mountain of Spain, in Catalonia, one of the most singular in the world for situation, shape, and composition. It stands single, towering over a hilly country like a pile of grotto work or Gothic spires; and its height so great, that to a beholder on the top the neighbouring mountains appear to be sunk to a level with the plain. It is composed of steep rocks, which at a distance seem indented; whence it is said to have received the name Montserrat from the Latin word ferrra, a "faw." It is impossible to describe the beauty, richness, and variety, of the landscapes discovered from the most elevated point; but the extensiveness of the prospect may be conceived by the reader, upon being told that the islands of Minorca and Majorca, which are at the distance of 60 leagues, are discovered from this elevation.

Montserrat is particularly famous for the adoration that is paid to an image of the Virgin, which according to tradition was found in a cave in this mountain by some shepherds in the year 880. Over this image, Guthred earl of Barcelona caused a monastery and chapel to be erected; but after remaining in this receptacle upwards of 700 years, Philip II. and Philip III. built a magnificent church for its reception. Innumerable and astonishing miracles are ascribed to this holy image. The convent or monastery is situated in a nook of the mountain; it seems as if vast torrents of water, or some violent convulsion of nature, had split the eastern face of Montserrat, and formed in the cleft a sufficient platform to build the monastery upon. The river Llobregat roars at the bottom, and perpendicular walls of rock of prodigious height, rise from the water edge near half way up the mountain. Upon these masses of white stone rests the small piece of level ground which the monks inhabit. Closer behind the abbey, and in some parts impending over it, huge cliffs shoot up in a semicircle to a stupendous elevation: their summits are split into sharp cones, pillars, pipes, and other odd shapes, blanched and bare; but the interstices are filled up with forests of evergreen and deciduous trees and plants. Fifteen hermitages are placed among the woods; nay, some of them on the very pinnacles of the rocks, and in cavities hewn out of the loftiest of these pyramids.

The monastery is one of the 45 religious houses of the Spanish congregation of the order of St Benedict; their general chapter is held every fourth year at Valladolid, where the deputies choose abbots and other dignitaries for the ensuing quadrennium. In this monastery, they elect for abbot a Catalan and a Castilian alternately. Their possessions are great, consisting of nine villages lying to the south of the mountain; but the king has lately curtailed their income about 6000 livres a-year, by appropriating to his own use the best house in each village, some of which, with their tithes, are worth 200 dollars per annum. Their original foundation, in 866, gave them nothing but the mountain; and to donations and economy they owe the great increase of their landed property. They are bound to feed and harbour for three days all poor pilgrims that come up and pay their homage to the Virgin; and the allowance is a luncheon of bread in the morning, as much more, with broth at noon, and bread again at night. Sometimes, on particular festivals, 7000 persons arrive in one day; but people of condition pay a reasonable price for what they eat.—The number of professed monks, according to Mr Swinburne, is 76 (according to M. Bourgoanne 60); of lay brothers, 28; and of singing boys 25; besides physician, surgeon, and servants. The church is a gloomy edifice; and the gilding is much filled with the smoke of 85 lamps of silver, of various forms and sizes, that hang round the cornice of the sanctuary. Funds have been bequeathed by different devotees for furnishing them with oil. The choir above stairs is decorated with the life of Christ, in good wooden carving. A gallery runs on each side of the chancel, for the convenience of the monks. A large iron grate divides the church from the chapel of the Virgin, where the image stands in a niche over the altar, before which burn four tapers in large silver candlesticks, the present of the duke of Medina Celi. In the sacrifice, and passages leading to it, are presses and cupboards full of relics and ornaments of gold, silver, and precious stones; they point out, as the most remarkable, two crowns for the virgin and her son, of ineffable value; some large diamond rings; an excellent cameo of Medusa's head; the Roman emperors in alabaster; and the sword of St Ignatius. But as no offerings to this miraculous statue can be rejected or otherwise disposed of, the shelves are crowded with most whimsical ex voto, viz. silver legs, fingers, breasts, ear-rings, watches, two wheeled chariots, boats, carts, and such like trumpery.

On different parts of the mountain, as already noticed, are a number of hermitages. Each of these solitary retreats, which at a distance seem destitute of every thing, has a chapel, a cell, a well in the rock, and a little garden. The inhabitant of one of them, which is dedicated to St Beneto, has the privilege of making an annual entertainment on a certain day; on which day all the other hermits are invited, when they receive the sacrament from the hands of the mountain vicar, and after divine service dine together. They meet also at this hermitage, on the days of the saints to which their several hermitages are dedicated, to say mass and commune with each other. But at other times they live in a very solitary and recluse manner, perform various penances, and adhere to very rigid rules of abstinence; nor do they ever eat flesh; nor are they allowed to keep within their walls either dog, cat, bird, or any living thing, lest their attention should be withdrawn from heavenly to earthly affections. Most of these hermits are said to be persons of fortune and family, disquieted with the world, who have retired thither to devote themselves to meditation, self-denial, and contrition.

of the Caribbee isles, belonging to Great Britain. It is a very small, but very pleasant island, so called by Columbus from its resemblance to the famous mountain near Barcelona in Catalonia. It lies in W. Long. 61°. c. N. Lat. 16°. 50'. having Antigua to the north-east, St Christopher's and Nevis to the north-west, and Guadaloupe lying south-east at the distance of about nine leagues. It is about nine miles in diameter, and is supposed to contain about 40,000 or 50,000 acres. The climate is warm, but less so than Antigua, and is esteemed very healthy. The surface is mountainous, but with pleasant, rich, and fertile valleys; the hills are covered with cedars and other fine trees. Here are all the animals as well as vegetables and fruits that are to be found in the other islands. The inhabitants raised formerly a considerable quantity of indigo. The produce now is chiefly cotton, rum, and sugar. There is no good harbour, but three tolerable roads, at Plymouth, Old Harbour, and Ker's Bay.