Chapter VI: Front Matter (6)

The church antiquities of this place are capable of a large history, if pursued thoroughly by a judicious hand: it would give one a good idea of the ancient manner and magnificence of our great abbeys: there are no where such remains of that kind left among us. The revenues hereof are very great; which enables them to keep every thing in good repair, and to live very splendidly: indeed the whole city is supported only by the church. The cathedral is a very large and majestic pile, of the Saxon manner of building intirely, and all of a piece, except the east end transept and middle tower, and some later windows of mullion-work put into the old frames. I call that the Saxon manner which was in use among us at the time of the Conquest; being somewhat Roman degenerate, with semicircular windows, and arches, and great round pillars; the walls very thick, without buttresses: these, I suppose, together with pointed arches, slender pillars, and the like, which we call the Gothic, came from France. Very few monuments are left here: one of a bishop, under the bishop’s throne: in the choir the largest one, of a bishop, I ever saw; it is upon the ground, composed of two huge flat stones: the brass of it, which was proportional, is pulled off. Here are many of the ancient original copes, very richly embroidered, in which they officiate at the sacrament service; a custom here only preserved. The screen at the high altar is of stone, with pinacle work, somewhat like that at St. Alban’s; with many niches for images: behind is the stone under which lies the body of St. Cuthbert, and upon which stood his shrine. The eastern wall of the church is one intire transept, as long as the cross transept (I think,) and called the Nine Altars, from so many there placed. Much painted glass of saints, &c. Two images, among others left, are those of St. Cuthbert, and venerable Bede. The dome under the middle tower is very high, with a handsome balustrade of ancient manner within side. At the west end, built upon a high wall from the edge of the river, is a place called the Galilee, consisting of five ailes supported with handsome pillars: the use of it, and the meaning of the name, I know not; but the middlemost seems to have been an oratory, to pray for the soul of the founder of it, whose tomb stands at the east end: his arms are, _Palé_ of ten, a mullet for difference. Near it, under a plain black tomb, lies the great Bede, the light of learning in darkest times; the first and the last among the monks. The cloisters are large and handsome; so is the chapter-house. The dean’s lodging is that of the prior’s; for the most part preserved in its primitive state; the hall, the parlour, large and stately; the prior’s lodging-room well cieled, and roofed with Irish oak, which Mr. Gale conjectures as old as Richard the Second’s time, by the chained white-harts carved therein: the prior’s kitchen is intire; a curious piece of geometry in stone, and vies with that of the abbot of Glastonbury; octagonal, with square outlets at the corners. The prebend’s houses are all very good. A large and handsome library, founded by dean Subden; his picture at full length at the end of it. Here is an excellent and large collection of old manuscripts; a very fine Latin Bible in three volumes; a psaltery wrote by Bede; a collection of Roman and others coins. Sir George Wheeler, a prebend here, gave his intire collection of Greek and other coins, which he collected in his travels; together with some natural curiosities, particularly the impressions of fishes, and other antediluvian matters, upon slate. Here are a great many Roman altars, inscriptions, _basso relievo_’s, &c. belonging to our own country; which they got from about the Picts Wall, Lanchester, &c. We were particularly favoured with a sight of the treasury as called, being a very numerous repository of the charters, bulls, _inspeximus_’s, and muniments, belonging to the church, from the kings of England, Scotland, popes, bishops, &c. digested into lockers: among others, an original _Magna Charta_. We saw likewise the old dormitory of the monks.

In the minster-yard are some monumental stones of knights, and a lady on the ground, with others of flower-work: among them I saw a Roman altar set for a grave-stone, but no inscription left. Likewise Dr. Hunter showed me a Roman head in a garden-wall: if I be not mistaken, it is of Marcus Aurelius. The doctor has a great collection of antiquities. On a coral-coloured _patera_ the potter’s mark, AMANDVS: many of these vessels curiously wrought with lions, flowers, &c. found at Binchester, _Vinovium_: the clay is there met withall, and there was a great pottery. He showed us a pretty onyx, found at Piercebridge: I think it is Psyche. He says there was an aqueduct at Lanchester: many inscriptions broke there, just before he went. He has a recipient celt, found with some others, and an odd piece of cast brass, at Weremouth near Sunderland, by the sea-side: the edge of the celt is turned up at both ends, and confirms my notion of the use of them, being designed for no great force: it is three inches and a half long, pretty much worn, but sharp yet.

There was a Roman city at Pierce bridge: remains of the castle-ditch. Cunscliff, a mile off, was the place they had their stone from; and there the inscription was found; whence some would fix _Condate_ at this place, though it is plainly _Dis Manibus Condati_, &c. and refers to a man, not a city. There is an old chapel on the bridge. They call the Roman road here the Watling-street. A brass _Jupiter fulminans_, and a _genius alatus_, found at Lanchester, at Dr. Hunter’s. A golden inscription to Hercules, in the library at Durham.

From Pierce bridge we entered immediately upon the Roman road, which comes to the river a little lower down than the present bridge: it is a broad, very strait, and hard road at this day; the great ridge of stone originally laid, being not worn out through so many ages, though broken and in great need of reparation. Several mile-stones by the way. Upon a moor we saw a branch run from it north-west, which goes to Bowes, _Lavatræ_, and other stations towards Carlisle.

CATARACTONIVM. +Catteric.+

Brough, on the south banks of the Swale, was a castle: much Roman coins and antiquities found thereabouts. The town Catteric, which so evidently retains the name, is a mile off.

——_sic toties versa est fortuna locorum._ +Ovid.+ Met.

Thornborough, the old city, stands a little above the bridge and road: it is a farm-house only, on a high ground, and on the edge of the river, being steep. Foundations of the old walls left, and much antiquity dug up.

The Hermen-street continues southward by the British name of _Leming-lane_, all composed of stone, and paved with large coggles, which the neighbouring inhabitants take away to build withal, and pave their yards, &c. This is a ridge of ground that was originally down: on both sides lie the most delightful plains of Yorkshire, bounded by distant hills both ways: it is a rich country, admirably watered, and well planted with wood, thronged with towns, and Roman antiquities; for that people knew how to set a just value on it. Mr. Gale showed me, at his pleasant seat of Scruton, his admirable library, where are no fewer than 430 choice manuscripts, collected by his father, many finely illuminated; many ancient classics of great value; a _Priscian_, wrote by a disciple of his.

ISVRIVM. +Boroughbridge.+

We travelled along the Roman road, strait and perfect, till we turned out to Rippon. The market-place is a square, spacious enough: in the middle of it an obelisk is erected: had it been of large stones, of a good kind, and of a good proportion, it would have been a real ornament to the place. The cathedral here is a large strong building, handsome enough: there is an entrance from the west part of the great tower within, to go under ground, exactly like that we saw at Hexham, and made for the same intent: here is a chapel to St. Wilfrid, where I suppose his bones lie; and a place called his Needle, a passage the vulgar amuse themselves with. Hence we went by Newby, a new seat of Sir Edward Blackett’s, in a rich country. So we fell into the Roman road again at Boroughbridge. We visited Aldborough, a mile off, the _Isurium Brigantum_. Here was a great city walled about: the church and present town, which is a borough by prescription, is inclosed within it. We saw the foundation of the Wall, where they have long been digging it up, as the common quarry for stone, when they want it: it was curious to observe their method of laying the foundation of it in clay: above that the stones are laid in mortar. This same manner I found used at the Picts wall, where I saw the foundation of it, by Chester. We saw and heard of many antiquities at this place: coins of Antoninus, Constantine, Tetricus, and many more; some of which I purchased: intaglia’s are very frequent here; for such, together with coins, are commonly taken up after rain; and the people customarily look for them as they walk through the town. There has been some very great building in the street before the church; for many stones were taken up there, many remain. We saw some at the church-yard gate, and at people’s doors; among which, two pieces of pillars; the _hypotrachelion_ on one; and several foundations of a gate, in which were the iron hinges. I saw the stones; they were of a large size. Many square stones, with a square hole in the middle, lie at the ale-house door over-against the church, all manifestly of a Roman cut; and the whole town abounds with them. The man at the ale-house says the earth all about is exceeding rich, quite black, is never manured; that coins rusted together are found perpetually, and pavements, &c. In his sisters house, west of the church, we were highly delighted with a great part of a Mosaic pavement, perfectly preserved, and covered with a roof: the remainder is now under the causeway of the street: it was laid with stones, red, blue, and white, of excellent colour: some part is also under the adjacent barn-floor. The late Rev. Mr. Morris, minister here, collected much: Mr. Wilkinson, the duke of Newcastle’s steward, collects now. Slates are sometimes ploughed up, (none such near;) many silver coins, some of which were bought by Sir James Dalrymple. In the church wall are many Gothic remains of basso relievo’s, figures of animals, much like lord Winchelsea’s Sark antiquities. A figure of Pan in the vestry-wall of Aldborough: an intagliate cornelian was found there; an eagle, a _signum militare_, a _cornucopia_ cut on it.

Rippon monastery was founded by Wilfrid, the Saxon bishop, about anno Dom. 670, the same who founded St. Leonard’s priory by Stamford; and likewise that at Hexam, which afterwards became a bishoprick. Wilfrid died at Oundle, and was buried at Rippon.

[Sidenote: TAB. XC.]

The stones, as much famed by the name of the Devil’s Arrows, as misrepresented by writers, stand in some fields, half a mile west of the Roman road south of Boroughbridge. Some think them Roman, though they regard not any Roman work hereabouts: some say they are factitious, though plain stone as possible. They are stones of very large dimensions, and have been hewn pretty square, much as those at Stonehenge; but silly people have knocked off the edges: their height is very great: they were very taper and well-shaped, and much of an obelisk form; but the tops are decayed, and long furrows worn down on all sides along the tenderest part of the grain of the stone. I remarked, that they all lean somewhat southward. The stone is entirely composed of small white crystals, unperishable by weather: they are certainly natural, and brought about ten miles off, from the west, where more such lie above ground in great plenty. Three now stand; one was taken away, as all report, to make a bridge over the bec a little eastward. The cross near the church is of the same stone. These stones stood 200 foot asunder, pretty near in a line north and south: the first stone westward is not so high as the other, but broader much, and stands square, or perpendicular to the line of direction; it is 8½ foot broad, 4½ thick, 23 foot about: the second in the next pasture is square each side, but not precisely; it is 5 foot broad, 4 foot thick, 18 foot square: the next is twice as far distant, and beyond the road, of a figure much like the former, but rather higher, as that is higher than the first; this is 5 foot by 4: the two last are very beautiful obelisks, and their height about 25 foot, as I guess. The ground this fine monument stands on is high, and declines every way a little from it: the great river, the brook, and some low ground to the south, hem it in as it were. Mr. Gale, and the beforementioned clergyman, some time since dug under one to the foundation, and found that it was about five foot under ground, and fastened into its seat by stones laid in clay, quite around it, as a wall: they put four half-pence, in a leaden box underneath, of queen _Anne_, _Vigo_, &c. and filled it up again. I could not commend them for it, as it could only tend to mislead the curious of future times.

IMP. CÆS. DOMITIANO. AVG. COS. VII.

Two of these found on lead; BRIG. on the side. AVG. 833, the year of Jul. Agricola coming hither.

EBORACVM. +York.+

[Sidenote: TAB. XCVIII.]

We went upon a Roman way till we came to the river Nidd, half-way to York, where moor begins. At Ackham we saw the hill called Severs hill, with much reason thought to be that on which was performed the consecration of Severus the emperor; and, no doubt, with great magnificence: it is a large round hill, and the highest ground near York, about two miles distance from it: there seemed to be a long barrow west of it. York is a very large city, but old, and narrow streets. I saw the multangular tower in the city-wall, just by St. Mary’s abbey, which was built by the Romans, as to the bottom part: the upper has been added; it was originally of twelve sides: the stones are of squared faces, four Roman inches high; the inside, rubble, and excessive hard mortar: it seems within side as if a seat had been carried round it: three of the sides are gone: it is on the west side of the city. I went to see the two statues on St. Laurence church-wall, thought to be Roman; but they are not so: they are monumental tomb-stones of founders of churches laid just above ground somewhere, and removed hither: they are very ancient; I believe, about king John’s time. The cathedral here is a noble building; but, except that the side-walks are somewhat broader, and are carried on the west side of the transepts, it is exceeded in every thing by Lincoln minster; as, for instance, in the manner of approach on the west, in the front for breadth and height, in the stone roof, the towers, the cloisters, and in general the magnificence of the whole: the chapter-house here is only vaulted with wainscot; that at Lincoln with stone. The river Ouse divides the city in two. The walls on the west side are in good repair, and may be walked round. All the walls here are low, but built upon a huge _agger_ of earth; I suppose, the Roman manner. There are two figures of Ulphus’s horn in the cathedral. In the west end of the steeple of St. Martin’s church, Micklegate, is the remnant of a fine funeral monument, Roman; a man and his wife, with their son, a child, in their habits: near it a piece of flower-work, perhaps belonging to the frize of some magnificent building. There are twenty four parish-churches here. The bridge over the Ouse, commonly magnified to strangers, is a very ordinary thing, and exceeded by most of the bridges in the county.

_The great Temple & Grove of the Druids at Trerdrew in +Anglesey+_

_W. Stukeley delin._ _I. Harris fecit_]

_Stukeley del._

A Celtic Temple at Winterburn 22. Aug. 1723.

_6 pa. diam 10. stones of a very hard sort full of flints, the
tallest to W. 8 f. h. the N. 7 broad 6 high._]

_Near Bondruse_

_Stukeley delin._ _I. Harris fecit_]

+Celtic+ Sepultures

_Eglwys Glominog on the top of Arennig Vaur in Llanykil Parish
Merionydshire._

_Karnedhan Hengum above a quarter of a Mile South East of Dynas
Gortyn, both in the Parish of Lhan Aber Meir._

_Coeten Arthur._]

_On the Roadside between Rwnahyrin & Clochau Cantyre_

_Karn Maur_

_Stukeley delin._ _I. Harris fecit._]

+Brass Celts+]

_The Court of Malling Abby 17. Oct. 1724._

_Stukeley delin._ _Toms Sculp._]

A +Chori Eccl: Cath: Ebor: Arcus Australis.+

B +Cornu Ulphi+

_G. Vᵈʳ. Gucht Sculp._]

_The Prospect of Kirkleys Abby, where Robin Hood dyed from the
Footway leading to Heartishead Church, at a quarter of a mile
distance._ A. _The New Hall._ B. _The Gatehouse of the Nunnery._
C. _The Trees among which Robin Hood was buryed._ D. _The way up
the Hill where this was drawn._ E. _Bradley Wood._ F. _Almondbury
hill._ G. _Castle Field._

_Drawn by Dʳ. Johnston among his Yorkshire Antiquitys. P. 54. of
the Drawings._ _E. Kirkall Sculp._]

RELIGIOVS

Remnant _of_ Ramsey Abby _Gatehouse 1713_.

_Tower on yᵉ Moor near_ Tatershal _Lincʳ._

_Capella ruinosa S. S. Spiritus apud_ Basingstoke.

Henrico Torkington de Stukeley mag. Ar. Tabula Votiva.]

Of Severus thus writes Herodian III. Antoninus, and Geta his brother, governed the empire jointly: they sailed from Britain, and went to Rome with their father’s reliques; for his body being burnt, they carried thither his ashes, put into an alabaster urn with gums and sweets, that they might be reposed in the sacred monuments of the princes.

There were two reasons why the Roman Emperors residing here chose to make York their imperial seat. 1. Because of its vicinity to the Scotch frontiers, where they were perpetually upon their guard upon the Wall against their incursions. 2. Because it is in a fruitful country, upon a navigable river; but more because they could bring hither corn from the southern countries of Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, &c. all the way by water carriage, from the river Ouse or Nen at Peterborough, up the Cardike, the Witham to Lincoln, the Fossdike (undoubtedly a work of theirs) the Trent, across the Humber, up the Ouse to York; a particular not yet taken notice of. The old arch in the bar leading to Micklegate is said to be Roman.

CALCARIA. +Tadcaster.+

We still kept on the Roman road all the way hither. A great sconce a little way off York, called the Mount, consisting of four bastions raised in the civil wars. It is a most delicious country, overflowing with plenty. The Roman _castrum_ here is now called the Castle-field; it was square, about 400 foot, and had walls round: it stands north of the town, near the church and river: its ground within, and rampires are high; but it must be understood withall, that the place has been altered, and made into a castle of later form, with a keep or mount. I heard of coins being found here; but at Newton Kyme, a mile off, vast quantities of antiquities are discovered. The castle at Tadcaster is called Kelkbar; a remnant of the ancient name. This country is a lime-stone quarry, and, by reason of its convenient rivers, was a trading place in that commodity in the time of the Romans; whence its name. Many barrows are to be seen hereabouts, for I suppose it was formerly a down.

LEGEOLIVM. +Castleford.+

Here the Hermen-street passes the river Aire, remarkable for its smooth face and gentle current: it is broad and deep withall; navigable hither: thus the river Arar, synonymous in Gaul. The place where the Roman ford was, is a little above the cascade: the stones are in great part left, but the mill-dam lays it too deep under water. Hence the paved road goes up the bank to the east side of the church, and forward through the fields, where innumerable coins are ploughed up: one part is called Stone-acre. A man told us he had formerly ploughed up a dozen Roman coins in a day: urns are often found: there are stone pavements, foundations, &c. South of the church is a pasture, called Castle garth: here were buildings of the city; but the Roman _castrum_ was where the church now stands, built probably out of its ruins: it is very high ground, and included the parsonage-house, gardens, &c. the low ground of the ditch that incompassed it is manifest. The country people have a notion of its being an old city, and of the Roman road crossing the meadows by this ford; and of great seats and palaces having been here formerly. Here is a sweet meadow, north of the river, of great extent. There is a ditch a little west of the old castle, which I take to be some later work. Great coal-works here. The Romans ran the Hermen-street through this country as much to the west as they reasonably could, to obtain fords over the numerous rivers; because they avoided ferries and bridges, as troublesome, and wanting frequent reparation. Much dane-weed, or wild elder, grows here.

DANVM. +Doncaster.+

Just before we came to Robin Hood’s well, we met the Hermen-street with a very high and perfect ridge coming from Castle-ford; it bears north-west and south-east precisely: presently after, it makes an angle, and goes southward. Robin Hood’s well stands upon the road in a valley: there is a new cover made to it lately by Sir John Vanbrug. Then the Roman road leaves us on the right a little, till at Doncaster town-end. At the marsh-gate is an old chapel and a cross of stone, triangular, with three niches. Doncaster church and steeple is large and beautiful: at the east end is an old chapel, now converted to secular uses. Near the market-place another older chapel, of St. Magdalen, which the corporation use for their place of assembly. I believe the Roman _castrum_ was by the river side, where the church and parsonage-house stand. Coming out of the town is another cross upon the road, where they fable a Roman emperor was buried. The Roman road a little farther is very apparent, going over a fine heath, so to Bawtry, upon the river Idle, slowly conducting its waters through a large level moor to the Humber. Probably here was a camp formerly. They have some trade here in lead from Derbyshire, mill-stones, and Roch-abbey stone of a good kind. Hither comes the Hermen-street, which I call the new branch, from _Agelocum_. We passed over a deep valley at Went, beyond Robin Hood’s well: the northern precipice of it is rocky, as that of Gateshead.

Having brought this journal to the edge of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, of which parts I gave my observations in former _Iters_, I conclude this with the following reflections. The amazing scene of Roman grandeur in Britain which I beheld this journey, the more it occurred with pleasure to my own imagination, the more I despaired of conveying it to the reader in a proper light by a rehearsal. It is easy for some nations to magnify trifles, and in words gild over inconsiderable transactions till they swell to the appearance of an history; and some moderns have gone great lengths that way: but if in any people action has outdone the capacity of rhetoric, or in any place they have left historians far behind in their valour and military performances, it was in our own country; and we are as much surprised in finding such infinite reliques of theirs here, as that we have no history of them that speaks with any particularity of the last 300 years that the Romans dwelt in Britain, and rendered it perfectly provincial. The learned memoirs are very short; and it is well they were guided with such a spirit, as left monuments sufficient to supply that defect, when handled as they deserve: though I have no hope of coming up to that, yet I hold myself obliged to preserve, as well as I can, the memory of such things as I saw; which, added to what future times will discover, will revive the Roman glory among us, and may serve to invite noble minds to endeavour at that merit and public-spiritedness which shine through all their actions. This tribute at least we owe them, and they deserve it at our hands, to preserve their remains.

RICARDI MONACHI
WESTMONASTERIENSIS
COMMENTARIOLI GEOGRAPHICI
De situ BRITTANIÆ
Et Stationum quas ROMANI ipsi in ea Insula ædificaverunt
LIBER PRIMUS.

CAPUT I.

Finis erat orbis ora Gallici littoris, nisi Brittania insula, non qualibet amplitudine, nomen pene _orbis alterius_ mereretur. octingentis enim & amplius millibus passuum longa porrigitur: ita ut eam in Caledonicum usque promuntorium metiamur.

II. Veteres Britanniam, ab albis rupibus, primùm +Albionem+, postea, vocabulo gentis suæ, BRITTANIAM cognominaverunt, cum BRITTANICÆ vocarentur omnes, de quibus mox paulò dicemus.

III. Inter Septemtriones & occidentem locata est, Germanice, Galliæ, Hispaniæ, maxumis Europæ partibus magno intervallo adversa, oceano Athlantico clauditur.

IV. Habet ipsa Brittania à meridie Galliam Belgicam, cujus proximum littus transmeantibus civitas aperit, quæ Rhutupis portus dicitur, hic abest à Gessoriaco Morinorum, Brittanicæ gentis portu, trajectu millium L. sive, ut quidam scripsere, stadiorum CCCCL. illinc conspiciuntur BRITTONES quos

——_penitus toto divisos orbe_——

canit Virgilius Maro in Eclogis.

V. Agrippa, vetus orbis descriptor, latitudinem ejus CCC. m. p. credit. Beda verò rectiùs CC. exceptis duntaxat prolixioribus diversorum promuntoriorum tractibus quibus efficitur ut circuitus ejus quadragies octies septuaginta quinque millia passuum compleat. Marcianus author Græcus mecum +mdiↄↄlxxv.+ milliaria habet.

CAPUT II.

Albion, quæ Brittania Magna à Chrysosthomo authore Græco dicitur, natura, ut refert Cæsar, triquetra & Siciliæ maxume similis est, cujus unum latus est contra Galliam Celticam, hujus lateris alter angulus, qui est ad Cantium, ad orientem solem; inferior, qui est ad Ocrinum promuntorium apud Damnonos, ad meridiem & Hispaniam Tarroconensem spectat. hoc latus tenet circiter millia passuum D.

II. Alterum latus vergit ad Hiberniam & occidentem solem, hujus est longitudo lateris, ut fert Veterum opinio, DCC. m. p.

III. Tertium est contra Septemtriones cui parti nulla est objecta terra, præter insulas; sed ejus angulus lateris maxumè ad Germaniam Magnam spectat, huic à Novanto chersoneso per Taixalorum regionis angulum Cantium promuntorium usque millia passuum DCCC. in longitudinem esse existimatur. Ita omnes insulam computabant in circuitu vicies centena millia passuum, sed errant, nam à Cantio Ocrinum usque m. p. est distantia CCCC. inde Novantum M. deinde Cantium MMCC. totusi insulæ circuitus, ut supra, MMMCCCCCC. millia passuum est.

IV. Formam totius Brittaniæ Livius & Fabius Rusticus, veterum doctissimi authores. oblongæ scutulæ vel bipenni assimilavere, & ut annalium conditor Tacitus, est ea facies citra Caledoniam, unde & in universam fama est transgressa; sed immensum & enorme spatium procurrentium extremo jam littore terrarum, velut in cuneum tenuatur, sed Cæsar, inclutissimus Dictator, cum Mela Romanorum nobili scriptore, pluribus eam triquetræ dixere similem. de quo supra.

V. Si Ptolemæo, orbis terrarum descriptori egregio, aliisque, coævis illi scriptoribus habenda fides, litteram Z, sed inversam, repræsentat hæc insula, nec tamen ex omni parte exacte quadrare hoc simile sufficienter præbet recentiori ævo descriptarum mapparum inspectio. Triquetra tamen figura soli Angliæ quodammodo videtur conveniens.

CAPUT III.

Cæterum Brittaniam qui mortales initio coluerint, indigenæ an advecti, ut inter nationes cæteras, parum compertum. Solis quippe Judæis, & per ipsos finitimis quibusdam gentibus, hoc contigit felicitatis, ut à primo inde mundi exordio gentis suæ originem continua serie ex infallibilibus deducere possint monumentis.

II. Habitus corporum varii, atque ex eo argumenta. namque rutulæ Caledoniam habitantium comæ, magni artus, Germanicam originem asseverant; Silurum colorati vultus, & torti plerumque crines, & positu contra Hispaniam, ut author est Tacitus, Iberos veteres trajecisse, easque & in Hybernia sedes occupasse fidem faciunt. Proximi Gallis & similes sunt, seu durante originis vi, seu procurrentibus in diversa terris, positio cœlo corporibus habitum dedit.

III. Heic, si luberet indulgere fabulis, notare possem Venetos ope commercii navalis incolas religionesque his terris primùm intulisse, imò non desunt scriptores qui Herculem huc quoque pervenisse, regnumque constituisse, referunt; his verò tam altè reconditis antiquitatibus, fabulis hinc inde refertis, immorari vix operæ pretium videtur.

IV. In universum tamen estimanti, Gallos vicinum solum occupasse credibile est. eorum sacra deprehendas, superstitionum, ait Tacitus, persuasionem. sermo haud multum diversus. pro ulteriori signo inservit Druidum traditio, unà cum nominibus civitatum, quæ verò omnes iis nominibus appellabantur, quibus gentes, ortæ ex Galliæ civitatibus, quæ eò pervenerunt, atque agros colere ceperunt.

V. Hominum est, inquit Cæsar, infinita multitudo, creberrimàque ædificia, ferè Gallicis consimilia, pecora sine numero.

VI. Omnium tamen humanissimi, qui Brittaniam austrinam incolebant, neque multum à Gallis differebant consuetudine; ulteriores plerique frumenta non serebant, sed lacte, fructu & carne vivebant, lanæ iis usus ac vestium ignotus erat, & quanquam continuis frigoribus utebantur pellibus, tamen cervinis aut ovinis vestiti erant, & lavabantur in fluminibus.

VII. Omnes verò se Brittones olim vitro infecerunt, quod cœruleum efficit colorem, atque, refert Cæsar, hoc horribiliore sunt in pugna adspectu. capilloque sunt, ut ait Romanorum Dux, promisso, atque omni parte corporis rasa præter caput & labrum superius.

VIII. Uxores habebant Brittones deni duodenique inter se communes, & maxume fratres cum fratribus, parentes cum liberis; sed, si qui erant ex his nati, eorum habebantur liberi, à quibus primùm virgines quæque ductæ erant. sua quemque mater uberibus alit, nec ancillis, nec nutricibus delectantur.

IX. Utebantur aut nummo æreo, aut annulis ferreis, ad certum pondus examinatis, pro nummis, ut author est Cæsar Dictator.

X. Leporem & gallinam & anserem gustare Brittones fas non putabant, hæc tamen alebant animi voluptatisque causa.

XI. Erant autem margaritæ, frena heburnea, & armillæ, & electrina atque vitrea vasa, & gagates lapides, &, quod cæteris excellit, stannum, magna copia merces.

XII. Utebantur & navibus, quarum carinæ primùm ac statumina ex levi materia fiebant, reliquum corpus navium ambitus viminibus contextus coriis bubulorum integebatur. quantocunque tempore cursus tenebant, ut author est Solinus, navigantes, escis abstinent.

De +Re Militari+ Brittonum.

XIII. Fert ipsa Brittania populos Regesque populorum, ut Mela lib. III. scripsit, sed sunt inculti omnes, atque ut longiùs à continenti absunt, ita aliarum opum ignari, magis tantum pecore ac finibus dites; causas autem & bella contrahunt, ac se frequenter invicem infestant. maxume imperitandi cupidine studioque ea prolatandi, quæ possident. solitum quidem, Brittones fœminarum ductu bellasse, neque sexum in imperiis discrevisse.

XIV. Dimicabant Brittones non solum equitatus peditatusque modo, sed etiam bigis et curribus, Gallicè armati, covinos, essedas verò more vulgari, vocabant, quorum falcatis axibus utebantur.

XV. Equitum genus est, iis, quum est usus, atque aliquod bellum incidit, ut Cæsar est author, quod antè Romanorum adventum ferè quotannis accidere solebat, uti aut ipsi injurias inferrent, aut illatas propulsarent. omnes in bello versantur, atqui eorum, ut quisque est genere copiisque amplissimus, ita plurimos circum se ambactos clientesque habet. hanc unam gratiam potentiamque noverunt.

XVI. In pedite erat Brittonum robur, prœliantur autem telis & ingentibus gladiis & brevibus cetris. erant Brittonum gladii, ut ait Tacitus, sine mucrone.

XVII. Genus hoc erat ex essedis pugnæ, ut Cæsar in IV. narrat. primo per omnes partes perequitant. & tela conjiciunt, ac ipso terrore equorum, & strepitu rotarum, ordines plerumque perturbant: & quum se inter equitum turmas insinuavere, ex essedis desiliunt & pedibus dispari prœlio contendunt. Aurigæ interim paululum è prœlio excedunt, atque ita se collocant, ut, si illi à multitudine hostium premantur, expeditum ad suos receptum habeant. ita mobilitatem equitum, stabilitatem peditum in prœliis præstant; ac tantum uso quotidiano, & excercitatione efficiunt, ut in declivi, ac præcipiti loco incitatos equos sustinere, & brevi moderari, ac flectere, et per temonem percurrere, & in jugo insistere, & inde se in currus citissimè recipere consueverint.

XVIII. Equestris autem prœlii ratio, & cedentibus & insequentibus par atque idem periculum inferebat. accedebat huc, ut nunquam conferti, sed rari, magnisque intervallis prœliarentur, stationesque dispositas haberent, atque alios alii deinceps exciperent, integrique & recentes defatigatis succederent. utebantur & telis.

XIX. Formam regiminis Brittanici, antè advectos in hanc insulam Romanos, determinare haud facile: hoc certum, quod nullum ibi antè hæc tempora Monarchici imperii vestigium, sed Democraticum fuisse, potiùs videtur, nisi fortè Aristocratiam æmulari videtur. Druidem in rebus maxumi momenti authoritas non exigua. commemorantur quidem in antiquissimis eorum monumentis Principes nonnulli, hi verò brevioris plerumque imperii, nec, nisi ingruente eximio quodam periculo, & more Dictatorum Romanorum ex tempore creati videntur. nec desunt inter ipsos, apud alias fortes gentes, rarissima exempla, electi ab illis in futurum antisignanum ipsius hostium Duces, ut pro illis in posterum militaret, quem nuper hostem habuerant.

XX. Proceritate corporis Gallos æque ac Romanos vincunt Brittones, ita ut visos sibi Romæ juvenes nondumque adultos Brittones Strabo Philosophus, orbis terræ descriptor antiquissimus, affirmet, qui solitam Gallorum Romanorumque staturam non levi momento excedebant.

XXI. Ditiores australis Brittaniæ incolæ aureo digitorum sinistræ medium annulo ornare in more habuerunt, aurea verò è collo suspensa torques à vilioris conditionis hominibus discernebat optimatum eminentiores. Septentrionales verò (hi veteres erant regni indigenæ) vestium usus sicuti ac à longo inde tempore avi abavique, tantum non ignari, ventrem & cervicem ferreo cingunt, ut fert Herodianus, nobilis Græcorum scriptor, annulo. ornamentum id esse ac divitiarum argumentum existimantes, accedente in usum potiùs quam ornatum scuto angusto, & lancea, gladioque è nudis & pictis corporibus dependente. loricam interim galeamque, futura nempe paludes transeuntibus impedimento, rejiciunt atque contemnunt.

XXII. Inter cætera autem fuit & hoc Brittanicæ consuetudinis, ut viatores & mercatores etiam invitos consistere cogerent, & quod quisque eorum de una alterave re apud exteros memorabile audierit, aut cognoverit, quærerent, & mercatores peregre advenientes in oppidis vulgus circumsisteret; quibus ex regionibus veniant; quasque ibi res cognoverint, pronunciare cogentes, his rumoribus atque auditionibus permoti, de summis sæpe rebus consilia ineunt, quorum eos è vestigio pœnitere necesse est, quum incertis rumoribus serviant, & plerique ad voluntatem eorum ficta respondeant.

XXIII. Funera eorum sunt magnifica & sumptuosa, omniaque, quæ vivis cordi fuisse arbitrantur, in ignem inferunt, etiam arma & animalia. sepulchrum tumulus ex cespitibus erigit.

CAPUT IV.

Natio Brittonum fuit omnis, ut Gallorum, admodum dedita religionibus; atque ob eam causam qui gravioribus affecti morbis, quique in prœliis periculisque versabantur, aut pro victimis homines immolabant, aut se immolaturos vovebant.

II. Ad peragenda crudelia hæc sacra, Druidum utebantur ministerio; nec credebant placari posse Deos nisi hominis cædes humano sanguine pensaretur. hinc instituta publicè istiusmodi sacrificia, oblataque, ut gratissima Diis hostia, qui in furto, latrocinio, aliave graviori culpa deprehensi, his verò deficientibus, ad innocentium quoque mactationem descendebant, ut quocunque demum modo Dii placarentur.

III. Nisi adfuerint Druides, res sacra rite celebrari non credebatur. hinc publica non minus quam privata sacra procurandi negotium illis unicè incumbebat. erat penes hoc religionis cura, æque ac mysteriorum interpretatio, corporis quoque & sanitatis sive tuendæ, sive restituendæ curam habebant, continuò medicinæ peritissimi.

IV. Inter Deos ipsis præcipuè colebatur Mercurius, cujus plurima prostabant simulachra. post hunc Justitiam, quæ Brittonibus Adraste dicebatur. hinc Apollinem, Martem, qui etiam Vitucadrus appellabatur. Jovem, Minervam, Herculem, Victoriam, Andatem vocatam, Dianam, Cybelem & Plutonem venerabantur, eandem ferè de his Numinibus ac quidem aliæ gentes opinionem amplexi.