[ 425 ] REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 94. Oxfordshire. The History and Antiquities of the Hundreds of Bullington and Ploughley. By John Dunkin, Author of the History of Bicester. Vol. I. Comprising the parishes and hamlets of Ambrosden, Arncott, Blackthorn, Beckley, Horton, Studley, Bucknell, Chesterton, Launton, Islip. 4to. pp. 319. Vol. II. comprising the parishes and hamlets of Merton, Middleton Stoney, Noke, Oddington, Piddington and Muswell, Stratton Audley, Wendlebury, Weston-on-theGreen. 4to. pp. 261. Harding and Co. THE HE attractions of Oxfordshire appear to have been more considerable to the Romans than to the moderns. Their positions were, comparatively speaking, numerous; and, in our judgment, they throw light upon ancient history. Oxfordshire formed part of the territory of the Dobuni, of whom the Silures were the potent enemy. It is generally understood that the stations and roads of the conquering nation are subsequent to the campaigns of Ostorius and Caractacus; and it appears very probable that these stations were established as points d'appui, in case the barrier fortresses on the the exhibition of their refinements of this island, becomes a mere introductory part of Topography-a catalogue raisonné, and no more. Whoever has read the Ancient Wilts of Sir R. C. Hoare, and seen the exquisite maps of the Roman roads in particular, will, however, easily perceive that local histories are very incomplete without a more extended notice of the subjects appertaining to the period prior to the Norman conquest. In fact, we would have a county historian consider it as a duty to excavate barrows, as far as is practicable, trace Roman roads and British trackways, make plans of earth-works, and do as Stukeley would have wished to do, and Sir R. Č. Hoare has done, before he enters upon record. We give this as a general hint, not from any disrespect to Mr. Dunkin, but because Oxfordshire, seeming to us a county not half explored in this way, naturally suggested the ideas which we have stated. The work contains the usual matter of county histories; and, one or two instances of bad taste upon religious and political subjects, which we shall specify, excepted, does Mr. Dunkin credit. We shall therefore confine 'ourselves to important passages. In p. 60 we have the following account of a British interment: an Gloucestershire line of the Severn had 1819. This summer a human skeleton was found doubled up in a field called Fresman's Hill; at a little distance was earthen pot filled with black mould; and near the same an ivory whistle, about a foot long, much like those used by children. In 1775 six skeletons were found in a row, without any vestige of coffins, on Blackthorn Now the first sepulchre was evidently British; and, according to the ancient custom, could not have been far from a settlement or residence. Discoveries of this kind ought to stimulate further investigations; for they are a sort of divining rods, often showing the existence of a mine of archæology. A British flute would have certainly been a valuable accession to the British Museum; for it might have thrown 426 REVIEW.-Dunkin's Oxfordshire. thrown some light upon the windmusic of the Britons, especially the flute kind, of which among the Greeks and Romans our accounts are by no means perfect. In p. 77 we have Kennett's account of the practice of the Quintain; and his opinion, that the sport was not used anywhere but in the neighbourhood of Roman roads and garrisons. That the Tyros in the Roman armies did practise the use of arms upon a post or stake, is well known; and that a kind of Campus Martius for such exercises was also annexed to stations, as was Moorfields in London, just outside the walls, the ante urbem pueri, &c. of Virgil, is undoubted; but the limitation of the sport to the place in question is not, according to our knowledge, supported by authority. In p. 78 we have an account of a congregation of dissenters, who, in 1820, had set up a place of worship in a baker's house, and the names of two ministers who preached there. Now we utterly object to making such dignified publications as county histories the advertisers or criers of schism, or registries of itinerants who officiate in bakers' shops. In p. 79 we find the details of a long law-suit concerning a church house and lands which had been given so early as the time of Edward I. at least, for the reparation and ornament of the parish church. Of this benefaction a parish stock was made; but, after much difficulty, it was again apWe plied to its original purpose. know of some instances where lands given for repairs of the church have been in like manner recovered. We doubt not but many estates have been thus usurped; and from what we have scen in manuscript collections, they are more numerous than is supposed; indeed it is probable, that in most instances the church house was originally a contemporary annexation to the church, purely that the profits of the Whitsun ales, &c. &c. however devoted otherwise in after-times, might be expended upon ornamenting and repairing the church; and we further think that such profits did contribute in no small degree to those rich enibellishments which still remain in numerous obscure village churches. In p. 86 we have a gentleman's memory stigmatized for ever, though his family may be still living, merely [May, because he interrupted a dissenting preacher. We really wonder that such an inconsistency as the union of bitter vindictive feelings with warm advocacy of Christianity and toleration, has not struck Mr. Dunkin. In the following account of the cruel conduct of persons interested in enclosures, we cordially agree with our author; for we could specify other instances of similar shocking injuries. "On the division of the land [of Otmoor] allotted to the respective townships, a certain portion was assigned to each cottager, in lieu of his accustomed commonage; but the delivery of the allotment did not take place, unless the party to whom it was assigned paid his share of the expenses incurred in draining and dividing the waste; and he was also further directed to enclose the same with a fence. The poverty of the cottager in general prevented his compliance with these conditions, and he was necessitated to sell his share for any paltry sum that was offered. In the spring of 1819, several persons made profitable speculations by purchasing these commons for 5. each, and afterwards prevailing on the commis sioners to throw them into one lot, and thus forming a valuable estate." P. 124. We are astonished at this, because we have read of a portion of the waste being sold on purpose to cover the expenses, in various advertisements, under Inclosure Acts. No position is more evident than that, instead of the institution of the Poor Rates, the donées of Abbey lands should have been subjected instead to an annual deduction of the profits for the maintenance of the poor. This burden in the main many modern politicians would throw upon the clergy, a monstrous absurdity and injustice; for it is somewhat like compelling a poor heir at law, who only retains a small fragment of the family estate, to pay the expenses of the whole in its original extent. So far as regards the consequence about to be mentioned, of the suppression of Monasteries, we perfectly agree with our author: "After the suppression, for want of employment and adequate provision the poor were involved in the deepest distress, and perished by thousands. Humanity, shocked at the sight, instituted the Poor Laws for their relief, instead of compelling the rapacious possessor of church lands to do his duty. Thus to enrich a few individuals, the nation became saddled with an incumbrance which has destroyed the independence of the poor, 1824.] REVIEW.-Dunkin's Oxfordshire. 427 poor, and bids fair to eat up the vitals of the the turkies all died! (P. 277.) We country." P. 166. In p. 207 we have a plate, and account of the rich remains of a Roodloft in the parish of Charlton, "decorated by the villagers, with two large hooped garlands of flowers, appropriately surmounted with crosses," the remains of an ancient custom, the funeral garlands at the decease of virgins, placed in a conspicuous part of the church. Popular Antiq. II. 206. A farmer having thought proper to leave his church and turn dissenter, a crafty Minister of that persuasion made a long statement of the circumstance, with broad insinuations that dissenting is a merciful institution of Providence, that so men might have the means of saving their souls, which otherwise would be impossible. Of this childish and absurd trash Mr. Dunkin has given us no less than five pages! (p. 230 seq.) Furthermore, as we would not have county histories stuffed with polemics and extracts of sermons, so also we beg Mr. Dunkin to exercise some reflection before he prints any more such anecdotes concerning living persons as he has done in the note of p. 242, which he faces by observing that it is only vil lage scandal. Littera scripta manet. Why is a prudent and respectable person made a subject for laughter? We know that Mr. Dunkin had no such intention, and approving as we do of his book in most other respects, we only wish to ameliorate his taste and judgment. pre We have known incumbents presented by churchwardens for planting trees in church-yards; and from the roots extending themselves among the graves, and occasioning indecencies in crowding bodies into one grave to avoid the trouble of cutting through great roots, it is only eligible in very Large church-yards around the walls. Still it is no offence; for in the endow ment of the vicarage of Chesterton, in 1403, is the following entry: " "Item habebit vicarius arbores et fructus quoscumque in cemiterio excrescentes.' P. 253. The font at Islip, presumed to have been that in which Edward the Confessor was baptized, is, it seems (p. 278), of the age of Edward I. Hearne has recorded that an old lady kept meat to cram her turkies in this font, but that add to this another equally curious, and strictly true. The duty of a small church in the West of England is done only once a month. The officiating minister was one Sunday requested to deliver his sermon in the reading-desk, because the farmer's wife had placed her turkey to sit in the pulpit; it was such a snug place, and so likely to enable her to bring a good brood." Here we shall leave Mr. Dunkin for the present. 95. A Guide to the Mount's Bay and the Land's End; comprehending the Topography, Botany, Agriculture, Fisheries, Antiquities [dele ANTIQUITIES], Mining, Mineralogy, and Geology of Western Cornwall. Second Edition. To which is added, for the information of Invalids, a Dialogue on the peculiar Advantages of the Climates of Penzance, Devonshire, and the Southern Parts of Europe. By a Physician. 12mo. pp. 272. WITH the oddity of our author, who ascribes the prettiness of the Newlyn fishwomen to rapes committed by Spaniards, who landed at Penzance in 1595 (p. 38, note *), we have bracketed the title with dele ANTI poor QUITIES; for all Borlase's Druidical monuments he sweeps away at a breath; and we should very much fear accidentally encountering his presence, lest he should, like Medusa's head, in his geological conjurations, convert us Of this, howinto natural stone. ever, we shall speak hereafter; and shall only observe, that, antiquities excepted, a book of more real, more valuable, and occasionally curious instruction, we have seldom met with. A Guide, as our Author modestly styles his delightful performance [antiquities excepted, we repeat, like the starling in Sterne], could not have been better modelled; and it will ever exist an excellent standard for interesting and useful topography. Cornwall is in the main a mass of rock; and our author has made of it a grotto of beautiful and fairy-like construction, in which, however, in revenge for his sneering at us Antiquaries, we shall smile at his making the Circe-inhabitants pretty poissardes. However, a topic de gustibus is not to be discussed, and if a geological idolator chooses to place the Paphian temple of Venus in Mount's Bay, all this will be just as reasonable as 428 REVIEW.-Guide to Mount's Bay. as his discussions in archæology; of which he seemingly destroys every memorial, except camps, castles, abbeys, and churches. this However, before we enter upon very entertaining work, we beg particularly to enforce upon the minds of our readers its important object, viz. that Penzance in particular is equal or preferable to Montpelier, Nice, or Lisbon, for consumptive invalids. Dr. Withering's Memoirs show the fallacy of these foreign voyages, and the equal advantages of our own Baiæs. The reason is this, that the climate of Mount's Bay is never sultry in summer, while the winter is so ameliorated, that there is rarely any thick ice; only a few hours frost, and no permanent snow, because, through the sea, "The mass of water held in the vast bason of the ocean preserves a far more even temperature than the atmosphere, and is constantly at work to maintain some degree of equilibrium in the warmth of the air; so that in the summer it carries off a portion of the calorie from it, while in the winter it restores a part of that which it contains. It is this fact that permits the cultivation of many plants in the open ground about London, which in the vicinity of Paris will not live without a green-house." P.5. Though we have heard of a certain orator of the Cornish Geological Society, who much amused its learned members by the dactylization of arcana, and getting up his speech from an Encyclopedia, yet we know that the Society has honourably distinguished itself, and we fully agree with our Author, "That the advantages and enjoyments which such Societies are calculated to afford, are not only obtained without any expence to the country in which they are encou raged, but that they actually repay in wealth and emolument much more than they require for their support. Had the Cornish Society been earlier called into existence, we should never have heard of the most va luable productions of our country having been thrown into the sea, nor of their having been used as materials for the repair of roads or the construction of cottages: on the contrary, how many thousand tons of ore might have been gained; how many years of unprofitable but expensive labour saved; and how many individual adventurers preserved from disappointment, or rescued from ruin? Amongst the efforts made by this Society to improve the theory and art of mining, through the application of [May, science, not the least interesting and praiseworthy is that which relates to the preven tion of accidental explosion in the methods of blasting rocks with gunpowder, by the introduction of safety instruments.”” P.30. The summer fires of the Druids, though as well supported as any other historical fact, is tried (p. 36) to be deduced from the Eleusinian Mysteries. In p. 40, we find that Sir Humphrey Davy was born at Penzance in 1779; and placed as an apprentice to a surgeon named Tonkin, from whence he was removed into the scientific world by "a gentleman well known for his strong perception of character." This gentleman was, we believe, Mr. Davies Gilbert; and we have heard (if we do not mistake the person) that Mr. Gilbert, then Mr. Giddy, and his friend Dr. Beddoes, wishing to make some experiment with nitrous acid, resolved to step into a shop to purchase some, but observed that they supposed it must be asked for under the vulgar appellation of aqua fortis. To their great surprise, they found the apprentice perfect master of the ites and the ates, and the other nomenclature of the new chemistry, and, on further acquaintance, found such talents and energy and utility, as vindicated the patriotic measure adopted; for scientific excellence among mere country people would be Garrick performing Richard III. on Salisbury Plain to the shepherds. As we firmly believe that Strabo, Cæsar, Diodorus, Suetonius, and many others, who were contemporary with the Druids, knew better than modern geologists whether such persons existed or not; and as we also know, notwithstanding our Author's pity for the "errors of Borlase, as an inevitable consequence of the infant state of the sciences indirectly connected with his pursuits," p. 175, that the work of Borlase, though he may have occasionally strained an hypothesis too far, is nevertheless a book of authority, supported by classical information; and that his Druidical lucubrations were not results of any infant state of science, but of authentic history. We beg to add the following account to our Author's disquisition concerning St. Michael's Mount, because he does not appear to know any thing about it prior to the Christian æra. See p. 63. "Before the introduction of Christianity, Mount 1824.] REVIEW.-Guide to Mount's Bay. Mount St. Michael was called Mount Belen, because it was consecrated to Belenus, one of the four great gods whom the Gauls worshipped. There was upon this mount a college of nine Druidesses. The oldest of them gave out the oracles. They sold also to sailors arrows, which had the pretended virtue of appeasing storms, provided they were shot into the sea by a young man twenty-one years old, who had never lost his virginity. When the vessel was arrived, the young man was deputed to carry to these Druidesses presents more or less considerable.”—Essais sur Paris, tom. v. p. 48. In p. 75 we find that the venerable remains of Druidical castles, cromlechs, crosses, &c. are barbarously sawed up into gate-posts, or converted into pig-troughs. Why do not the landlords, who are gentlemen and men of education, interfere for the preservation of these, as well as of the game? In p. 77 we are told that the conve nience of furze for baking has occa sioned every article of food to be dressed in a pie; whence has originated a proverb, that "the devil would not come into Cornwall, for fear of being put into a pie." From p. 78, it appears that the blocks of granite, employed in the construction of the Waterloo Bridge, were procured from Penrhyn Downs. Of the Druidical circle at Boscawen Un, called by Borlase a monument of religious institution, and sometimes used as a place of council, &c. our Author speaks thus: "This must certainly be acknowledged as one of the most extraordinary specimens of antiquarian dreaming ever presented to the public." P. 82. Here we beg to observe, that Moses, who was certainly not an antiquarian dreamer, does not mention any temple of architectural construction, but the erection of stone pillars, even many at a time; that these circles still exist in many parts of Asia, and were the only places of worship and sanctity prior to the knowledge of the orders of architecture, when beautiful temples succeeded them. An uninterrupted tradition, preserved by Holinshed, shows that they were called by the people "chapels of the gods," and cromlechs the altars of them: and Welch churches still exist, which were erected within stone circles. In all ages and countries, temples were places of public business and assemblage. Unfortunately because the Greeks and Romans did not minutely investigate the antiqui 429 ties of barbarous nations, we have no direct account of these stone circles. But the presumptive inferences from such knowledge as we notwithstanding possess are far too strong, not to lead because it is evident that they were not to the Druidical appropriation of them; Christian fabrics, and yet were held and considered as temples in the sixteenth century, when Druidism was not studied. How are we to account for this phenomenon, their reputed sanctity, by any other appropriations? No man, who is unable to ascribe satisfactorily the extraordinary things in Brand's Popular Antiquities to other sources, has any right to call such apDucange, the most learned man in propriations antiquarian dreams." the archæology of the barbarous ages toms, of which no traces exist in the ever known, assigns numerous cusclassicks, to the Druids. So far in vindication of Borlase, who was a very hausted the subject of Druidism, suplearned and able man, who has exported it in the main by a mass of condite, and evidently does not merit knowledge, profound, curious, and re"the insult of pity" from a gentlesubject, who, from geological spectra man utterly unacquainted with the perpetually affecting his vision, sees every thing through a mist of diseased imagination. In pp. 83, 84, we have an account of Caerbran Castle, in which poor Borlase comes in for another sneer; and Mr. Polwhele for half of one. Now this castle and its seven companions are fine specimens of genuine British fortresses; hills hooped with trenches and walls. Squinting is certainly seeing; but as certainly not the most graceful form of so doing, with regard to any objects, no more than making faces at Antiquaries. We are glad now to turn to our Author, where he looks as handsome as one of his Nymphs of the Cowel, of Spanish extraction, of whom we have a wood-cut, p. 34. "It has been remarked that a deformed person is not to be found in the islands [of Scilly]; but we apprehend that this fact requires an explanation, very different from that which is usually assigned; it cannot be received as any test of the salubrity of the spot, or of the superior healthiness of the race. The fact simply this; that exposure to inclement weather, want of proper food, and those varying privations which necessarily |