I OBSERVE you are about to publish a further account of the antiquities discovered at Winchester, and remember that it was before stated, that among the Roman remains there, a number of excavated pits were observed. When I was observing the remains discovered in London, in the neighbourhood of the Roman way in Great East Cheap, a vast number of pits were laid open, which I thought at the time to be domestic cesspools of the Roman houses erected near the highway. In them were found sundry vessels of domestic pottery, horns of goats, sheep, &c.; which last circumstance seemed to indicate that the Roman butchers might have established themselves at East Cheap, as 1 believed some writers on Londinian topography assert. With regard to your correspondent who wonders at the number of Roman coins which are constantly turned up from our soil, I see no reason to share in his surprise. If we look at the practice of depositing a coin with the ashes of the dead (together with sundry household utensils, articles of clothing, ornament or food), the preservation of numerous specimens will be readily accounted for; if the Romano-British population throughout the kingdom could be taken at a million souls, and the annual mortality at ten per cent. one hundred thousand coins would yearly be buried in this way; to which, if we add the accumulation by the well-known practice which the ancients had of laying up hoards of money concealed in urns in the earth (many such hoards being never reclaimed by the circumstances of war or other accidents of life), there is, I think, no cause whatever to consider the quantity of Roman coins which our soil produces from time to time for numismatists as remarkable. All the Roman villas and stations in Britain shew marks of having been abandoned in great haste, and of having been devastated by fire, &c. Almost all of them abound in coins; every summer's ploughing at Richborough (Rhutupia), at Silchester (Cal IN answer to the question of Mr. MANGIN, in p. 458, as to the probable cause why so large a quantity of Roman coins are almost daily unearthed in various parts of Britain, allow me, in a few words, to offer what appears to me a satisfactory solution of his difficulty. The principal quantity, indeed almost the whole, of Roman coins are found at or near the military stations of that people; and as the Imperial forces, as we well know, usually received their wages in heavy copper money (æs militare), much too ponderous a metal to allow the legionary to carry any amount of it about his person, he was necessitated to find some place where it might be secure from the depredations of his comrades; or, in other words, out of sight. That the earth (or, as Tom Hood would say, the bank), was the customary banker of those times, we may gather from the 18th verse of the 25th chap. of St. Matthew, and from several expressions in the Classics. But the hoard thus deposited upon the decease of its owner, (which in the unsettled state of the country, conquered but not subdued," might happen suddenly,) from the very means he had taken for its safeguard, be lost to his heirs ; and thus would remain until time and accident should gradually lay bare to us in this remote age heaps, which in numerical quantity, if not in value, far exceeds all the remaining Fiorins," 'Bezants," or Angels," of comparative modern times. Yours, &c. W. DENTON. POETRY. THE QUEEN'S PALACE AND THE TAXING-MAN. THERE'S a Palace bigg'd with lyme and stane, And there she keeps her maidens smalle, They are most blithe and gay to see, And they are all in satin clad, They are a royal companie. And so it fell, these guests they sate He knocketh at the gate. "What, ho!" (he cried) "ye Nobles all, The Queene hath need of sundry Poundes Then first uprose the Queen's Keeper, Who dwells by Parkìs greene; "No Sheriff's-Man," quoth he, The Castle of the Queen. can tax "Lord George, he is mine own dear friend, He is a comely man to see; He cares no more for the red red gold, Than a beggar-loon for a small pennie.” And one his solemne oathe did take, That all the fish in pond or lake, They would not pay the Sheriff's fee. And then did speak a wee, wee Maid, "Come here, good Taxing-Man,” quoth she; "I'll give the Queene these books I've wrote, They are a prettie history. They speake of knights, and love, and fights, And one did boast his book call'd "Faust," And one some little godly Tracts, Most meet for children's nurserie. And one there came, with triple name, Then one and all, they did cry out- "Go, saddle you the black, black steed, And when you've rode to London town, "That we did burn the broad lettèr, He sealed with his hand; And never more shall Taxing-Man "Our Porter with his staff shall keep Oh! then uprose that Forestère, Quoth he,-" for this the Queen's fat deere "No Tax shall fall on Palace-wall, Nor eke on Parkìs greene; The battle's won, the work is done God save our noble Queene!" SI--St. 19 Nov. 1838. J. M. ON A COUPLE OF WOODCOCKS KILLED AT HOLKHAM, AT A SINGLE SHOT, AND AFTERWARDS SCULPTURED IN MARBLE, BY SIR FRANCIS CHANTREY. IAMBI. Nobis gemellis, et gemello vulnere Ictis, manus quæ straverat vitam dedit, Haud denuo exstinguendam. Id unde fit, rogas? ANGLICE. To us twin birds, who by one twin wound fell, Gave back a life-for ever to remain ! "How may this be?" you ask; "" I pray, explain.” II. Nobis et forma, et vita, fatoque gemellis RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW. English Poetry from a MS. in the Public Library, Cambridge, Gg. 4, 32. THE MS. in which these poems are contained is a small folio parchment MS. supposed by Nasmyth, in his catalogue of the MSS. to have been written during the reign of Henry the Fourth. It appears from the contents to have been the Manual of one of the parochial clergy in London; since it contains several tracts on confession, extracts from different Penitentiaries, and statutes between the Rectors of the Archdeaconry of London, drawn up and confirmed per dom. Rogerum bonæ memoriæ Nigrum de Bileye London. Episcopum," together with several other documents of a like character, to one of which the date 1367 is affixed. Nearly at the commencement of the MS. and contained in eight folios, is some religious poetry in English, French, and Latin. The MS. is well written and in excellent preservation; the greater part being in the same handwriting, and at the beginning is a table of contents also in the same handwriting. From the character of the poetry, it may, perhaps, be referred to the 13th century. In transcribing the MS. th has been substituted for the Anglo-Saxon character Þ, only the old form of 3 has been retained. 6 The following is the commencement of the table of contents, which refers to the poetry. "Series horum quæ continentur in isto volumine Turris sapientiæ. 1. In primis, Oratio Dominica in Anglicanâ linguâ. 2. Salutatio beatæ Virginis in eâdem linguâ. 3. Symbolum Apostolicum in eâdem linguâ (in prose). 4. Speculum humani generis. 5. Symbolum in Gallicanâ linguâ. 6. Oratio divina Dominica in eâdem linguâ. 7. Salutatio beatæ Virginis in eâdem linguâ. 8. Symbolum in Anglicanâ linguâ. 9. Quicunque vult in Gallicanâ linguâ. 10. Salutatio gloriosæ Virginis in linguâ Latinâ. 11. De eâdem salutatione in linguâ Anglicanâ. Then follow" quidam Tractatus de Confessione," &c. The following are, it is believed, accurate copies of the English poems, numbered according to the table of contents. 1. Oratio Dominica. Oure fader in heuene richea Led us, louerd, to non fondinged Amen.* 66 Riche, "kingdom," A.S. Rice. G. Reich. still used in comp. as bishopric." b Underfon. A.S. "undertake." e Wisliche. A.S. gewislice, "surely, certainly." d Fondinge," temptation," A.S. "Fandung." *Strutt's "Manners and Customs," vol. ii. p. 129. "To shew the difference between the Anglo Saxon and Anglo-Norman tongues, take the following prayer, as translated by Pope Gregory (an Englishman), and sent to King Henry the Second for the use of his subjects: : Ure fader in heuene rich, Thou bring us to thi michel blisce Euer on earth ben hit also. That holy bred that lasteth ay This, together with the creed (also in rhime) was at that time used in all the churches in England with universal approbation." Strutt gives no authority for his assertion as to the authorship of the above paraphrase, which bears considerable resemblance to that in the MS.; and as he evidently has mistaken "Gregory" for "Adrian" (who was Nicholas Brekespere), it may be doubted whether he is correct, I can find no mention of Adrian, as one of our early poets, in any of the writers on that subject. Wynne. A.S. wyn, "joy, delight;" still preserved in the word "winsome." f Scheppere, "creator." A. S. scyppend. G. schöpfer. Oune-lepi. A. S. Anlipi, "single, only." h Rode. A. S. rod, "cross." i Tholede. A. S. tholian, " to suffer, thole." GENT. MAG. VOL. X. 4 K |