genius of the Druids of Cornwall, deferve fo high an honour, 1

have little doubt but the fame diftinction is due to thofe romantic fcenes in Devonshire, which hitherto we have been led to view with an incurious eye; or to admire, perhaps, for their rude magnificence, whilft we carried our ideas no farther than the objects themselves. Not that the Druids formed thefe fcenes: no-they only availed themselves of fuch receffes; to which they annexed fanctity, by commemorating there, the rites of religion. The rock-idols are purely natural-as natural as the groves of Mona : but as they fuited the fuperftition of the times, and served to add a folemnity to the druidical inftitutions, the policy of thofe who governed the devotions of the multitude, turned this fantaftic fcenery to the best account; and fecured the public reverence by impreffing every imagination with the wild and the terrible.' P. 146.

Many will deem this a juft view of the fubject; but the, conclufion is perhaps different from what our author would draw. In short, Druidical remains must be of the most equivocal kind. If rocks were hollowed, the winds and. weather in 1700 years must have effaced the labour; and thofe : that were naturally or artificially poifed, muft have been fixed, by the accumulation of foil. A circle of ftones must contain fome directed to the north and south; some that answer to the, æquinoctial points, the folftices, &c. If the Druids were a learned aftronomical hierarchy, they wanted no fuch afliftance. Among the unlearned tribes, with which they were. furrounded, fuch aftronomical directions were ufelefs. In fact, after an attentive examination of all that has been faid, or written on this fubject by ancients or moderns, we think that no one would incur the imputation of great rashness,. who fhould affert that no Druidical remains now exist. The various circles of ftones, logan-flones, rock-altars and basons in Devonshire, are, we believe, carefully defcribed; and thofe who have fufficient Druidical faith will undoubtedly read the narrative with a religious awe and veneration. Indeed thefe Druidical antiquaries betray their own cause, for they. are by no means confiftent with each other; and, while truth appears fo doubtful, fcepcifm, as ufual, will tread on her heels. The infcriptions Mr. Polwhele appears willing to. refer to a later age. On a ftone near Exmoor, Mr. Badcock was informed, that engraven characters had been obferved; but the tone was applied to other purposes, and he had not been able to examine them. His informer told him that they had been pronounced to be 'Greck. Thofe however who could have decided this point would have refcued the infcription from oblivion. An infeription yet remains, where

the word Toreus is legible, but the letters are by no means of an ancient shape, and no connexion can be traced between this word and any ancient hiftorical record. A cromlech, near Drewsteignton, has been carefully defcribed by Mr. Chapple, who has difcovered, in the pofition of the ftones, many curious aftronomical relations; but these our author fuppofes to be accidental, and degrades the cromlech, perhaps with reafon, to a fepulchral monument.

Of the pafturage and agriculture of Danmonium we have an elegant and pleafing account; but it is a dream of the imagination. This is not hiftory, but romance. Of mining, we have a very fhort defcription. No evidence remains that any deep mines were worked in the modern manner. This part of the country, befides its tin, afforded a little lead and iron, perhaps a few particles of gold.

The Danmonian manufactures are reprefented as of a very early date, and of peculiar excellence. If, however, the Druids wore long white garments, it is not certain that they were of Danmonian manufacture; and Strabo's defcription of the inhabitants of Cornwall proves no kind of manufacture; for the epithet ushavxhaivai means more obviously, clothed in black or dark skins-literally in dark wool.-The following paffage will excite a fmile.

That the art of dyeing cloth was familiar to the ancient Britons, before the Belga, we have every reafon to infer, from the known fact of their painting and ftaining their fkin. And with the famė color which they ufed in painting their skin, the Danmonians, probably, dyed their garments. Very poffibly the purple dye of the Tyrians gained its high reputation among the ancients, from. the use of our tin in the composition of the dve stuff; as the tin trade was folely in their own management. That its ufe as one of the non-coloring retentive ingredients, was known to the Phenicians, will appear probable, when we confider the unfadingnefs of their purple; which was a leading character in that celebrated color produced by the thell-fish purpura. It is not likely that the fimple blood of a thell fif, however beautiful at firft, would have proved a lafting dye. The addition of fome retentive ingredient must have been neceffary to fecure its brightness and preferve its beauty. Tin, diffolved in aqua fortis, is at prefent a neceffary article in the new fcarlet dye and our fine cloths owe the permanence of their de licate colors to the retentiveness given by the finest grain tin: so that the English fuperfine broad-cloths, dyed in grain by the help of this ingredient, are become famous in all markets of the known world.' P. 160.

If doubtful circumflances are thus admitted, it will not, be difficult to fupport any abfurdity. To prove the au

thor's pofition, it must be allowed, that what tinges the skin will dye wool; that tin is neceffary to fix the colour of the purpura; that the ancients were acquainted with its ufe, and with the preparation of aqua-fortis. All the remaining defcriptions of the ancient proceffes fhow, that neither circumftance has the flighteft foundation,

The commerce of Danmonium is a fubject of fome diffi culty. The Ictis to which the tin was brought has eluded the investigation of every geographer, Were this a time to confider the geographical knowledge of the Phoenicians, we could fhow it to be very extenfive, even in the Atlantic and the Baltic, perhaps in the German ocean; but that these navigators were acquainted with the ufe of the compafs we have no reason to believe.

How the Phenicians could have performed their long voyages from Afia to Britain, may be a queftion of difficulty: they were, doubtlefs, fkilled in navigation. That their defcendants, the Carthaginians, were fkilful pilots, we have abundant proof: and if, as Strabo tells us, the captain of a Carthaginian veffel feeing himself followed by a Roman fleet, chofe to fteer a falfe courfe, and land upon another coaft, rather than fhew the Romans any way to Britain, they certainly had the ufe of the compafs. And the use of the compafs muft have been derived to them from their progenitors the Tyrians. If it be objected, however, that the Carthaginians, had they poffeffed the knowledge of the compass, could not eafily have concealed it from the Romans, and other nations with whom they were connected, I would remind the objector of the commercial fecrecy of the ancient nations. The precaution, indeed, of the Carthaginians, to geard the compafs from common obfervation, was, at length, the very means, perhaps, of their lofing the use of it themselves. The knowledge of it was intrufted to a few; from these few, it was imperfectly tranfmitted to others; and the fecret, thus feebly retained, funk gradually away with the poffeffors of it. But, whether the lofs of the compafs were owing to this or any other caufe, we need not here inquire. No perfon, who is not ignorant of the history of the arts, will doubt the existence of an art in one period, because it hath disappeared in another.' P. 161.

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It would have been well had Mr. Polwhele given us fome reference to the writers whofe authority he has employed. We might have more easily detected his errors. Strabo, in the paffage alluded to, fays not a word offteering a falfe courfe, and landing on another coaft.' His words fimply are, the Carthaginian captain, induced by jealoufy, defignedly carried his fhip on a thoal, and having led thofe who followed him into the fame difficulties, was recompenfed, after his efcape from fhipwreck, from the public treasury?' The

rest of the note which we have transcribed is too futile to detain us.

The ancient I&tis, in Mr. Polwhele's opinion, was the ifland of St. Nicholas, in the embouchure of the united rivers Plym and Tamar; and he offers fome good reasons for his opinion. After a careful examination of the queftion, we will state our fentiments. As the whole island of Britain was numbered, by the earliest authors, among the Caffiterides, we have no reason to confine the Phoenician navigators to the Scilly iflands; and we have found abundant reason to confider them, in thefe commercial voyages, as afcending the Tamar. It is not improbable then, that the ifland of St. Nicholas may have been the depot of tin from the furrounding mines. At a later period, however, the Ifle of Wight was certainly the spot where the more various merchandife from Great Britain was collected, when carried to the opposite continent. Its name Vectis feems to have been confounded, by later hiftorians, particularly Diodorus Siculus, with the earlier depôt, and we have fought in vain for an Ictis, where it never exifted. Yet we must add, that, as ick is in Cornwall a common termination, fignifying, according to Mr. Polwhele, a creek, as ifk is the British term for river, fome convenient spot for loading the tin was perhaps fixed on, and Ictis may have been its appellation either from the creek, or from a river flowing into it. If so, Ictis must be probably fought in the Tamar. There can be little doubt, that the Ietis mentioned by Diodorus, in the paffage quoted by our hiftorian, is the Isle of Wight.

The ninth fection is on the language and learning of the Danmonians. In this, however, Mr. Polwhele only tranfcribes from the moft vifionary of our fanciful antiquarians. The original British was, in his opinion, the Erfe: on this was engrafted the Phoenician, from the eastern colony; to the union of the two the Greek was added, from a Grecian colony on the north of Devonshire; and to this mot ley mixture the Belgic. The whole is the modern Cornih, which fortunately we do not understand. In this part, however, as in others, we find aborigines and an : eaftern colony often mentioned, without a fufficient difcrimination where the former end, or the latter begins. The fciences of Danmonium are thofe only of the Druids, to whom we may give the whole circle, without fear of contradiction.

The perfons of the Britons are faid to have been comely; their ftature tall, and their complexions fair. This is a defcription of a modern Highlander; and our author transfers Every merit of the varied inhabitants of this ifland to his fa

vourite Danmonians. The characters, manners and ufages, are defcribed, in the fame manner, with a reference to OF fian, as genuine evidence, and an infertion of pretended authorities. We fhall difmifs this chapter with a fingle inftance.

The Danmonians made curds and butter of their milk from the earliest times-" Denfantes in acorem jucundum et pingue bu tyrum," fays Pliny. And, indeed, the art of making curds and butter was not an European art: the Romans, we fhall fee, were ignorant of it. As Pliny defcribes the Danmonians, fo Herodotus defcribes the Scythians as famous for their curds and butter; and it is remarkable that the four-curd (or the acor jucundus) is familiar only at the prefent day to the Tartars and the Cornish, and a few of the Devonians.' P. 173.

Pliny, fo pofitively quoted in this and another place, does not mention the Danmonians. In the paffage referred to, he only fays, it is furprifing that the barbarous nations which live on milk have for fo many ages flighted or rejected the properties of cheefe, condenfing their milk into a pleasant acid, and oily butter. In this no mention is made of curds, the condenfation refers to the butter, and the acid to the thicker whey (called, we believe, butter-milk) separated from it; yet this paffage is fo managed as to lead the reader to fuppofe, that the Danmonians and the Scythians, only, used four curds, and that of course the former were an eaftern race. That by barbaras gentes,' the words of Pliny, the Danmonians are implied, our author, who contends for their ci 'vilifation, learning, merchandise and religion, cannot admit.

Errors fo glaring. have excited, our indignation; and if, as our author obferves, in this manner he has carried on the whole of the general history,' the lofs of what remains is not to be regretted. These are the errors, this the kind of trifling, which formerly fo much difgufted us: if to fubftitute fancy for facts, and romance for hiftory, to conceal the fources of information, feemingly with a view of mifreprefenting the records of antiquity, be the province of an historian, our author has completely fucceeded. Of this practice we have noticed only a few of the inftances which we have detected. Wę cannot therefore conclude, without pronouncing Mr. Polwhele a weak and a faithless hiftorian.

In the poftfcript there are fome complaints of thofe qui ante nos noftra dixerunt.' But against Mr. Swete the writer feems most indignant for anticipating the remarks on the cromlech logan-ftones, &c. in a paper in the Exeter Elays.

* Plin. Hift, Natural. lib. xi. cap. 41. § 15. Ed. Hard, vol. i. p. 637.