in the middle of the Bay of Avranches. XI. To say nothing of the religious houses of Germany, situated on the banks of the Rhine and the Danube, who could exhibit a finer taste, than the founders of the Carmelite convent at the Battuécas, or of the monastery and hermitages of Montserrat? The one situated in a sequestered valley, almost buried beneath overhanging rocks and trees, which take root in their crevices; and the others on the most picturesque elevation in all Spain.-The Capuchin convents at Scicli and Chiaramonte, in the island of Sicily, are admirably situated:-so is the convent of St. Dominic, on the scite of Cicero's villa; that of the Cordeliers at Werstenlein; and the hermitage of Des Croix, in Switzerland, and of those on the eminences, overlooking the Loire, between Angers and Ancennis. Than the situation of the monastery, near Albano, nothing can be more admirable. Walking in the garden, belonging to this religious house, the Baroness, Stolberg, as we are informed by Zimmerman, was so astonished at the scene, which there presented itself, that her voice failed in the expression of her admiration, and she continued speechless several days. No spot in the neighbourhood of Holywell, could have been better selected, than the one, on which stood the abbey of Basingwerk, rising among rich pastures, and having a fine view of the Dee, the city of Chester, and the hills of Lancashire. Nor, in Hampshire could be found a scite, more suitable for religious contemplation, than that, where now stands the ruins of Netley Abbey; partially screened by wood; on the shores of the Southampton Water. The Cistercian Abbey of Whitland stood near the spot, which was once the favourite summer residence of the greatest, because the best, of all the CambroBritish monarchs, Howel Dha, the Solon and Justinian of Wales. A man, of whom it may be truly said, that, as Brutus was the last of the Romans, and Philopomen the last of the Greeks, Llewellyn and he were the last of the ancient Britons. " The abbey of Cwm-Hir, near Rhaidr-guy, in the county of Radnor, sleeps, as it were, at the foot of a deep, woody, valley, watered by the Clewedog, over which high mountains form themselves into a grand and noble amphitheatre.-What an effect would the following elegant little morceau have upon the stranger, wandering in those regions, were it inscribed upon the simple portico of an hermitage! INSCRIPTION. O thou, who to this wild retreat Shalt lead, by choice, thy pilgrim feet, If here thou bring a gentle mind, Stevens. No spot could have been selected, more abounding in admirable accompaniments, than that on which stood the small priory, once belonging to a society of Franciscans, at Llanfaes; commanding a magnificent view of the north end of the Snowdon chain, and an admirable prospect of the bay of Beaumaris,a bay not excelled, in all the empire, for its numerous picturesque combinations. Is there a scene, more romantic, than where the walls of Llanthony rear themselves at the foot of the Black Mountains, on the banks of the Honddy, in the sequestered vale of Ewias?-So retired is it, that at one time it was scarcely known to the inhabitants of the neighbouring hamlets. In this lonely recess, St. David formed a hermitage, and erected a chapel. A little lowly hermitage it was, Down in a dale, hard by a forest's side, Wherein the hermit dewly wont to say His holy things, each morn and eventyde; Thereby a christall streame did gently play, Which from a sacred fountain welled forth alway. Walter de Lacy, one day in pursuit of a deer, discovered those mysterious erections; and being struck with the solemnity of the spot, he was visited by religious enthusiasm'; disclaimed the world; and erected the abbey of Llanthony, for the use of the Cistercian order, 1 Dugdale's Monasticon. |