bishop of St. Asaph, called by our ancient biographers Gallofridus Monimentifus. Leland conjectures that he was educated in a Benedictine convent at Monmouth, where he was born; and that he became a monk of that order. Bale, and after him Pits, call him archdeacon of Monmouth; and it is generally asserted that he was made bishop of St. Asaph in the year 1151 or 1152, in the reign of King Stephen. His history was probably finished after the year 1138. It contains a fabulous account of British kings, from the Trojan Brutus to the reign of Cadwallader in the year 690. But Geoffrey, whatever censure he may deserve for his credulity, was not the inventor of the stories he relates. It is a translation from a manuscript written in the British language, and brought to England from Armorica by his friend Gualter, archdeacon of Oxford. But the achievements of King Arthur, Merlin's prophecies, many speeches and letters, were chiefly his own addition. In excuse for this historian, Mr Wharton judiciously observes, that fabulous histories were then the fashion, and popular traditions a recommendation to his book.