Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

ent eve. A Roman station at Caerwent, together with remnants of walls, roads, buildings, caufeways, &c. have much employed this gentleman's attention. Among other difcoveries, he informs us of a Roman Mofaic pavement within the walls of the camp at Caerwent; it is in a kind of cellar, or outhouse, in the middle of an orchard belonging to Mrs. Ann Williams. A print is given of the remains of this pavement, engraved from an original drawing, by Mr. Hay of Brecknock. Mr. Strange was affured, by a friend, that he remembered the figures of a lion, a tyger, and a ftag, all which are now deftroyed, though part of the figures of a vafe and a bird are ftill to be feen. The defign of this pavement appears to have been very regular and elegant; and no defign, as Mr. Strange obferves, can exceed that of the fcalloped border, the like to which he does not recollect to have feen in any other work of the kind. From Caerwent he proceeds to Caerleon, where he meets with feveral objects to engage his attention, and among the reft, a hollow circular fpot, known at Caerleon by the name of Arthur's Round Table, which is generally fuppofed to be a Roman work, and to have served by way of amphitheatre; this occafions fome pertinent remarks. The greatest Roman curiofity, lately found at Caerleon, is a triangular hooped gold ring, with an intaglio fet in it, reprefenting the ftory of Hercules ftrangling the Nemean lion: it is in the poffeffion of Mr. Thomas Norman, of that town.

Mr. Strange clofes the article with an account of fome other remains of antiquity; three grave-ftones, of which prints are given, that feem to have been laid upwards of four or five hundred years ago: one of them in the church of Chriftchurch, is remarkable for a custom which parents have of expofing their fick children on it, on the eve of Afcenfion-Day. In the third volume of this work, Mr. Daines Barrington gave an account of the remains of the Cornish language*, to which he now makes fome additions, written in 1776, at which time, he informs us, Dolly Pentraeth, then ninety years of age, was ftill living; but we apprehend fhe is fince dead: however, as a proof that the Cornish language is not entirely loft with her, a letter is produced, dated Moufehole, July 3, 1776, written by one William Bodener, a fifherman, both in English and Cornifh. This man is fixty-five years of age, and fpeaks the language very readily. He has been at fea with five other men in a boat, and has not heard, he fays, a word of English among them for a week together; and he adds, that there are four or five other perfons, ftill iving, in the village of Moufehole, who can converfe in Cor

Vid. Rev. for Dec. 1775. P. 497.

nilh. The article contains fome other information on the fubject.

The Rev. John Watson, M. A. of Stockport, presents the Society with an account of fome hitherto undefcribed remains of antiquity. The firft is called Button Caftle, in the parish of Mottram Longdendale, Cheshire, the relics of which are on the fummit of a high hill, and from them, it appears not to have been merely a temporary but a fixed ftation, the refidence of fome very confiderable perfon, especially as a workman, a few years ago, digging at the foot of the hill, turned up a quantity of afhes, and found under them a gold chain with eighteen large beads on it, having a locket quartered crossways by four fceptres, the whole weighing near two ounces, Troy weight: this might be a Danish military work. The next is a large faxon fortification, called Mowflow Caftle, on the top of a very high hill, in the parish of Gloffop, Derbyfhire. To this is added, an account of a piece of fortified ground, near the village of Bradfield, Yorkshire, fuppofed to have been a station of the Danes: its name Bailey Hill, which is, it is faid, an ancient word for a fort. Of this, and Button, mentioned above, prints are exhibited. Some other curiofities, which appear to be British remains, in and about BradfieldCommon, are alfo here defcribed.

Mr. Weft, author of the Antiquities of Furness, relates the discovery of a Roman burying-place, on finking the cellars for a large house, at the upper part of Church-street, in Lancafter, in 1776. About fix feet below the furface of the street, were found two fragments of thick walls, five yards diftant from each other; within which were a great quantity of burnt wood, bones, and afhes, broken pateræ, urns, Roman brick, gutter-tiles, coins, horns of animals, an earthen fepulchral lamp entire, &c. and at a farther diftance, were alfo found a fmall brazen head like a dog's, the pedestal and feet of a fmall image, pieces of glafs of a blueifh-green colour, &c. One bottom of a patera had ftamped on it Cadgatema, perhaps, Mr. Weft fays, the maker's name. Thefe veffels are of a fine brown colour, far fuperior, we are told, to the Staffordshire brown ware, elegantly varnifhed or glazed; fome plain, others emboffed with different forts of figures, animals, and birds. The infcriptions on the coins are none of them perfect, except a brafs one, of Marcus Aurelius, and a fmall one of filver,-a fine impreffion, and in high prefervation, of Fauftina, his wife.

Governor Pownal's remarks on the boundary ftone of Croyland Abbey, we had thought not only ingenious but folid,

* Vid. Review for Nov. 1775. P. 415.

and

and were difpofed with him to conclude, that the names of the other four monks had been broken off, and that the word #10 (which was before regarded as the Latin verb, fignifying, I fay) was the name of the fifth monk concerned in erecting the monument: but Mr. Pegge, who, at firft, appears to have been highly pleafed with the Governor's obfervations, finds fome objections against the hypothefis, and we think they have great weight. He obferves, that the monks did not erect the ftone, but Turketulus, the Abbot, as is exprefly afferted by the hiftorian; that the infcription is a Leonine, or rhyming verfe, and fhould the word AIO be detached from the reft, and made to depend on a former part of the legend now broken off, the verfe will be abfolutely fpoiled. Farther, that according to the Governor's figure of the ftone, as running taper to the top, in the nature of a small obelifk, there could not be room for the other four names. Laftly, and principally, that the stone has been lately vifited by John Lloyd, Efq; who made a fac fimile of it, by which it appears, that it is complete, having never been longer than it is at prefent, and in fact a parallelogram. From Stukeley's reprefentation, which the Governor feems to have followed, a portion of it might reasonably be imagined to have been broken off; but now, fays Mr. Pegge, we can be fure there never were any more letters on it, than those which at prefent appear. He acknowledges it to be a fingular and extraordinary incident (as indeed it feems to be), that there fhould have been a monk belonging to the abbey, and mentioned by Ingulphus, of the name of AIO, and the Governor's conjecture on this ground was doubtless acute and ingenious; but for the reafons above, he concludes, that antiquaries have rightly interpreted the infcription, and we have no reafon to defert them. An engraving is added, of the ftone, from Mr. Lloyd's draught. It appears to have ftood upwards of 800 years. The infcription is only this.

Aio hanc petram Guthlacus habet fibi metam.

Mr. Lort's obfervations on Celts, will hardly admit of any particular account from us. His immediate fubject is a brafs inftrument lately found, by digging in the ruins of Gleafton caftle, in Lancashire. It is about 9 inches long, and half an inch thick in the middle; one end, formed like our common hatchet, with a sharp edge, is five inches broad; from this end it tapers on both fides, gradually, to the other end, which is not above one inch and a half broad, and is formed alfo with a fharp edge. It is for the most part finely polished, and covered with a beautiful patina, except where it has been injured by ruft; and weighs two pounds five ounces. It may come under the denomination of those inftruments called Celts, which have been found in great numbers in different parts of this ifland; but

they,

they, in general, have only one end fharp, and the other formed into a kind of groove or focket to fix a handle in, and fome have a loop annexed to them; but this is deftitute of every thing of that kind, and feems intended to have been held in the hand only for ufe, whatever that ufe might be. To what purposes the different kinds of Celts were applied, has been a matter of much debate: fome fuppofe them to have been the heads of fpears, or walking ftaves, of the civilized Britons; others, that they were chiffels ufed by the Romans for cutting and polishing ftones. Dr. Stukely imagines, that they were not weapons, but inftruments employed by the Druids to cut off the boughs of oak and mifletoe, and that they often hung them to their girdles. One exactly fimilar to this of Mr. Lort's, was found at Herculaneum, and exhibited by the Count de Caylus. Mr. Lort intimates, that they might be appropriated to facred ufes, and afks, why may we not fuppofe, that they were applied to the taking-off the fkins of the victims? To this article, is added, an account of a variety of Celts from the minutes of the Society, with fome fhort defcriptions, and alfo engravings of them all, as well as of Mr. Lort's, and another exactly fitted with a brafs cafe, in the poffeffion of his friend Mr. Bartlett.

The Hon. Daines Barrington has employed his time very laudably, in reading, with attention, the book of Genefis, one effect of which has been, the forming a fketch of the patriarchal customs and manners, which he here exhibits to public notice. We cannot enumerate the different fubjects he mentions, and on which he enlarges. We do not find ourselves entirely fatisfied with the explication he gives of the phrafe, which he fuppofes, confined to the death of a patriarch, that he was gathered to his people: as he did not, we are told, understand the meaning of either the English or Latin tranflation, he confulted the Septuagint, the words of which he tranflates, the corpfe was produced before his people (according to the first fenfe which Stephens gives to the verb porn), and infers, that the honour of producing the dead body, and weeping over it in public, was paid only to the head of the patriarchal family.-He expreffes his earnest wish that travellers into the Promised Land would look out for many patriarchal antiquities which are not of a perishable nature. Dr. Shaw informs us, that the Mahometans continue to fhew the cave of Macphelah, and Mr. Barrington fees no greater difficulties in difcovering the cave near Zoar, in which Lot and his daughters lived. Some of the pillars alfo commemorating particular events may, he apprehends, remain, and farther efteems it likely that the twelve ftones which Joshua ordered to be placed where the Ifraelites fhould encamp

5

encamp after the paffage of the Jordan, may ftill be found out by an inquifitive and perfevering traveller.

The Rev. Mr. Drake's obfervations on two Roman ftations in Effex, are chiefly defigned to determine fome of the places mentioned in the Itinerary of Antonine as lying in the Roman roads that pafs through this county. Camulodunum or Colonia is agreed to be Colchester, and it is remarkable how nearly the prefent number of miles from London to that town agree with the diftance fixed in the Itinerary. Durolitum has been, by general confent, affigned to Layton-Stone. Cæfaromagus is attended with more uncertainty; it has been taken for Burghfted, or for Chelmsford. Bishop Gibson is the only person who fixes it at Dunmowe; in which opinion Mr. Drake concurs with him, and offers fome reasons, particularly the difcovery of some reliques of Roman antiquities in and about the place, which he thinks confirm and establish the fact. The Itinerary mentions a middle ftation between Camulodunum and Cæfaromagus, which is called Canonium. Mr. Drake apprehends he has difcovered a place which exactly coincides with the numbers of the Itinerary; the town he means is Coggefhall, where he says fufficient remains of antiquity (fome of which he inserts) have been found to entitle it to the character of a Roman station.

An old piece of ordnance was dragged out of the fea by fome fishermen, near the Goodwin Sands, in 1775, and is faid to be fill in their poffeffion, at Ramfgate. Edward King, Efq; gives a particular defcription of it, accompanied with many fenfible remarks, together with engravings of the piece, and of the figure of a great gun refembling it, exhibited by an old Spanish writer and engineer. From fome of its ornaments, Mr. King thinks it may fairly be judged to be fo very old as to have been caft about the year 1370, that is, not long after the very first introduction of these formidable inftruments of war into Europe he fuppofes it to have been caft in Portugal, and probably loft from on board fome of the fhips which came to negociate with John duke of Lancaster. He particularly defcribes the conftruction of this ancient piece, and minutely examines every part, the engravings of which are alfo fo exact, that we may form a very good idea of it without having perfonally viewed it. The ornaments alfo undergo a ftrict inquiry; they are chiefly arms, and clearly fhew that it is of Portuguete original. To obfervations of this kind he adds a few circumftances of its prefent condition, remarking that the handle and fwivel, which are of iron, are much corroded and injured, but the barrel, which is of brafs, is very little affected by lying fo long in the fea, and is nearly as entire as ever; fo well does this metal maintain its durability amidst the falts of the fea, as well

« AnteriorContinuar »