Seeking classical manuscripts at Mount Athos and seiches at ancient Chalkis (Q1582792)

Quite difficult to review -- above all, briefly! -- a study which starts with the author's memories from the end of ``WWII'', in Italy! I strongly believe/suspect W. Johnson to be firstly an excellent story-teller! The ``story'' is about Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain founded in 963, inhabited, in its 24 individual monasteries, by ``six thousand beards'', and it appears only an accidental item that it also hosts numerous and extremely valuable manuscripts, once the author's personal remembrances, the vehicles by which he travelled during his journey to Greece, the people he used to meet, etc., are vividly made known to the reader! \(\dots\) And yet, a special, whole section is devoted to Sir Thomas Gresham, the enthusiastic lover of science. A Gresham College was built with his money and the term of ``Gresham Professors'' -- still in use today -- was created. Mention is also made of John Ward's volume (published in 1740), entitled ``The lives of the professors of Gresham college''. A final section is devoted to the phenomenon known in history and today as ``the seiches at Chalkis'' -- which is actually a phenomenon of water oscillation, induced by differences of atmospheric pressure.