the first fort are of the fpecies of Patera and Capedo; those of the second kind, by the fragments which are met with, seem to have been of the fpecies of the fimpula and lutini. From confidering the nature of thefe veffels, he is led to imagine, that this was a manufactory, especially employed in making the earthen veffels, which, according to the Roman ritual, were ufed in religious ceremonies; for it is known that earthen ware was employed for this purpose, and fome of the veffels here found, are ftamped in the manner fuch facred utenfils were directed to be. Mr. Pownal's obfervations are ingenious, learned, amufing, and, on the whole, they appear fatisfactory.

We cannot avoid remarking, as a thing not improbable, that the veffel of earth, mentioned by Mr. King, in a former number, and already noticed in this article (fo many of which the labourer fimply deftroyed) might be of the species of the fimpula ufed in the Heathen religious rites; particularly, as Mr. King obferves, how very small the aperture of this veffel, or kind of bottle, is; and Varro, we think, fomewhere speaks of the fimpo or fimpulum, as a kind of cruet with a pipe to drop out wine. But to proceed :

In September 1777, on digging for the foundations of a new office for the Board of Ordnance, in the Tower of London, were found an ingot of filver, together with two gold coins, or aurei, of which an account is given by the Prefident of the Society. The piece of filver, in the form of a double wedge, is four inches long, two inches and three-fourths broad, in the broadest part, one and three-fourths in the narroweft, and threeeighths of an inch thick in the middle. It is infcribed with the name of Honorius, meaning, in all probability, the Emperor of that name, who came to the empire in 393, when he governed in the west, as his brother and colleague Arcadius did in the eaft, and was the laft of the Roman Emperors who preferved any power in Britain; for, in the year 410, he reftored to the inhabitants their freedom, and renounced all jurisdiction over them. The coins found at the fame time confirm the belief that the Emperor Honorius is meant by the infcription on the filver, as one is of this Emperor, and the other two of his brother Arcadius. Thefe aurei are faid to be in high preservation, and of the most perfect weight, viz. feventy-three Troy grains each, which is precifely the fixth part of the Roman ounce. The Prefident largely and learnedly confiders the fubject.-Befide the above, there were discovered, at the fame time, a ftone with a Roman infcription, a small glafs crown, destined, perhaps, for the ornament of fome ftatue or image; a ring that seems to have been made of fhell, with fome letters obfcurely marked; together with other coins and jettons of base metal. This article is accompanied with a plate.

Mr.

Mr. Whitaker, in his Hiftory of Manchefter, fuppofes the English language to have been radically formed of Celtic, or British materials, and to have derived but little affiftance from the Teutonic. The Rey. Mr. Drake, who fpeaks highly of Mr. Whitaker's performance, combats this fuppofition, and endeavours to prove, that the English language is purely Teutonic, radically derived from the Gothic and Saxon, the univerfal parent of most of the northern European tongues. To eftablish his point, he takes a part of a chapter in Ulphila's Gothic verfion of the Gospel, a work executed above fourteen hundred years ago, and confronts it with the fame chapter of our present tranflation; he apprehends, that the attentive reader will be amazed at the ftriking affinity between the two languages, notwithstanding the different mediums through which they have defcended, and the many ages that have elapfed fince they have been separated. This fubject Mr. Drake critically purfues through the greater part of the tenth chapter of St. John's Gospel.

Two vafes which have been found on the Mosquito-fhore, in South America, open a field for much enquiry and fpeculation. We are not exprefsly and exactly informed what is the fize of thefe vafes, only that the drawings are by a scale of one to four. Whether or not they are properly called vases seems uncertain they appear to be fupported by four legs, and in the form of fome hooped tubs: one of them is larger than the other how long they have been discovered we are not told; but they are now in the poffeffion of Lord Hillsborough, and have lain neglected among other things in an out-building. Governor Pownal, who writes an account of them, fays, it is a decided fact, that they were made in South America, and on the Mosquito Shore: he obferves, that they are curious exemplars of fome of the firft efforts of human ingenuity, and remains of what are become antiquities even among the Indians, who, he fuppofes, formerly ufed them for dreffing fome part of their food. He was at a lofs to discover the fubftance of thefe veffels, till he applied to the ingenious Mr. Bentley, who, on a trial with aquafortis, convinced him, that it was neither compofition nor any lime-ftone, but real granite. In a poftfcript, the Governor adds, that the remains of ancient potteries have been discovered high up the Black river, on the Mosquito coaft, and further fays, that Father D'Acuina mentions, that fome of the Indians, on the river of Amazons, had carried that manufactory to a great extent, fo as even to establish a traffic with their neighbours for this ware. The potteries which are referred to, appear indeed to be very remarkable, and will give rife, no doubt, to fome entertaining and curious difquifitions. Some fpecimens of the ancient pottery of this part of America,

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have

have lately been fent to London; and we have been favoured with a fight, and likewife with the following account of them, in a letter to one of our corps, from the very ingenious gentleman in whofe poffeffion they remain:

Dear Sir,

March 17, 1780.

The best account I can give you of the fpecimens of antiquity from the Mosquito Shore, which you have examined with fome degree of admiration, and enquired after with anxiety, will be very imperfect; and I have only to lament, that I have it not in my power to gratify your curiofity more fully.

The fpecimens, in my poffeffion, were brought over by a very intelligent gentleman, who, by a long refidence upon the Shore, had acquired the language of the natives, and had frequently traverfed the folitary regions between the Spanish and our fettlements. Being of an inquifitive difpofition, he had the curiofity to make an excurfion into the country, as far as feventy or eighty miles; and, guided by the natives, he found, on digging the earth, a number of curious remains of antiquity, molt of them too maffive to be removed; and, amongst the reft, a prodigious quantity of pieces of earthen ware, many of them like the mafks of the ancients, with fome entire bufts, which his Indian conductors informed him, were the likeneffes of chiefs, or other eminent perfons, and had been buried with them, as was the custom in those parts.

It is evident, that the natives of this country must formerly have had many arts amongst them which are now only known to have existed, from tradition, and from the fpecimens still scattered in the remote uninhabited parts: but no precise information can, I fear, be now obtained of their antiquity, (which is, probably, very remote, indeed!) as the prefent race of Indians have not the leatt knowledge of the art of making fuch utenfils, &c. or of forming a certain compofition, likewife found in many parts of the country, fo extremely hard that no tool can make an impreffion on it. This is all I have been able to collect on the fubject, and have only to add, that I am, yours, &c.

D. B

We have examined fome of the fpecimens above mentioned, refembling the mafks of the ancients,' and are fatisfied that they are ornaments broken from earthen vessels, perhaps urns, &c. and we particularly noticed, that fome of the figures of human faces were tatowed, in the manner of the New-Zealanders, &c. defcribed in Cook's Voyages. One of them had, alfo, the bridge of the nofe perforated; probably for the infertion of the fewer. Vid. the account of thefe wooden nofe-jewels, or artificial whifkers, given in the fame Voyages. The hard compofition, mentioned by our Correfpondent, is, probably, not a compofition, but a natural granite.

The

* Daniel Braithwaite logs of the Gen! Post-office.

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The defcription of a Roman bath, difcovered at Dover, is written by the Rev. Mr. Lyon. The remains are found under the weft end of the parish-church of St. Mary, and feem indeed to be very curious. Mr. Lyon has employed great attention and exactness in delineating them, both in the letter and in the print annexed to it. He gives an account of the Hypocauftum, the Sudatorium, the Balneum, the Tepidarium, the Frigidarium, &c. From a few letters on one of the titles, he infers, that this was a public work, for the common ufe of the Legio Britannia, and raifed about the year 365 or 366. This gentleman adds fome obfervations on the venerable octagon tower in Dover castle, and is inclined to conclude, that we may date the foundation of this weather-beaten ftructure between the years of Chrift 42 and 49.

In the following article, Mr. Benjamin Bartlet appropriates to their respective owners, the epifcopal coins of Durham, and the monaftic coins of Reading, minted during the reigns of Edward I. II. and III.

In the third volume of this work, Bishop Lyttelton had given fome account of the fuppofed horns, in the cathedral of Carlifle, which he thought were the teeth of fome very large fea fifh, though, at the fame time, he apprehended them to be the title by which the prior and convent held fome lands or tythes granted by Henry I. The Rev. Mr. Cole, we think, now proves, that the bishop muft have been mistaken in the latter fuppofition, and that the horn given by the King must have been of ivory; and is now loft. Mr. Cole adds a defcription, with an engraving, of a curious Roman fibula, found by a peafant in the year 1770, at no great distance from Rome; and he also offers fome remarks on a charter horn, which he faw in the library at Utkington, lately belonging to Sir John Crew, in the parish of Torporley, Cheshire.

Mr. Pegge confiders, as a matter of fome difficulty to account for, the appearance of fo many conventual original feals, remembering, he fays, in what manner these matrices were anciently difpofed of; as by paffing in fucceffion from one perfon or officer to another, by being demanded by the ordinary on the deaths of abbots and priors, &c. and laftly, directed to be broken to pieces on thofe events. To account for this, Mr. Pegge fuppofes, that thefe official feals might be often changed or altered; that frequently the direction of giving them up might not be properly regarded; that when they were thus delivered, they were far from being always deftroyed, &c. And these reasons may be fufficient; but it does not appear to be a very interesting fubject. We are fomewhat more amused by

• Vid. Rev. vol. liii. p. 414.

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Obferva

Obfervations on an ancient building at Warnford, in the county of Southampton, in a letter from Henry Penruddocke Wyndham, Efq; who thinks, it is aftonishing that these large remains of a building, erected, as he apprehends, before the year 700, and not very diftant from a well frequented turnpike road, fhould not have been more particularly regarded. These ruins, of which we have three good engravings, are fituated in the gardens of the Earl of Clanricarde. The erection is vulgarly called King John's houfe; but by what fatality, fays Mr. Wyndham, fo many ancient edifices came to be attributed to King John, and to bear his name, I am more difposed to wonder at, than to attempt to investigate. The remains, particularly four columns, rather ftately, fhew that it has been a building of fome note. Mr. Wyndham fuppofes it to have been a church, and endeavours, by feveral ingenious arguments, to prove that it was erected by Wilfrid, archbishop of York, between the years 679 and 685.

An ancient pig of lead, lately difcovered at Cromford, in Derbyshire, affords the ingenious Mr. Pegge an opportunity for feveral fenfible and learned obfervations. The weight of this block is faid to be 126 lb. The infcriptionhich it bears, indicates that it was smelted in the time of the Emperor Adrian.

The Rev. Mr. Drake, to confirm his opinion concerning the origin of the English language, prefents us, in the fortieth number of this work, with a comparison of many other paffages in the Gothic verfion of the Gospel, and our present tranflation. The Gothic word gripun (to gripe, feize, or compel), leads Mr. Drake to take notice of the term Griffin, a beaft, fays he, better known to the heralds than the naturalifts. It has been fuppofed that, as the Byzantine Greeks are often called Griffones, by the writers of the middle age, the Griffin, in heraldry, was intended to fignify a Greek, under the figure of an eastern monfter this gentleman confiders this as no fatisfactory etymology: I am, he adds, rather inclined to think, that as this imaginary animal was formed of a lion and eagle, both of a rapacious nature, it was originally termed grypin or gryppin, which afterwards came by an eafy alteration of pronunciation, to be founded Gryffin. He thinks, he can difcern this monster pictured in an old ballad under the name of Grype.

A famous penny, with the name of Rodbertus, has occafioned fome debate among English antiquaries. It had been affigned to Duke Robert, eldeft fon of William the Conqueror. In an article of the last volume of Archaeologia, Mr. Colebrooke contended, and laboured to prove, that it really belongs to Robert, Earl of Gloucester, a natural son of Henry I.* Mr. Pegge,

* Vid. Rev. vol. Ivii. p. 264.