and that with a vallum, and at first sight may be seen that it was intended for sports, but not on horseback, because much too little. Dr. Stukeley afterwards describes the great Celtic Temple, in the Parish of Addingham, now called Long Meg and her daughters. Continuing their journey, they passed half round the bottom of the famous Skiddaw, and came to Keswick, and from thence to Cockermouth. From the latter the travellers proceeded towards Elenborough, the Roman Olenacum, where, as appears from inscriptions, the first cohort of the Dalmatians, the first cohort of the Spaniards, and the first cohort of the Botasians were in garri A inile from Cockermouth, lies the Roman station now called Pap Castle, where the famous font now at Bridekirk was taken up. At Moresby, the Roman Morbium, one mile north from Whitehaven, was one of the castles which were built at convenient intervals along this coast, to guard against the depredations of the Scots by sea, and here have been found many coins and urns. The author now arrives at the Roman Wall, which, and the stations upon it, he describes at some length; it reaches 90 Roman miles, and is distributed into nine parts by oneof the larger Castles or Cities, and each interval has six less Castles. The great Castles were generally 400 feet square, these held a cohort; the less held a maniple or century, the first consisted of 600, the other of 120 men. Thus the great Castles, together, contained a full legion, 6000 men, and the less, or centuries, a legion and a half ; the cohorts were the standing garrison, the centuries were the watch, for the Romans did not, as at present, set a single man to watch over an army, but they watched by centuries, whence we have got the word of standing century, or centry, without the thing. The travellers afterwards go to Gateshead, the Roman Gabrocentum; Chester on the Street, Condercum; Dur ham; Catteric, Cataractonium; Boroughbridge, Isurium ; York, Eboracum; Tadcaster, Calcaria; Castleford, Legeolium, and Doncaster, Danum, where they conclude their journey. The history of Roman Britain by Richard of Cirencester now follows. This occupies 90 pages, viz. from p. 79, to p. 168. It is written in Latin; and the Doctor having given some account of the author and his work, I will here present the Reader with as much as I conveniently can, relating to this curious part of his book. It is divided into two books, the first of which contains eight chapters and the second two. The first chapter of the first Book treats of the situation of the Island ; the second of its dimensions, and here Richard quotes Virgil, Agrippa, Marcianus, Livy, Fabius Rusticus, Tacitus, Ptolemy, Cæsar, Mela and Bede. The third is of the Inhabitants and their origin; of their manners; and their military forces, chiefly extracted from Cæsar's Commentaries. In this chapter he speaks of Hercules coming into Britain. The fourth chapter treats of the authority and religion of the Druids, and then he informs us that in time of invasion all the British Princes chose a dictator, whom they invested with the command. The information contained in this chapter, is also chiefly from Cæsar. The fifth is on the fertilityof Britain, its minerals, &c. The sixth chapter is very long, and is of invaluable curiosity to the inquirers into the Geography of Roman Britain. The author gives an exact and copious Chorography of the whole Island, its boundaries, rivers, mountains, promonto~~ ries, roads, nations,cities, and towns, in the time of the Romans. It is accompanied with an accurate map, of Faciei Romana, as the author terms it. Britain was divided into seven provinces, viz. Britannia Prima, Secunda, Flavia, Maxima, Valentia, and Vespasiana. These were all under the Roman Power. Caledonia, or the north-west parts of Scotland, and the Highlands beyond Inverness, are mentioned in addition to the former, and before the discovery of this work we never had a true notion of the division of these provinces, nor that the Romans possessed all the country to Inverness. The author here gives more than a hundred names of cities, roads, people, and the like, which till now were absolutely unknown to us. He speaks of the warlike nation of the Senones, who lived in Surrey, and who passed under the conduct of Brennus, into Gaul, and over the Alps, and afterwards besieged and took Rome. He mentions a triumphal arch in Camulodunum, and in Cornwall, he speaks of Herculis Columna, and insula Herculea: in speaking of Caledonia, he describes this Highland part of Britain very particularly; the towns, mountains, promontories, &c. and then mentions the report of Ulysses coming thither, tossed by tempests, and sacrificing on the shore. This is also mentioned in the Argonautics of Orpheus. The seventh chapter contains an Itinerary of the whole of Britain. The author gives the whole length and breadth of the island in miles, and then presents us with no less than nineteen Iters, or journeys, in all manner of directions, quite across the island, the names of places and distances between, similarly to the celebrated Itinerary of Antoninus. A great number of the names of places are entirely new, and as to the whole, though it is unavoidable that they mast in some journeys coincide with Antoninus's Itinerary, yet it is not copied from that, neither had the author ever seen that work. On the contrary his Iters are all distinct, more correct and particular, and much better conducted than the others, and likewise fuller; they afford great assistance in correcting that work, on which the learned have from time to time bestowed so much pains. The eighth chapter is on the British Islands. He begins with Ireland, and besides a map of it along with that of Britain, the author gives an accurate description of the country, people, rivers, promontories, divisions, manners, the fertility of the soil, origin of the inhabitants, &c. He afterwards describes the other Islands, Hebudes, Orcades, Thule, Wight, and several others. The second book chiefly treats of the Chronology of Britain, and its history, in matters not mentioned in other chronologies. All the imperial expeditions hither, and those of Legates, and proprætors, are here given in their successive order. The map of Britannia Romana, accompanying the history of Richard of Cirencester, Dr. Stukeley says, far exceeds those of Britain in Ptolemy and other old geographers. The Itinerary of Richard then follows, on which the Dr. makes some observations, and afterwards adds some notes on the first and second chapters of the first book, written in Latin by Professor Charles Bertram, of Copenhagen, from whom Dr. Stukeley received the manuscript of this work. Dr. Stukeley concludes his second volume with an account of the monument called the Weddings, near Stanton Drew in Somersetshire. It is the general case of fine monuments, in their perfect state to be disregarded, and their ruins to be caressed and adored; this was really an elegant monument, highly worth visiting, and claiming an eminent place in the history of Celtic Temples. The monument consists of four distinct parts,three distant circles, and a cove. The cove consists of three stones, set in the figure of a half moon, opening to the south-east. Eastward of this, 400 feet, is the less circle, 120 feet in diameter, and consisting of 12 stones. This Dr. Stukeley calls the Lunar Temple. North-easterly from this, 500 feet, is the circumference of the greater single circle, 300 feet in diameter and composed of 30 stones; about twenty of the stones was here, but of that were remaining when the author number only three were standing. circle, thirty feet from which, is the circumference of the outer circle of the quincuple one, or five concentric circles. The manner of conjoining five circles in one is extraordinary, and what the Doctor had not before met with. The diameter of the outermost circle is 319 feet, and its circumference consists of 32 stones; the next is 250 feet in diameter, with 28 stones; the next 230, with 22 stones; the fourth 150 feet, with 16 stones; and the innermost 90, with three stones. Dr. Stukeley, in considering this monument, thinks it not to be doubted, that as Stonehenge was an improvement upon Abury, so Abury was copied after this monument at Stanton Drew, but upon a grander plan. Here are two circles, the one of twelve, the other of thirty stones; but at Abury they have repeated them, and doubled them by setting one within the other; the quincuple circle they have infinitely exceeded by the prodigious circular portico of a hundred stones on a side; then by the mighty ditch and vallum encompassing it; by two avenues three miles in length, each of a hundred stones on a side; by the tem ple on Overton Hill, by Silbury Hill, and other matters, they have so far exceeded their copy, that in the whole they have outdone themselves, and created a Celtic wonder of the world. List of Plates in the first volume of Itinerarium Curiosum. Frontispiece-Bust of the Author. 1. Marlborough Mount, and the Cascade of Wilton. 2. Lincolnshire Decoys. 3. View of Lord Hertford's House at Marlborough, 1723. 4. Ludlow Castle, ground plot and Prospect. 5. West Prospect of the same. |
