however, Prince Serban Cantacuzene, of whose
good deeds we shall speak hereafter, completely restored the cathedral,
as appears from the Roumanian inscription on a tablet outside near the
portal. This inscription is quaint and interesting, and deserves a place
in any work professing to deal with the history of the country. After a
number of deeply pious and moral reflections it goes on to say:--

'Therefore Nyagoe Voivode Beserab, of happy memory, the great
grandfather of my wife on the mother's side, who was a pious and
God-fearing man, when he was invested with the government of
Wallachia, did, amongst many other good deeds, cause to be erected
a large and splendid monastery in this town of Argesia, along with
the other cloister buildings in the vicinity, for the worship of
God and in honour of his sainted mother; which monastery, as it may
readily lie imagined from the high wages paid to the workmen
engaged in its erection, must have been a very costly undertaking.
After a considerable period the foundation and steps began to give
way, either through some error of the builders or owing to the damp
caused by long-continued rains which loosened the stones. About
that time I, Johann Scherban Kantakosino Beserab Voivode, in the
name of God, was entrusted with the government of my ancestors. As
soon as I became acquainted with the dilapidation of the monastery,
I at once resolved to restore the building of my ancestors in order
that the memory of that famous prince (Nyagoe) might not be
forgotten, and I sent our boyard Dona Pepano as superintendent with
numerous workmen, and thereupon restored the whole building where
it had suffered damage, and bolted with iron the stones which had
loosened, that they might thus continue to hold together, and then
I further determined to endow the sacred monastery with the income
from the hill[46] of Menesti, near Ardges, to hold and enjoy its
entire revenues. These shall be in support of the holy monastery
and in eternal remembrance of us and our ancestors.

'In the year 7190, the 26th August.

'This happened under the Metropolitan Kyr Theodosius.'

At the close of the eighteenth century Ardges was constituted a
bishopric, and at the beginning of the present, Bishop Joseph was at
great pains to renew and restore several portions of the cathedral. The