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will hardly be fufficient entirely to remove. There is a foundation of English , or rather,for fo they are called, of Irit'h nuns here. Throughout all Germany you meet withEnglilh, Scotch, and German nuns. It is generally imagined, that moft of thefe femi-naries have been founded fmce the reformation took place in England. But this is amiftake, and moft of them have probably fubfifted ever fmce the time of Charlemagne ,when Britain abounded in monks, and furnilhed Germany with them. An Englifnand Scotch nunnery founds as well in Germany as an Englilh and Scotch freemafon’slodge.
This place abounds, like Vienna , in literati, who are content to ornament their roomswith the bufls, medals, prints, and profiles of learned men, but neither think nor writethemfelves ; and only have their titles from their belonging to no other affociation ofmen whatever: for it is here as at Vienna , whoever has neither military nor civil em-ployment, nor is profeffor, nor prieft, nor merchant, nor handycraftfman, nor manu-facturer, nor fervant, nor day-labourer, nor (what in the catalogue paffes for a man)executioner, is a man of letters, whether he ftudies or not. In the general acceptation,a man of letters is only a negative quality. I am indeed acquainted with a few pojitiveliterati here, but their number, in comparifon of the negatives is very inconfiderable.The women of this place are handfome, and you may make love with more eafe than atVienna .
By way of poftfcript to this letter, which mull ftill wait ten days before it is finilhed, Iwill give you a Ihort account of an expedition we took: We went poll; as far as Konig-ingrafs; there we took horfe, and made a fix days tour round by Jaromers, Neujladt ,Nachod , Braunau , &c. to the boders of Silefia, with the double purpofe of feeing the en-campments and fields of battle of the war that took place two years ago, and of vifitingfome rich abbots houfes, in which my companions had friends. We had an officer withus who commanded in both expeditions, and fucceeded very well. The marches andencampments did not intereft me much, becaufe little was done in the war; but I wasextremely pleafed with our excurfions into the cloyfters.
My principal objeCt was to fee the manners and way of life of Bohemian ecclefiafticsupon the fpot, and I was richly rewarded. They are the moft determined epicureans,particularly the regular bodies of them, which I have yet met with any where. Theywant nothing in the convents, for the accompliffiment of all earthly gratifications, but acloyfter of nuns, made up of the maidens who do bufinefs at Prague by night; fub Jovepluvis, in triviis et quadriviis. Whatever bad effect it might have in fome refpect, thefarmers and manufacturers who live in the neighbourhood of the cloyfters, and confidertheir wives as their property, would undoubtedly be pleafed with the arrangement. Asthings now are, the monks and half monks, to whom the villages round belong, appearlike fo many hunters of women; nor do I believe them very different from thofe oldlords of manors, who ufed to claim the firft night’s poffeftion of every woman marriedto one of their vaffals ; it is at leaft certain, that in every village we went through, wefound one or two them, who took no pains to conceal their belonging to the fraternityof jolly boys; to know them thoroughly one ought to be acquainted with their fuperi-ors, who would, no doubt, furniffi good anecdotes for the fcandalous chronicle :—infome convents we met with finging women.
The lives of the regular bodies, and even of the Benedictines , whofe abbot, or prelateshas not yet given up the pleafures of the world, is a perpetual caroufal, which is onlyinterrupted by country walks, and certain ftated belchings in church. They look uponchaunting the fervice as a kind of expectoration good for the lungs. One of them, forwhom I expreffed fome concern, on feeing him eat immenfe quantities of eggs,-butter, &c.
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