Sampson, on the top of which are placed two hour glasses, which being then familiar implements in common use, attracted my particular notice when a child; the sand of one of them was run out, and the other within about a quarter of an hour, under which there is a moral and impressive distich, not very poetical: "My glass is run,

And yours will soon be done." In a former visit to this Church I missed one of these monumental appendages, which had been displaced by the workmen employed in white washing the walls, but afterwards found in one of the galleries, and fixed again in its place. Before the removal of the old pulpit and read ing desk in 1770, they stood against one of the fine lofty pillars which support the great Saxon tower in the centre of the Church, near the above mentioned monument, and I have often sat gazing at those hour-glasses during what I then thought long and tiresome sermons (though certainly they were not of that description), or stopping my ears and opening them alternately while the congregation was singing. These childish faults were sometimes observed and reproved; but as they were too trivial to leave any painful impression on the mind, I recollect them, at the distance of more than fifty years, with some degree of interest and pleasure, as marking the simplicity of that happy age, when even our faults and follies were comparatively

blameless.

At the early age of fourteen, I lost the Guide and Protector of my Youth, when it stands most in need of paternal care and admonition; when passions gain the ascendancy, and engage in that great encounter with the principles of reason and religion, which commonly determines the tenour of our lives; when those important precepts which have been piously inculcated are freely called in question by some weak and dissolute companions, whose judgment we should despise on any other occasion and we are too often, for a time at least, seduced to make light of the instructions of our childhood, as fit only to keep children in awe, or at most, the lower orders of the people in a convenient subjection to their superiors. We find ourselves pos

sessed of many social qualities, and are inclined to think that the Gracious Being by whom they were implanted in our nature, cannot possibly intend we should be singular, and for ever counteracting the prevailing rules and manners of the world in which we are placed; not considering how far they deviate from those he has prescribed, and that every deviation will sooner or later be discovered to have tainted the pure springs of rational enjoyment, and materially injured, if not absolutely destroyed, our capacity for the only solid comforts and permanent pleasures of our existence here, and deprived us of that conscious peace and assurance of a future and happier state, which cannot be regained but by more severe and painful restrictions than those which we have unhappily too often disregarded or contemned; and which would assuredly have saved us from many an hour of anguish and remorse, when, in the forcible language of our great moralist, Johnson (reversing in one point his position), we shall wish, but can never vainly wish, that we had not forsaken the ways of virtue; for, let us remember, that reformation is never hopeless, nor sincere endeavours ever unassisted; but the Wanderer may at last return, after all his errors; and he who implores strength and courage from above, shall find danger and difficulty give way before him. He may securely trust his cause to that powerful Advocate, whose completion of our rescue from a fate infinitely more terrible than temporal death we have so recently commemorated, and who has "opened the gate of everlasting life" to all his penitent and faithful followers. But to return from this digression (which I hope may not be altogether useless) to the subject of my purposed retrospection, the rapid progress of those successive periods which have led me imperceptibly from youth to age, and, after many years employed in the active pursuits and professional concerns of life, have brought me back to the long-remembered scenes of my early days,

"When life was new, and every thought was bliss."

To seek out, amidst the alterations of more than half a century, every

local

61. Archæologia; or, Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, published by the Society of Antiquaries of London. Vol. XIX. Parti. 4to. pp. 208.

WE Antiquaries have been denominated old women; but we think the lace and materials of our venerable mob-caps to be full as valuable as the finery of many poetical misses, strumpet Infidel writers, and historical market-women, although their usual appearance in breeches leads to great mistakes concerning their actual sex. Whether, however, we are to rank as blue-stockings only, or males, we care not. We are sufficiently satis fied that our sisters or brothers, or whatever we are to style them, make a very reputable appearance in this Volume; for the articles are more novel and elaborate than many of those which formerly were published, more from respect to the worldly station of the writer, than their real value. We shall enumerate the articles successively.

I. Of the King's title of Defender of the Faith, by Alexander Luders, Esq.

Mr. Luders gives a learned account of this title under our Kings, and traces it up to Richard the Second. But we see no inconsistency in Henry's retaining it after his secession from the see of Rome, because the bloody six articles show that he was exceed ingly tenacious of particular points of faith. As to the title, it certainly conferred no honour upon our Kings, and was only an antient mode by which Sovereigns expressed their determination to support the established Christian Faith; and the appellation had a peculiar propriety and very beneficial operation, when a great part of Europe consisted of heathens. Thus it was very suitably adopted by Charlemagne, who converted many by the sword, and who styled himself, in 769, "devotum sanctæ Ecclesiæ defensoren. (See Ducange, v. Advocatus.) Defender, as here meant, was synonimous with Advocate, as we find by Ducange and Spelman, and the author of the Middle Age, whom they quote. They might have added,,

that it is used in the same sense by Cicero, when he says, Accusatoris officium est, inferre crimina; Defensoris diluere et propulsare." (Ad Sterenn. 1. IV. Opera i. p. 57. Lond. ed. fol.) Still, however, the term Defensor was very hackneyed and undignified, being applicable to police officers, similar to Majors, &c.; as may be seen from the novels of Justinian, Cassiodorus, &c.

II. A Letter from Q. Elizabeth to James VI. of Scotland.

In this Letter we see the masculine mind of the Royal Virago, in the classical honourable sense of that word. The Letter itself is a college tutor's jobulion of James, charging him, as we understand it, with cowardice and story-telling.

III. An attempt at a Glossary of some words used in Cheshire. By Roger Wilbraham, Esq. F.R.S. and S.A.

All provincialisms are archaisms. (p. 15.) The use which we should like to see made of such collections, would be that of ascertaining the va rious stemmata of our ancestors, now classed under the two sweeping terms of Celts and Saxons: though, we apprehend, that Britain was first peopled by ten or twenty different races of men, who, as it is an island, came over occasionally in vessels, and settled in detached spots. We have been at towns in Devonshire, on market days, and observed the round Belgic faces of the peasantry, undistinguishable except in minutiæ; and their names (though we know that surnames are not antique), as Pobjoy, Tooze, &c. are singular and foreign. As to a Patois of any kind, it is a misfortune that it exists, for it vulgarizes and degrades numerous respectable people, whose education has been imperfect, and can have no possible good, unless it be to abbreviate expression. Thus we believe the Latin preposition Clam to have as much originated in slang or vulgarism, as a Tandem, applied to a carriages for, independ ently of the wit of the pun, who could otherwise designate a one-horse chaise, drawn by two horses? The word Gig is far worse, on the score of pedigree.

Force

Force of diction is always weakened by circumlocution; and it is never endured, as to things in common use. The following provincialism proves our remark: "Dithing, s. a trembling or vibrating motion of the eye." (p. 24.) Notwithstanding, we should prefer borrowing from another language, or professional terms; at any rate, let us have multum in parvo; no French se tenir debout for stand.

IV. An Account of a Stone Barrow at Stony Littleton, co. Somerset. By Sir R. C. Hoare, bart. &c.

The worthy Baronet, to whom Archæology is so deeply indebted, observes, concerning barrows:

"In endeavouring to investigate and develope the history of these great efforts of human art, much time and expense have been lavished, and, I fear, without much profit or information. We have invariably found the sepulchral deposit placed under the East, or most distinguished end of the tumulus, and the interments to consist of skeletons buried in an irregular and promiscuous manner, and unaccompanied by those fine urns, gilt daggers, &c. which have rewarded our labours in the bowl and well-shaped barrows. From these circumstances, we

might be led to suppose that they had been raised over the bodies of the lower class of people; but can we suppose, that the British tribes would have raised such immense mounds for this purpose?" P. 44.

Here are two leading points to be considered; the difference between the long and the round barrow, and the magnitude of these monuments. Upon these two points we shall beg to offer to the learned Baronet some elucidations, which, we believe, have never been before exhibited, and are, we hope, as satisfactory as the double meaning of tumulus for a barrow or sepulchre will permit.

Whoever sees the plan of the listvaens in this large oblong barrow, (exhibited in Plate I.) will observe a manifest assimilation, though more rude, to the subterranean sepulchral chambers, engraved by Denon. These oblong barrows, we conceive, to have been formerly sepulchres, from the following authority: "At the entrance upon the second or Southern bridge of Lochy in Scotland, a piece of wall, about six feet high, is raised on the left, in which there is a small gate with iron bars, through which is seen a path leading to an enclosure with a mount or hillock in the middle,

[May,

thickly covered with pine trees, situate at the lower end of the island, near the point where the united streams of the Dochart and Lochy fall into the lake. This place, which might readily be mistaken for a Druidical grove, is the burial-place of the chiefs of the family or clan of Macnab. It is customary with the great Highland families, to have upon their estates exclusive burial places for themselves and their relations, distinct from the church-yards or common burial-grounds of the parishes."-(Sketch of a Tour in the Highlands, through Perthshire, Argyleshire, and Invernesshire, in 1818, pp. 101, 102.)-This passage shows the sagacity of Stukeley, where he says, that "barrows were commonly placed upon the brink of hills, hanging over a valley, where doubtless their dwellings were."-Itin. I. p. 6.

As to the magnitude of barrows, there were three distinct causes of this property.

The first is thus stated by Gilpin, who is speaking of Silbury Hill: "As our ancestors could not aim at immortality by a bust, a statue, or a piece of bas relief, they endeavoured to obtain it by works of enormous labour."-(Tour on the Wye, p. 154.) -Plutarch and Vitruvius mention an offer of Stasicrates or Dinocrates to carve Mount Athos into a statue of Alexander, holding in his hand a city capable of containing ten thousand

men.

(Alberti de re ædificatorid, fol. 83, 4to, Paris, 1512.)

The second cause was the celebration of games upon them, in honour of the deceased, every year. This custom is mentioned by Virgil (Eneid V. lin. 46, seq.), where Eneas commences the anniversary by a libation made upon the barrow of Anchises. Stukeley says (Itiner. I. 108), "On the top of the great barrow, called Shipley Hill, are several oblong double trenches, cut in the turf, where the lads and lasses of the adjacent villages meet upon Easter Monday early, to be merry with cakes and ale. A similar custom is still observed, upon a large barrow in Herefordshire, called Caple-Tump, near Ross. At a part of the walls of Agrigentum was a little hillock called La Metu, supposed to have been named from the use antiently made of it; for it is asserted, that this spot was appropri

ated

"A false idea has prevailed respecting the sepulchral mounds, which we see so thickly dispersed over the chalky hills in Wiltshire and Dorset. They have been called battle barrows, as if raised over the

bodies of the Britons who were slain in battle. The barrow, in my opinion, was a grave of honour, raised over the ashes

of the chieftain, not of the vassal, whose remains were deposited in the parent earth, without the distinguishing mark of an elevated mound. I am inclined to form this conjecture, from the frequent discoveries made in our bare downs, of skeletons, sine tumulo, and many of our large barrows have been found to contain the bones or ashes of one single corpse."

P. 44.

This conjecture, as the Baronet modestly styles his opinion, is, we think, the "honos tumuli," which Turnus grants to the body of Pallas. —(Æo. X. 493.)-But this honos tumuli, or the honour of a barrow, was, in the main at least, confined to military characters; and the size of the barrows denoted the estimation in which the deceased was held. Vopiscus, speaking of the Emperor Probus, says, "Pugnavit et singulari certamine contra quendam Aradionem in Africâ, eumdemque prostravit, et quia fortissimum ac pertinacissimum viderat, sepulchro ingente honoravit, quod adbuc exstat tumulo usque ad ducentos pedes lato, per milites, quos ociosos esse nunquam est passus." As to Probus himself, the same author says, “Ingens ei sepulchrum elatis aggeribus*, omnes pariter milites fecerunt." Hist. August. Scriptor. II. 293, 294. ed. Sylburg.

From these passages we infer, that oblong barrows, with kistvaens, are family sepulchres of the principal Celts; and insulated round barrows, called by Trogus, "tumuli heroum," those chiefly + of military men of rank;

*Aggeres, according to the use of the word in this age (see Ammianus Marcel. linus, l. 31.) signified causeways or raised roads: "Vitatis aggeribus publicis."

↑ We say chiefly, because illustrious females may have been buried under sin gle barrows. See Archæologia, XV. 127. GENT. MAG. May, 1821.

the size of the barrow denoting the bravery of the person. As to barrows over the dead killed in battle, which barrows occur at Marathon, &c. the bones or skeletons promiscuously heaped up would detect these. But still there is a difficulty. At Trelleck in Monmouthshire, a battle was undoubtedly fought between Harold and the Welsh; for the column mentioned by Giraldus Cambrensis, and inscribed "Hic fuit victor Haroldus," has been but recently destroyed; and in an adjoining field are three large sepulchral cippi, and not far off, an enormous barrow, and some cairns. The former, tradition says, was origi nally composed, as to the interior, of the bodies of the slain. Suetonius has "Mutinensi acie interemtorum civium tumulo publicè extracto." —(Aug. 12.)-Here there may be a doubt whether tumulus does not rather imply a sepulchre than a barrow or mound of earth; but the latter seems generally to be meant, when the tumulus is said to be the work of the soldiers. "Corpus ejus per municipiorum coloniarumque primores suscipientibus obviis scribarum decuriis, ad urbem devectum, sepultumque est in Martio Campo. Cete

rum exercitus honorarium ei tumulum excitavit; circa quem deinceps stato die quotannis miles decurreret, Galliarumque civitates publicè supplicarent. Sueton. in Claud. c. 1.”Here we conceive tumulus to mean a

barrow; as does the Delphin annotator on the passage, who quotes Virgil, En. III. for an empty barrow being a cenotaph :

manesque vocabat Hectoreum ad tumulum, viridi quem cespite inanem," &c.

And Eutropius records a similar instance of a cenotaph being erected to Gordian: « Κατεσκεύασε δε αὐτω, μνημη των πεπραγμένων ήρωον ὁ στρατος, i. e. Paravit miles ei memoriâ ejus rerum gestarum ngwov (1. IX.) To σωμα δε εἰς την Ρώμην ἐκομισε, ExseLilius quius Romam revexit. Ibid. Giraldus,, De Sepulchris (printed in Boissard, IV. 46), says, "Artacha Xerxis Præfecti memorabile fuit monumentum, quod ab universo illo Xerxis exercitu tellure congesta constructum fuit." Justin, too, says, (lib. XI. c. 5), "In Ilio quoque ad

Tumulos