without which I fhould have never prefumed to present it to the Public.'

He next gives a fhort fketch of the ancient national Saxons, before he introduces the Anglo-Saxons; which, like the foregoing account of the Britons, is a compilation from the best authorities it is extremely entertaining to look back upon the manners, we may even fay fentiments, of our progenitors, and by comparing their actions and thoughts with our own, fee in what articles of u'e or refinement we may boaft an advantage. We are aware that every lady will decide against us in point of addrefs, and moft ardently with we had preferved the old gallantry, when she is told that those venerable husbands would never go to battle, or undertake any enterprize of moment, without first confulting their wives, to whofe advice they paid the greatest regard. And those few auftere matrons who would rather hear their virtues extolled, than their beauties admired, may perhaps, in vindication of their fex's honour, fufpend for a while their natural foftnefs, and in part approve the fentence executed upon those who took liberties, fcarcely difcountenanced in our happier days of freedom. The adultrefs had first her hair cut off, and then the was turned forth ftark naked (or at least with her cloaths cut off to her girdle ftead). from her husband's houfe, in the prefence of all her kindred, and was whipped from town to town till fhe died, without the least regard being paid either to her fex, wealth, or beauty. Her feducer was generally hanged on a tree. Those that were unnaturally lewd were ftifled in filthy mud, and covered with hurdles.'-There is no doubt but the women of those days affented to this fevere judgment for voluntary fhame, when they had fortitude to execute a more cruel punishment upon themfelves to fecure their virtue against the brutifh violence of the Danes. The fingular inftance of modefty and virtue fhewn by the chafte Ebba, abbefs of Coddingham, and the virtuous nuns, ought, to the eternal honour of the Saxon ladies, to ftand upon record. The abbey being hard befet by the inhuman Danes, the abbefs took a knife and fit her nofe, and cut off her lips; by her perfuafion caufing all the beautiful young damfels to do the fame, and fo difguiling themselves in the moft frightful manner, waited the coming of the lafcivious conquerors, who, in revenge of their disappointed lufts, fet fire to the abbey, and every foul therein perished in the flames.' The authenticity of the fact is, however, doubtful.

If time has impaired the gallantry of men, it has done very little in favour of the domeftic accomplishments of women; the feminine amufements of the Anglo-Saxons were fimple and heroic; they gave ardour to one fex, and were honourable to the other; instead of tambouring waistcoats, they embroidered ftandards for their heroes; the fpinning-wheel was preferred to

the

the pillow and bobbins; and it was more refpectable to be affociated with the maidens in the culinary duties of the house, than shut up in their chamber, manufacturing of knotted fringe and fprigged aprons. The four daughters of King Edward the Elder, were highly praised and distinguished, on account of their great affiduity and fkill in fpinning, weaving, and needlework. And Edelfeda, widow of Brithned, Duke of Northumberland, prefented to the church of Ely a curtain, in which was pictured the hiftory of the great actions of her deceased Jord, in order to preferve the memory of his great valour, and other virtues.'

It reflects fhame on our boafted modern civility when we read that the ancients were particularly attentive to preferve the chastity of their young maidens; no illiberal jefts were fuffered to give a fhock to the grace of modefty; the nuptial benediction was received by the bride under a veil, to conceal her virgin blushes this kind of refpect to maiden delicacy is particularly marked, where we find the ceremony of the veil is dif pensed with, when a widow is impatiently waiting for a fecond bleffing.

Mothers yielded to the tender inftructions of Nature in the nutrication of their children; the Saxon matron, a ftranger to the falfe delicacies of later times, nurfed and fuckled her own young, "unless fickness or fome fimilar accident prevented it, they holding it (fays Verftegan) among them for a general rule, that the child by fucking a ftrange nurfe, would rather incline unto the nature of her, than unto the nature of its own father or mother."

To give fome idea of the ancient fimplicity and plainnefs of Saxon manners, our Author quotes this inftance from Ingulphus: "I have often feen, fays Ingulphus, Queen Edgetha, while I was yet a boy, when my father was at the King's palace, and as I came from fchool, when I have met her, fhe would examine me in my learning, and from grammar fhe would proceed to logic (which he also understood) concluding with me in the moft fubile argument, then caufing one of her attendant maids to prefent me with three or four pieces of money I was difmiffed, being fent to the larder, where I was fure to get fome eatables:" Mr. S. clofes with this reflection of his own; which plainnefs would but ill fuit the refinement of this more polished age; this honeft national fimplicity has been with fcorn put forth, to make room for the infincere compliments, and foolish fopperies of a giddy rival people.'

The origin of drinking healths is placed in the time of the Anglo-Saxons, as appears from Verftegan: The old health. by hiftorians reported to have been drank by Rowena (the daughter or niece of Hengeft) to Vortergren King of the Bri

tons,

tons, was after this fashion: fhe came into the room where the King and his guests were fitting; making a low obedience to him, the faid, Be of good health Lord King; then having drank, fhe prefented it on her knees to the King, who (being told the meaning of what he had faid, together with the custom) took the cup, faying, I drink your health, and drank alfo.'

This original flourish of Saxon politeness in the ceremony of drinking, had by no means any fhare in promoting that intemperance which has difgraced the character of the English nation; for drunkennefs was brought into Britain by the Danes, who were fuch immoderate topers in the reign of Edgar, and fo much did their bad examples prevail with the English, that he, by the advice of Dunftan, Archbishop of Canterbury, put down many alehouses, fuffering only one to be in a village or fmall town; and he alfo further ordained, that pins or nails fhould be faftened into the drinking cups and horns, at ftated distances, and whofoever fhould drink beyond thofe marks at one draught, fhould be obnoxious to a fevere punishment.'

In the ancient hiftory of burials, Mr. Strutt gives a very copious detail of fepulchral cuftoms, from the earliest times; in which he fhews his reading, tafte, and judgment.

He now proceeds to give a brief account of the Danes, whom he introduces with the following remark: The Saxons now fettled in the kingdom, fhook off by degrees their natural ferocity, becoming much more civilized and polished; but as it often happens, that the minds of men run from one extreme to another, fo our ancestors banishing the plain and homely habits of their forefathers, adopted in their ftead a fumptuous expenfiveness in their drefs, as well as luxury and profufene(s in their entertainments. The love of the most effeminate amufements took the place late occupied in their fouls by manly valour, and defire of glory. This material change from their ancient manhood fore-ran their deftruétion, and haftened on the advancement of the Danes.'

The Danes, we are told, entertained a moft barbarous idea of their God; it was a common practice with them to facrifice kings upon the altar of fuperftition; kings their subjects; and what is most horrid, fathers their children, to appeafe his wrath, or obtain his divine affiftance !-What must the God of Mercy think of fuch inhumanity!

Moral inftruction had little effect upon these favages; the prefent hour of brutish enjoyment obliterated every fentiment of terror from future punithments; they were vicious in defpite of thofe frightful fcenes of mifery fo pathetically difplayed by the Edda, as the portion of the wicked. "There is an abode remote from the fun, the gates of which face the North; poifon rains there through a thousand openings: this place is all com

pofed

pofed of the carcaffes of ferpents; there run certain torrents, in which are plunged the perjurers, affaffins, and those who feduce married women. A black-winged dragon flies inceffantly around, and devours the bodies of the wretched who are there imprifoned."

The establishment of juries took its rife from the religion of the Danes, as explained in the ancient Edda. "He (the univerfal father Odin) in the beginning established governors, and ordered them to decide whatever differences fhould arife amongst men, and egulate the government of the celeftial city. The aflembly of thefe judges was held in the plain called Ida, which is in the middle of the divine abode. Their first work was to build a hall, wherein are twelve feats for themselves, befides the throne, which is occupied by the Univerfal Father, &c." From hence came the fenate of twelve among the northern nations: the veftiges of this ancient cuftom may be discovered in the fable of the twelve peers of France, and in the establishment of the twelve jurymen in England, who are the proper judges according to the ancient laws of the country.'

Thefe flagitious Danes were likewife voluptuous and effeminate; their beds were conftructed for indulgence, and their beautiful locks that twifted round the hearts of the British females feemed to be their peculiar care. A young warrior going to be beheaded, begged of his executioner that his hair might not be touched by a flave, or ftained with his blood and Harald Harfragre (viz. Fair Locks) made a vow to his miftrefs to neglect his fine hair till he had compleated the conqueft of Norway, to gain her love.'

Their heroifm was fullied with vanity, and their diffipations. were inactive; the Danish kings and heroes always carried a poet with them to battle, to immortalize their prowess; and they filled up their leifure hours with chefs, dice, and backgammon; the laft game was invented about this period in Wales, and derives its name from back (little) and cammon (battle.)'

From reviewing the different nations of which the English are compounded, it appears to us that manly fortitude and valour are truly British; the Saxons budded upon the original flock the gentler virtues; and the Danes engrafted cruelty, intemperance, and all the boisterous paffions which agitate the moft violent tempers; fo that we derive intrepidity from the Britons, politenefs from the Saxons, and barbarity from the Danes.

The Normans, of whom Mr. Strutt fays little, were shoots from the Saxon and Danish plants, and their properties fo blended that they partook of both.

* See what is faid on this fubject in our Review for March, p. 196; where the origin of our juries is referred to the Saxons.

This

This discourse on the manners and cuftoms of our British, Saxon, Danifh, and Norman ancestors, which confifts of 104 pages, is followed by the Author's defcription of the numerous engravings for there are no fewer than 67 quarto plates. The figures exhibited on these plates are, for the most part, fimilar to thofe of which we have given fome account in the preceding article. They may be curious as fpecimens of the ancient state of painting and fculpture in this country; but they do no honour to the taste of our ancestors.

ART. VII. The Political Survey of Great Britain, concluded.

R. Campbell, in the fecond volume, enlarges on those

facts he laid the

He gives Malines's geometrical defcription of the world; the extent of England by Dr. Halley; and the fuperficies of Britain and Ireland by Mr. Templeman. He then confiders the contents of the foil of Great Britain. His general principle here is very juft, that our real affluence arifes from the improvement of our native commodities by induftry. He begins with foffils, earths, and clays; but we think he mentions too flightly our great improvements in pottery. Meffrs. Wedgwood and Bentley deferved a very refpectable place in this part of the furvey.

Our Author proceeds to treat of ochre, allum, copperas, ftone, lime, marble, alabafter, and granite; the methods of making falt; the manufacture of glafs; and the great advantages of our collieries. He then gives an account of antimony, lapis calaminaris, and cobalt; what he fays of black lead, may be curious to many of our Readers:

Black lead is what fome have fuppofed with very little reafon to be the molybdena, or galena of Pliny; others ftyle it plumbago. Our judicious Camden, in whofe days it was a new thing, would not venture to give it a Latin name, but calls it a metallic earth, or hard fhining ftony fubftance; which whether it was the pnigitis, or melanteria of Diofcorides, or an ochre burned to blackness in the earth, and fo unknown to the ancients, he left ethers to enquire. Dr. Merret, from the use to which it was first applied, named it nigrica fabrilis. The learned Boyle is of opinion, that it has not any thing metallic in its nature; relying upon which, we have ventured to give it a place here. It is indeed a very fingular fubftance, but being very common, and confequently very well known, it would be needless to defcribe it. It is found, but in very trivial quantities, in feveral mines here, and it may be alfo in other countries. But the fole mine in which it is found by itfelf, is on Barrowdale, about fix miles from Kefwick, in the county of Cumberland.

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