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To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

THE age of chivalry is gone," but the

is not. Surely if we must have sports, the sports of chivalry are preferable, far preferable, to those.

I did not expect to see an advocate for "back-sword or single-stick playing," in your Magazine for June last, page 416. Whatever may be I. B.'s opinion of the game in question, it is looked upon here, by the sober and rational part of the county at least, as altogether beneath the employment of rational beings, and fit only for American savages, to whose sports it may, in all probability, bear a strong resemblance. Sir, I con ceive there is, in these times, already too much disposition in the human mind to foster a martial spirit in Europe; and, whilst so able a wielder of the sceptre of blood rules the Continent, it is likely to continue; but the true interests of man lie not in the mutual destruction of his species.

How back-sword may even be made subservient to the cause of war, must be left to abler hands to determine. I have however heard it whispered, that our notorious boxers are not often courageous in the field of battle. Perhaps the dif ficulty of accounting for this will not be great: in boxing, they fight merely for themselves; in the field of battle, for their country: and, as they are not in the same predicament, feel not the same ardour. May we not therefore apply the same argument to the back-swordplayer.

Back-sword is, I am afraid, too nearly allied to bull-baiting, cock-fighting, and boxing. So far from encouraging these sports, it is certainly the duty of every lover of peace and good order, to discountenance them as much as possible; not perhaps by legislative enactments, but by turning the minds of the rising generation into more useful channels; by diffusing more extensively the means of acquiring a sense of religious and moral obligation; by schools; and, last and best of all, by our own examples.

Ultimately, I think there can be no doubt, but that single-stick playing, bullbaiting, cock-fighting, and the numerous et cetera of American savage sport, in cluding even hunting, will give way to a closer application to the improvement of the human mind, and to a more extended humanity, not only to our fellow men, but to every species of the brute crea

1

see the
tion. The more clearly we
means, the sooner we shall obtain the
end, of acquiring all the happiness which

we have natural evils sufficient to combat
with, without making for ourselves arti-
ficial ones.

I am happy to say for this county,,
(Somerset) that the sports above-men-
tioned are by no means so common as
they used to be: the mists and fogs of
ignorance must vanish before the sun of
a bright and better day.
Huntspill,

July 10, 1810.

JAMES JENNINGS.

P.S. I am much obliged to Mr. Glazebrook for an explanation of the term Canards tigrés : I might have had I supposed it necessary, mentioned Siberia as the country in which they were said to be found. I, however, doubt whether the Anas Jamaicensis be the same.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

S

As you have frequently declared

yourself desirous of information respecting the topography of distant countries, I send you some remarks on a part of our western scenery,which always excites the admiration of travellers.

Little-falls is a village situated about eighty miles westward of Albany; the road by which you approach it on the On eastern side, is made at a great expence, on the north part of the Mohawk. the right of it are stupendous highlands, which seem almost wholly composed of In two or three places rocky strata. they are piled almost perpendicularly, and their summits are clowned with trees of considerable size. A traveller, who like me is given to romancing, may easily imagine them to be the massive walls of some Udolphian castle. The opposite shore is in every respect simi'ar to this, and the river is compressed between them to less than half its usual breadth.

A remarkable phenomenon has given this passage some adventitious sublimity. The rocks have been observed to be worn away like those under a cataract: some of then which are excavated, evidently from aqueous attrition, may be seen from the stage on the borders of the road. From this circumstance a belief has arisen, that the waters of the Mohawk were formerly arrested by these everlasting hills, forming a lake, which extended many miles westward, and that at length they burst their barrier, and

rushed

rushed 'doo. The country westward of them seems to favour the supposition. For several miles in that direction, the river is bounded on each side by a broad and beautiful intervale,* which was probably the bottom of the ancient lake. Gentlemen of intelligence and veracity have assured, that the face of the surrounding country is perfectly consistent with the supposition which may be naturally deduced from the phenomena I have above described.

Let those who cross the wide Atlantic to behold and admire the sublime scenery of my native land, as they wander through the vale of Lebanon, or on the rocky shores of the Hudson, towards the awful cataract of Niagara, pausing on this romantic spot, retrospectively behold a scene which no one that wit

nessed could have survived. Schenectady.

New York, March 29th, 1810.

E. H.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

I

SIR,

N my last I corrected some mistakes of the Commentator of Richard, in the road from Durnovaria to Cenia; I beg now to proceed with my corrections through the remainder of this Iter; and must observe, in addition to my last, (which was at one place either very incorrectly expressed, or printed, I know not which,) that the road from Durnovaria to Moridunum ran not by the way generally used from Dorchester, but by the way of the old Roman road at Eggardon-hill, through Dorset and Somerset to Hembury-fort, or Moridunum, on Black-Down, Devon.

Durnovaria, or Dorchester, answers to thirty-six miles from Moridunum; but is supposed in its site to be uncertain, from the number of other camps in its neigh bourhood. The name of the chief town of the Durotriges, was by Richard named Durinum: Ptolomy calls it Dunium, and Durnium. Durn, in Durnovaria, is a contraction of Durin, or Water-land. The syllable um or am, is often rendered ham, and implies horder; and as varia is head or border, and may imply camp, from camps of oid being formed on such heads, Durnovaria was, doubtless, Dor chester.

Dr. Stukeley supposes Bere to be the Ibernum of the Ravennas, and the next

Used in America to denote the plain between the river and the adjacent high

lands.

MONTHLY MAG. No. 202.

supposed lost stations both in Antonine and Richard; and that Woodbury Hill was the Estiva to the town: but Bere is eleven or twelve miles from Dorchester, instead of nine, as in the Itinerary. In like manner in placing Vindocladia at Boroston, the doctor's distance was too great from Sorbiodunum. Gale, and other writers, have fixed this station at Winborn Minster, which is twenty-two miles from Oid Sarum; Horseley, near Cranborn, which is not in the same road; and the commentator on Richard, at Gassage Cow Down, which is sixteen miles from Sorbiodunum: not in the ancient track, nor is the name a translation of Vindocladia.

Dr. Stakeley derives Vindocladia from Vint, white, and Gladh, a river. Aberdug. lediau, or [Aberdugledau] Milford Haven, has been rendered the Mouth of the two Swords. Vindocladia is also thus derived by authors, from the situa tion of Winborn Minster between two

"For

rivers, the Stour and the Allen. Windugledy, they say, in British signifies two Swords; and that the Britons called their rivers peculiarly by the name of Swords, is plain, they continue, from Aberduglediau, the British name of Milford Haven; that is, the Mouth of the two Swords, because two rivers called Glediau, that is Swords, ran into it."

It was a maxim of an old philosopher, that a plain agreement should be expected between the name and the thing, and where there was a disagreement, that we should not admit of a conjecture. Now what agreement is there between two Swords, and the two largest streams which run into Milford Haven? Give me leave to ask, whether, hand to hand, you can cut or thrust with these streams? Do you wish to compare them with great or little, broad or narrow, long or short, swords? Are they like swords of vengeance, or of justice, or of autho rity? I fear, Sir, that they are not to be compared with any swords, and therefore are not derived from them.

The word Cluid, from whence the Clyde in Scotland, and the Gled or Cled, in Wales, are derived, implies a nook, and Amh or Av, varied in Au, and here to Iau, means the sea or water. Aber is mouth, and Du land; or Do, here Du, may be a sign of the dative case: hence Aberduglediau will mean, the Mouth of the Sea Nook-Land, or the mouth to the Sea Nook. Glediau will be the Nook, or Haven Water.

Four things are necessary to the ascertaining

D

certaining of stations.

:

First: the roads on which they lie, which are sometimes mistaken. Secondly: the miles between them, which were, I suppose, formerly as now, either measured o customary; and which, for want of ascertaining old tracks, are often uncertain. To fix these miles we must first proceed with standard measure if we fail here, we may try what we may conceive customary, or generally received distance; and for want of a certain line of road, we must have recourse to the nature of the country, and the line of probable access from place to place. If the first of these measures agree with remains, and the Itinerary name, you must look no further. If you must have recourse to the second you may err a little, from your ignorance of ancient customary measure. If to the third, your judgment must direct you; and in either of these you will find, that the Romans did not often reckon twelve where the distance was sixteen; much less must you expect them to have reckoned twelve where it was twenty-two. Thirdly: the import of names ancient and modern. Where the old name is lost in maps, you must seek its new one, for it is always a translation thereof; and here fancy must not lead you astray, as many have been led, in selecting forms not connected with the features of ature. You must always remember, that the old name peculiarly agreed with its situation; and the new one, if rightly translated, will do the same; and both together will exhibit such a proof of local situation, as even folly will not be enabled to cavil at. Fourthly: you will examine remains: but as these were in many counties scattered over their surfaces in various directions, from ac cidental as well as from permanent causes, these only may prove nothing, except in combination with the foregoing.

From Sorbiodunum to Vindocladia, the road is supposed to be well known, and the distance is easily estimated. The miles between these, in the copies of Antoninus, are variously stated at twelve, thirteen, and fifteen. Of the two first, both may agree; for as the Romans counted no odd measure, it may be reckoned as near to one as to the other; and these two numbers so nearly agreeing, shew that twelve or thirteen is to be preferred to fifteen, on the authority of Antoninus alone. But to put this point out of all doubt, Richard's distance is also twelve miles.

The station of Vindocladia, or Pindo

3

cladia, cannot in our maps be found by old name; but at the exact distance twelve Roman miles from Sorbiodunu we have Pentridge. V, B, and P, in old names commonly written for e other; and Vindo, Vento, and Venta, n be contracted to Vent and Bent, fr my observations on Venta, in a form letter; and this may be changed to P as in Pentridge. Cladh implies a rid dyke, bank, burying-place, rampart, and as Dh and Th were also commo changed to D and T, Clad in Vindo dia, means the same as Ridge in P tridge. *

Dr. Stukeley, in his Itinerarium C osum, says, "When this road (the man) has passed through the woods Cranborn Chase, and approaches W yates, you see a great dyke and val on the edges of the hills (Black-Do to the left by Pentridge, to which I pose it gave name: this crosses the man road, and then passes on the o side, upon the division between hundred. The large vallum is here so ward, and it runs upon the northern b of the hills.", Mr. Maton savs, about a mile and a half from Woody inn, we observe several tumuli, or rows;" and "on the declivity of the to the left, there are vestiges of exter entrenchments, which afford reason believing, that this spot might once been the scene of an important bat Mill supposed Vindocladia to be at born Minster.

The great dyke near Pentridg called Grim's Dyke, which implies war or battle dyke, or entrenchm The ground near this is strewed w vast number of barrows, some very i and four with circular trenches, of feet in diameter. Barrows are usu the neighbourhood of stations an battles. Venta may very properly ply a passage, or town of accomm tion, as I have before stated: for this, the Roman road crossed G Dyke. But I should rather give th original signification, by rendering head or hill-land: and the name docladia will, in this case, imply Head-land Dyke, Ridge, or Entr ment.

Another reading of this name see have reference to what hath been of the barrows: and as Cladh me

* Penbury Hill is also said to be nea place. I should suppose this place to remains.

burying

burying-place, so here Gail-aid or Gelaid in Ventageladia, seems to imply the slaughter portion, or place of battle, whereon the dead were interred: and the whole name to mean the Slaughter Portion Head, or Hill-Land Station. To sum up my observations.-The roads, the distances, and the names, perfectly agree; and these, with the vestiges of extensive entrenchments, the barrows, &c. seem all to shew that we may fix this station with more certainty here, than it can be fixed in any other supposed situation.

The site of Vindocladia being unknown, and even Durnovaria not being a name mentioned by ancient writers as a town of the Durotriges, it might have been conceived that both these stations lay in another road from Sorbiodunum to Moridunum; I have therefore in my last, and in the above, endeavoured to settle this. It is remarkable, that the omissions of this Itinerary should be the same in Antoninus and Richard. Much is therefore still left for the antiquary to explore between Dorchester and Pentridge, and between the first and Moridunum.

In the remaining part of this Itinerary,

the distances from Old Sarum to Brus,

and from thence to Venta Belgarum, seem to be ascertained; but from the last to Vindomi, there is some uncertainty. Dr. Beeke has found that the sum of the distances between Venta and Vindomi, and Vindomi and Caleva, is right, though the particulars are not.

In Richard's map, Caleva and Vindomis are rightly placed; but his commentator fixes the first among the Segontiaci. In Itinerary fifteen, if we reckon Silchester Caleva, the distance from Speene is too little; and from thence to Pontes is too much.

In Itinerary eighteen, from Tamesa or Moulsford (Moulsfort* perhaps, as in old maps) to Vindomis, the Itinerary states it fifteen miles, which Dr. Beeke, in the fifteenth volume of the Archæologia, finds to be the real distance. But in the Comment on Richard it is supposed, that instead of Vindomis we should read Caleva, which is contrary to the original and map, as well as to the purport of these names.

In the sixteenth Itinerary, the road from London to Winchester is not par

ticularised; but in Itinerary fifteen, from London to Caleva by way of Pontes, it is forty-four miles; and Caleva is placed, by the Commentator, as before-mentionVindomis this gened, at Silchester. tleman removes to St. Mary Bourne; and Venta, he supposes twenty-one miles from this last; which is, as might be expected, by maps, full six miles more from Venta than its real distance: and it is plain from inspection, and from what is above stated, that St. Mary Bourne lay not in the road from Caleba Attrebates to Venta Belgarum: Dr. Beeke seems to have very nearly settled the stations of Caleva and Vindomis.

To conclude: the Atrebates took their name from lying on the Thames; and the Segontiaci, from living near the southwestern border of the Kennet. The names of their primary cities are conformable to their situations and to the map; and their distances from each other seem to be reconcilable.

A. B.

REPORT of the COMMITTEE of the CORPO RATION of LONDON, relative to the DEFECTS and PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS of the CITY PRISONS.

A Chamber of the Guildhall of the City of London, on Wednesday the 6th day of June, 1810, the Committee for General Purposes delivered into Court a Report in writing under their hands, on sir Richard Phillips's late publication relative to the Prisons within this City, which was read; and it was ordered that the said Report should be printed, and a copy sent to every member. To the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Al. dermen, and Commons, of the City of London, in Common Council assembled.

Ta Common Council holden in the

We whose names are hereunto subcsribed of your Committee for General Purposes, to whom it was referred on the 21st day of June last, to examine into the allegations contained in a publication, by sir Richard Phillips, knt. late one of the Sheriffs of this city and county of Middlesex, addressed to the livery of London, relative to the state of the different Goals of this City, and the fees taken by the respective keepers, and to report our opinion thereon; do certify, That we referred the same to a Sub-committee, who have accordingly made a Report to us, which we have caused to be hereunto annexed; and as far as the enquiries of that Sub-committee have gone, they found the said publication

Hembury Fort, Devon. is generally of sir Richard Phillips to have been correct; called Hembury Ford. and we unanimously agreeing with the Sub. committee

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We whose names are hereunto subscribed, to whom it was referred to take into consideration the Order of Reference from the Court of Common Conncil of the 21st day of June last, to examine into the allegations contained in a publication by sir Richard Phillips, knt. late one of the Sheriffs of this city and county of Middlesex, addressed to the livery of London, relative to the state of the different Goals of this city, and the fees taken by the respective keepers, and to report our opinion thereon; do certify, That we are fully convinced of the necessity of enlarging the goal of Newgate, or of making some very material alterations therein, particularly in that part appropriated to the female criminals; and we conceive that the inconvenience may be partially amended during the day, by admitting the women to make use of the passage leading from the Goal to the Bail Docks, to which there is already a communication from the female side of the prison; and no fear of an escape can exist, if proper fences are placed at the top of the external wall; but during the night, we see no means of remedying the inconvenience and danger, other than by removing them to other parts of the prison, or of greatly enlarging the space now allotted to them: and having observed that the windows of the upper wards appropriated to the females were glazed, and those of the lower one, in which the far greater number is confined, were open, having iron bars only, we requested Mr. William Hutchinson Box, the surgeon of the prison, to report to us in writing his opinion of the state of the goal, and what inconveniences he has experienced in the course of his practice there; particularly to state his opinion with respect to the glazing the windows in the prison; and upon seriously considering the same, we fully agreed therewith, and do particularly recommend the modes pointed out by him with respect to the windows to be adopted, viz. by Venetian shutters or

casements hung withinside the wards, covered with strong cartouch paper, which may be opened in the day-time at the pleasure of the prisoners, and closed at night so as to exclude the wet and cold. And, with respect to those parts of the prison appropriated to the male criminals, we are of opinion, that though at this time the space allotted to them is very considerable, there are times, particularly at the approach of almost every session, when they have not the requisite accommodation; and we con ceive that in the event of a peace, it will be totally inadequate to the number to be expected, and the most serious ill consequences must be apprehended therefrom.

That in the course of our examination of the prison, we observed one of the great causes of the crowded state of the goal, arose from the number of persons confined there who had received sentence of transportation, and which we conceive would be greatly relieved if more frequent drafts were made for sending them to the place of their destination, or to some other place of confinement, particularly from the women. In September last there were seventy-two men and forty-eight women who had received sentence of transportation confined in the prison, some of whom had received their sentence more than twelve months previously; but upon enquiry, we found that the greater part of them were under the consideration of his Majesty's mercy.

That we also observed sundry prisoners confined there as lunatics, eight of whom are entered as such, and four of them not entered, but who have become so subsequently to their trial. We were deeply impressed with not only the lamentable situation of those distressing objects in a crowded prison, but the apparent inhu manity of exposing them to the constant sport and ridicule of such characters as are there confined; and we conceive some strong representation should be made to his Majesty's government, for a separate place of confinement to be provided for such persons, where proper care may be bestowed on them, which it is impossible can be done in the goal of Newgate..

On viewing that part of the prison appropriated to the debtors, we could not help noticing the great inconvenience and danger that must also be there experienced from the inadequacy of the space allotted to them, there being then nearly two hundred debtors male and

female

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