93. band, all inspired with the noble flame of liberty, and exhibiting in their whole conduct the greatest integrity and heroism, we have a double aversion to the one party, and our affection towards the other is greatly increased.

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On every subject our author maintains all the grave and philosophical dignity of an historian he admits nothing quaint or witty, light or trivial on on any occasion. His accurate and extensive acquaintance with what he relates, his candour and regard to truth cannot well be surpafsed; his sentiments are manly and independent, but modest and unafsuming. The morality which runs through this work is pure, delicate, and chaste, unaffected, and without ostentation.

Though Watson cannot be called a sprightly or volatile writer, he is never dull, drawling, or languid; a chaste philosophical animation is always preserved, a vivacity tempered by the serious dignity of an historian. If he does not dazzle us with flame, in recompence we have no smoke. If he does not soar to high flights, we have the satisfaction to find that he is never out of view. If he does not gild over his scenes with the splendour of poetical description, we are secure of not being upon enchanted ground; we are always where we ought to be, among subjects of truth and nature. He does not, in short,like some writers, injudiciously anticipate the feelings of his readers, by a perpetual rapture of enthusiasm ; his aim is simply to afford, in the most striking manner, a proper subject for such sensations, and leave them to be affected with it according to the several de

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grees of constitutional warmth, and sensibility of imagination.

But the best proof of this writer's merit is, that he never fails to delight and to interest; there is a charm diffused over the whole which is easier felt than described; and it may be safely affirmed, that he who has the power of pleasing his readers, and engaging their affections, has retained the highest praise of an author; for without this power the most laborious attention to the best plan, and the greatest extent of knowledge, is vain and usclefs.

PHILO.

DISQUISITIONS ON THE USES OF THE DRY-STONE BUILDINGS, CALLED DHUNES IN SCOTLAND. Continued from p. 61.

THE ingenious Mr King, who has so successfully explained the nature of the Anglo Saxon and Norman forts, vulgarly called KEEPS, has inadvertently dropped some exprefsions that may tend to mislead his readers, which, as coming from him, require to be examined with more attention than would otherwise have been thought necefsary. He not only believes that the dhunes in Scotland have been undoubtedly erected as places of defence, but he even insinuates that they have been the originals from whence the Anglo Saxons borrowed the first idea of those round fortified towers which they called keeps ; both which opinions it will not be difficult to prove are equally groundlefs. With this view it will be necefsary,

In the first place, to advert that few structures of the kind here treated of, are found in the southern parts of Scotland, to which part of Scotland alone the English, in the time of the Anglo Saxons and Normans, ever had any accefs; the dhunes are chiefly to be found in the northern remote parts of the island, where no Englishman ever could have had an opportunity of seeing them. Hence it is not at all probable that they could have formed an idea of imitating them. From this circumstance we may naturally infer,

In the second place, that had these structures been really intended as fortifications, they would naturally have been more frequent on the borders between England and Scotland, than any where else in the island, as the inhabitants of that district were more exposed to predatory invasion than any others; but not only none of those are there found, but no building has ever been discovered in England that bears a resemblance to these in any respect, except merely the circularity of their external form. Indeed this is so obvious, that nothing but a perfect ignorance of the peculiar construction of the dhunes could ever have induced Mr King to have adopted the opinion above cited. Our readers being already in some measure acquainted with the peculiar structure of the dhunes, to satisfy them of the truth of this position, it will be only necefsary to give them a general idea of the structure of the English keeps.

Anglo Saxon keeps and dhunes compared.

AN Anglo Saxon keep is always a cylindrical (not a conical) tower, rising from the apex of a conical hill of earth, which in most cases appears to have been

artificial. The basis of the tower is laid deep within the bowels of the mount, and in the center of the whole is placed the well, which has always been sunk deep enough to furnish an abundant supply of water for the use of the garrison, and those who might be besieged within the keep. This high

tower was always divided into stories, one above the other, each story consisting of one apartment, which was lighted by windows in the wall, that were so constructed as to admit the light freely, but not to allow any mifsile weapon thrown from below to penetrate into the apartment through these apertures, while they at the same time admitted of weapons being discharged through them from within for the annoyance of the afsailants. These particulars are beautifully illustrated in Mr King's masterly essay on the subject. Each of these apartments too is furnished with its fire place, and a chimney leading from it to the top of the building, in the heart of the wall; and in most of the stories some cavities have been made in the wall, to serve as cupboards or prefses for the conveniency of the inhabitants. All the floors of these apartments, above the surface of the mount at least, were made of wood, not vaulted 1; and in every one of them is to be seen, till this day, holes in the wall fitted to receive the ends of beams for supporting the floors of the different apart

ments.

The entry to the keep was always by one narrow door, on a level with the top of the conical mound, to which there was no accefs but by one narrow flight of steps, ascending in a straight line from the bottom

of the mount. The top of the tower was formed into battlements, over which stones and missile weapons could be thrown upon the assailants, when they attempted to come near the foundation of the building, either with an intention to force the entry or to undermine the structure, without exposing the besieged to the smallest danger. The accefs to the different apartments within the keep, was by means of a stair in the heart of the wall, exactly similar to the stairs in the dhunes, if you take into view nothing more than the ascent of one flight of steps, but agreeing in no other particular; for the stair in the keep always terminated in a door leading into the circular apartment that occupied the whole internal area of the structure, from which also there was another door, entering into the bottom of the flight of steps, ascending to the next floor; whereas the stair in the dhune had no door that opened into the internal area at all, except at the bottom only; each flight of steps terminating in a gallery that ran quite round the building, till it reached the second flight of steps, and so on, as has been illustrated in our last number, page 55; but no mark of any such galleries has ever been discovered in the keeps; neither is there ever found in the dhunes, any mark of holes for receiving the ends of beams of wood to support the floors.

In the keeps also, the under part of the tower, which was deep within the bowels of the mount, and consequently dark, was appropriated for containing stores to the garrison; and, as the well was at the bottom of the whole, and directly in the center of the VOL. viii.

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