is quoted from Iph. A. 48. So determined is Dindorf, to justify the sneer of Volcmar Fritzsche, who says on Aristoph. Them. 225, of Dindorf's doings in Aristophanes, that "if he continues as he has begun, to cut out all he cannot understand, whole plays will become fragments, and the fragments a farce." But even Wilhelm Dindorf, who has detected as he fancies, some 173 spurious lines in the other plays of Euripides, is unwilling to go the whole hog with Hartung; who has repudiated about 153, in the Iphigenia alone to say nothing of the whole of the finale, and sundy halflines to boot. In a few instances, however, Hartung has shown himself an acute critic, as he has anticipated the unedited remarks of John Pierson, the author of the Verisimilia, and the published ideas of bishop Monk; who says of the Grecian of Erlangen, that his text presents a specimen of greater violence done to an ancient, than his lordship has almost ever witnessed; while to the greater part of Hermann's most daring alterations, received without stint, many of his own of a still harsher character are added: and though he can find no fault with some verses his lordship has condemned, he proscribes others that exhibit as strong and characteristic features of the style of Euripides, as are to be found in the remains of the dramatist.

The History of Banbury, including copious Historical and Antiquarian Notices of the Neighbourhood. By Alfred Beesley. 8vo.

IN our review* of the first part of this publication, we expressed the pleasure it would give us, to see so fair a sample of its quality successfully

extended to conclusion; our wishes have not been disappointed.

We are gratified to observe, that two or three incidental hints which we gave in that preliminary notice, of an etymological nature, have been received by the author with courtesy and attention; it is always a pleasing

task to us to contribute such information as we may chance to possess in aid of the elucidation of doubtful points in history or topography.

We cannot leave the British and Roman antiquities of Banbury, without one or two more particular notices of the most remarkable described by Mr. Beesley. The Roman Amphitheatre

"is in a field called Berry‡ moor, adjoining the town on the right of the turn to Bloxham. It is a semicircular work, open to the north, and is cut in the concave face of a steep hill, the summit of which overlooks the town. The arena measures 134 feet in breadth, and rising above it on the face of the hill are three broad terraces made for the spectators of the combats, which terraces are respectively 25, 39, and 59 feet (measured on the slope above the arena). These are calculated to afford a view of the sports to more than two thousand persons." p. 25.

The careful tracing of the line of the ancient Portway, is characteristic of that attention to accuracy of detail, which is one of the best qualities of a topographical writer.

"The Portway was an ancient trackway which traversed Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. It ran from or crossed the Watling Street at a part between Tripontium (Dove Bridge) on the borders of Leicestershire, and Benaventa a British site, or Isaunavaria a Roman one (Borough Hill near Daventry in Northamptonshire), and entering Oxfordshire at Souldern, it proceeded nearly southward by Kirtlington, which latter place is situated on the line of the Akeman Street, four miles and a half west of the Roman Elia Castra,

(Alchester in the parish of Wendlebury near Bicester, the fancied British Alauna). Between Isaunavaria and Ælia Castra there was a station called Brinavis, re

corded in one of the itinera of Richard of Cirencester." p. 26.

Blacklands piece or Blacklands furlong, now called Blackland, was in or

near the course of the Portway; this very remarkable spot is three quarters of a mile north of the village of King's Sutton, three miles south-east of Banbury.

"It is a piece of arable land, of a very dark colour, as compared with the red commanding a view of Nadbury Camp on land around it, and situated on a high hill the Edgehill range, Crouch hill, and the vale of Cherwell south ward."

Blackland is renowned for the quantity of Roman Coins, the kistvaens, urns, skeletons and ashes,

Innumerable instances occur of the term Bury being applied to Roman sites.

which have been found within its limits, of which discoveries the editor gives some interesting details.

Its site was guarded by the long line of embankment which extended at least from Aston-le-walls in the north to Kirtlington in the south, a distance of nineteen miles direct. This mode of defending a line of country by a long extended earthen wall or vallum, of which we need not refer to other examples remaining in Britain, is we believe decidedly Roman.

We have a very striking instance of such a fortification in that earth work, nineteen miles long, which Cæsar drew from Lake Leman to Mount Jura, in order to restrain the irruptions of the Helvetii-Ea legione quam secum habebat, militibusque qui ex Provinciâ convenerant à lacu Lemano quem flumen Rhodanum influit, ad montem Juram qui fines Sequanorum ab Helvetiis dividit millia passuum decem et novem murum in altitudinem pedum sexdecim, fossamque perducit.* In which passage murus, as in other parallel instances, meant a mound or agger.

Of the camps, always considered British, composed of terraces rising in circular arrangement one above the other, a fine example is pointed out as existing at Gredenton, and delineated in plate III. of Mr. Beesley's volume.

At Wiggington, 5 miles S. W. of Banbury, extensive foundations of Roman construction, a hypocaust, &c. exist, the plan of which is subjoined.

In the chamber of semi-octagonal form, was a pavement; the small tessera which composed it were of four colours, white, yellow, blue, and red. The guilloches and scroll work of this elegant pavement, indicate an early period of Roman art (see the Plate). How readily and tastefully may such be transferred to modern oil cloths for halls, &c. The walls of this chamber remained to the height of two feet above the pavement, and were buried about one foot below the surface of the earth. Some perfect pieces of mineral coal were found in the flues of the hypocaust, a proof that the Roman-Britons employed that substance for fuel. Copper coins of Victorinus, Constantine, Valens, discovered, shewed that the building was inhabited till the later period of the Roman occupation of Britain.

Skeletons found in Roman villas, generally indicate that the inhabitants had been put to the sword. That at Wiggington, however, appears (if we understand the passage, p. 42, rightly), to have been interred under the tesselated floor of the crypto-porticus of the villa.

We pass on to Banbury Castle, which in all probability was erected early in the twelfth century, by Alexander de Blois, Bp. of Lincoln, nephew of the celebrated Roger Bishop of Salisbury, himself a great castle builder, at a time when those strongholds became intolerable instruments for maintaining the tyranny of feudal lords. If Banbury were the Roman Branavis, the site of its castle was probably that of a Roman fort-such a Castrensian amphitheatre as that before described was the frequent appendage of a strong garrison-and this we ob. serve is Stukeley's opinion, not always to be rejected because he occasionally, like Whitaker, launches out into the region of antiquarian imaginings mount an antiquary on his hobby in that truly open plain, and no one can predict the extent or vagaries of his course. The strength of Banbury Castle may be inferred from the me morable siege which it underwent in the the year 1644, which lasted from 10th July to 15th Oct. of that year, thirteen weeks, and which ended for that time in the repulse of the rebellious Parliamentarians. The circumstances

of the siege are detailed with interesting minuteness by the author, in the quotation at length of numerous contemporary newspapers and original letters.

In the year 1646, the Parliament forces again beleagured the grey old towers and deep foss works, and after a siege of fifteen weeks the castle surrendered the 6th May, 1646, by an honourable capitulation: the garrison was 400 strong.

"This castle, says a contemporary writer of the Puritan faction, though old through time, yet was recovered and revived by art and industry into an incredible strength, much beyond many places of greater name and reputation, and often had our forces been defeated

before it; and but that it was now God's

time and season for the rendition of it, no

other success could have been expected by these forces, the castle standing in its full pride and strength, being well recovered of all its wounds and batterings received in former assaults, and having impregnable works about it, and great variety of invention bestowed in it." P. 421.

Of the memorable battle fought on Sunday 23rd October, 1642, between the King's and the Parliament forces, (in the valley under that commanding

line of hills which overlook the vale of Red Horse,) known in history as the battle of Edge Hill, Mr. Beesley has given ample and curious details,

as the battle field was within a few miles distant from Banbury. An excellent little wood-engraving affords, at a glance, a clear idea of the King's position on the edge of the lofty chain which he left to attack the Earl of Essex's army at Kineton. The indecisive result of that engagement, so honourably and successfully begun by the royal cavalry, is well known, and stands an example in military tactics, shewing that even decisive and signal advantage may be pursued too far if it should divide the forces of the conquerors, and the enemy still possess an unbroken reserve. Our readers will not be displeased with Mr. Beesley's graphic sketch of the view from Edge Hill, one of those noble sites so often occurring in English landscape, which spreads the country as an illuminated map under the eye, till the whole expanse melts and blends into the far distant blue horizon.

GENT. MAG. VOL. XVII.

"Edge Hill is situated seven miles from Banbury, and near the southern extremity of the county of Warwick. It is the face or edge of the table land of the north of Oxfordshire, elevated high above the vale of Warwickshire....The outline of the figure of a horse cut in the red loam on the side of the hill, gives the name of the Vale of Red Horse to the plain below. From the brow of the hill is to be seen the great midland plain of England, extending from the Malvern Hills on the borders of Herefordshire to the hills of Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire."

The line of the King's march to his position may be plainly traced from Edge Hill; the distant towers of Worcester Cathedral, the smoke of the coal districts of Staffordshire, the evening mists which rise from its course of the Avon defined by the surface, the spires of Coventry, Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon, are all comprehended in this magnificent view.

On the Dasset hills, which project into the Vale of Red Horse, is a beacon tower,* fired by the Parliamentarians after the battle of Edge Hill, to give notice of their assumed but unacknowledged victory.

When spots like these have been distinguished by remarkable events of history, how is their charm redoubled, and how fully do we feel disposed to yield to the idea that there is a silent voice even in the scenery of Nature, which proclaims them to be designed eternal monuments of passages to be chronicled in the imperishable page of history! The explanation simply is, that the boldest, most defensible, and commanding grounds are chosen for military positions, so that the topography and landscape of battle grounds are ever highly interesting to the minute investigator. Tradition points out the ascent of the present turnpike road from Kineton towards the brow of

Edge Hill as one of the hardest fought points of the day; and the number of balls found there, and the name of bullet hill, which is given to this part of the steepest ascent, serve to confirm the tradition. Here, on the field, the pious, valiant, and rebellion-harassed monarch of the line of Stuart passed the night, a cold and frosty one, by the side of a fire made of brakes and brushes torn from the battle ground;

*See plate XIX. of the work. 3 U