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 uses, 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 sketch of the patriarchal cuftoms 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 firft fenfe which Stephens gives to the verb golon), 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 earneft 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 Jofhua ordered to be placed where the Ifraelites fhould 5 encamp 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 pass 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 distance fixed in the Itinerary. Durolitum has been, by general confent, affigned to Layton-Stone. Cafaromagus is attended with more uncertainty; it has been taken for Burghfted, or for Chelmsford. Bifhop Gibfon is the only person who fixes it at Dunmowe; in which opinion Mr. Drake concurs with him, and offers fome reafons, particularly the difcovery of fome 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 Cafaromagus, 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 Coggeshall, where he says fufficient remains of antiquity (fome of which he inferts) have been found to entitle it to the character of a Roman ftation. 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 ftill 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 Lancafter. 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 Portuguese 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 as in those of the air, and deferve to be mentioned, even proverbially, as Horace mentions it. But the barrel, though not corroded, is partly covered with a thick incruftation of fhells, mixed with gravel and fand, and hard as a rock; a proof that a fpecies of petrefaction is continually going on, at the bottom of the fea, on our coafts, in a manner fimilar to that mentioned by Dr. Donati, at the bottom of the Adriatic, of which an account is given in the Philofophical Tranfactions*. We are farther informed, that there was a very large old cannon, of extraordinary length, which had the date 1354 on it, and therefore was, probably, one of the very pieces used by Edward III. at the battle of Poitiers, in 1356, which was one of the firft occafions on which they were introduced into the field in Europe; but I am forry to add, fays Mr. King, that it was last year taken away in order to be melted down.' A notion has prevailed, though it is questionable whether it generally prevails at prefent, that Ireland and Thanet are void of ferpents. Mr. Pegge examines it, and calls it a mistaken opinion; but he does not fo much deny the fact, as the miraculous caufe, to which it is attributed, viz. the bleffing and influence of fome early faints. When we confider that they are iflands, it feems, fays he, no more than natural, that they fhould be deftitute of noxious animals, as is faid to be the cafe with fome other iflands; and what occafion is there for fuperftitious notions, and incredible manoeuvres, when the facts, fuppofing them real, can be fo readily accounted for on the flighteft confideration, from the common courfe and nature of things? Several hundred gold coins, in excellent prefervation, were discovered a short time fince, on demolishing the ancient caftle of Fenwick, in Northumberland, and in the poffeffion of Sir Walter Blackett, One of thefe coins, a very fair noble of Edward III. was exhibited to the Society, Feb. 1, 1776. This anonymous article tells us, that they had been depofited in an open cheft, covered with fand, twelve inches deep; the cheft was placed over the arch of a cellar door which flood immediately under the flags of the threshold of the caftle gate. A fhort account here given of the Fenwick family, the original proprietors, renders it probable, that the coins were lodged there about the year 1360, by a Sir John Fenwick, who, in troublefome times, took this method of concealing a treasure, of no inconfiderable amount in those days; which was alfo the more fcarce and curious, as being a novel and valuable species of English coinage and it is likely he alone was privy to the concealment of it. * Vol. xlix. p. 588-40. REV. Feb. 1780. In In a letter to Dr. Milles, dated from Venice, Mr. John Strange gives a farther account of fome ancient Roman infcriptions obferved in the provinces of Iftria and Dalmatia: thefe are communicated to him, as were the former *, by the learned Abbe Fortis, who alfo hoped to have made a collection of the kind, in a late Appennine tour, but was rather disappointed in his researches, fince Italy has been fo thoroughly vifited with this view, that it is no eafy matter to make new discoveries; fome few, however, he imparts, which are here inferted. To compenfate for the Abbe's ill fuccefs, Mr. Strange avails himfelf of fome information he received from his friend Sir Roger Newdigate, who having vifited the city of Aofte, in Savoy, fends fome account of its remaining antiquities, and adds a few Roman infcriptions, which he copied from the collection at the convent of St. Bernard; but the ftones are no longer remaining. It is to be wifhed, that this learned Society would favour the public with fome fhort remarks on, and explications of, these infcriptions, without which, to the greater part of readers, they are often of little use or amusement. Dr. Morell, in a Latin letter to the Hon. Daines Barrington, offers confiderations to confirm his opinion concerning the Corbridge altars. Vid. Archaeol. vol. iii. p. 333. This letter is followed by an illuftration of a Saxon infcription on the church of Kirkdale, in the North Riding of Yorkfhire. John Charles Brooke, Efq; fent an exact representation of it, to Mr. Gough, with a view of the church, which are here engraved. Memorials of the erection and confecration of our churches by infcriptions, are faid not to be numerous; but, antecedently to the Norman conqueft, to be indeed exceeding rare. This, therefore, is regarded as a fingular curiofity. The inscription tranflated is this; " Orm, Gamal's fon, bought St. Gregory's church, then it was all gone to ruin and fallen down. Chebitle, and others, renewed it from the ground, to Chrift and St. Gregory, in Edward's days the king, and in Tofti's days the Earl." Under the dial, "And Hawarth me made, and Brand the prieft." This infcription is engraved on one entire freeftone of large dimenfions, being feven feet five inches long, one foot ten inches high, and in perfect prefervation, except a fmall part in the centre, where the infcription is disfigured, but not obliterated by the weather. It may be inferred with a great probability, that the church was rebuilt, and this infcription engraved, between the years 1056 and 1065. Hayman Rooke, Efq; furnishes a defcription of two Roman camps in Lydney Park, Gloucefterfhire, the feat of Thomas • Vid. Archaeol. vol. iii. p. 337-349; alfo, Review for Dec. *775, P. 499. Bathurst, Bathurst, Efq; about eight miles east of Chepftow; a spot abounding with pleafing profpects and romantic fcenes. On two hills, of confiderable eminence, ftand two camps, or forts, overlooking the Severn, which, with fome works on the oppofite fide, on a spot now called Oldbury, entirely command the paffage of that river. As the command of fuch a river made these parts of confiderable confequence, they were undoubtedly entrusted to officers of fome rank, and accordingly they appear to have had all neceffary accommodations for the Roman ftyle of living. A very elegant bath is ftill pretty entire ; and from remaining foundations of buildings, it appears that fome of the pavements were teffelated. Various coins are found here; a filver one of Galba, with many of Adrian and Antoninus. A good engraving of these camps attends the article, and alfo four different views of them; which are indeed elegant and pleafing. Mr. John-Charles Brooke, of the Heralds college, prefents us with the following Number, which gives an account of an ancient feal that belonged to Robert the Vth, Baron FitzWalter, who was, he fays, the fon of Walter, and grandson of Robert, Lord Fitz-Walter, Marthal of the army of God, and holy church, as appears by the shield of arms under the horse's head (in the feal), which bears the coat of his fecond wife, who was a Ferrers. This, and much more, is in the Heralds ftyle. The feal was found at Stamford, in Lincolnshire, in the reign of Charles IId, and was given to Robert Saunderson, then bishop of Lincoln, whofe great grandfon, John King, Efq fold it to the Rev. Richard Neate, LL. B. of Whetstone, in Middlefex, the prefent poffeffor. It is of filver, and weighs feven ounces and feven penny weights. The extreme elegance of the workmanship, we are told, might induce a common obferver to doubt its antiquity; but Mr. Brooke offers arguments to remove the objection. He particularly proves, from ancient manufcripts, that this Robert, Lord Fitz Walter, poffeffed Baynard's Caftle, in the city of London, which was then called the Caftle of London, and as conftable of the fame, enjoyed divers liberties and priveleges. In time of war, it was ordered, that he fhould ride on a light-horfe, with twenty men at arms, to the door of St. Paul's church, with the banner of his arms carried before him; and that there he fhould be met by the Mayor, and others, when the Mayor fhould appoint him Banner-bearer to the city, and prefent him with a horfe worth twenty pounds; which horfe, it is added, fhall be faddled with faddle of his arms, and covered with filk, depicted likewife with the fame arms. In memory of this privilege and honour, Mr. Brooke fuppofes the feal in queftion to have been made. This feal is here engraved, together with the drawing of another of I 2 ་ the |