from that author. The fecond temple is alfo amphiproftylos: it has nine columns in front and eighteen in flank, and feems to be of that kind called by Vitruvius Pfeudodipteros. The third is likewife amphiproftylos. It has fix columns in front, and thirteen in flank. Vitruvius calls this kind of temple Peripteros. The columns of thefe temples,' fays our author, are of that kind of Doric order which we find employed in works of the greateft antiquity. They are hardly five diameters in height. They are without bafes, which alfo has been urged as a proof of their antiquity; but we do not find that the ancients ever ufed bafes to this order, at leaft till very late. Vitruvius makes no mention of bafes for this order; and the only inftance we have of it, is in the first order of the colifæum at Rome, which was built by Vefpafian. The pillars of thefe temples are fluted with very fhallow flutings in the manner defcribed by Vitruvius. The columns diminish from the bottom, which was the moft ancient method almost univerfally in all the orders. The columns have aftragals of a very fingular form; which fhews the error of thofe who imagine that this member was first invented with the Ionic order, to which the Greeks gave an aftragal,. and that the Romans were the first who applied it to the Doric, The echinus of the capital is of the fame form with that of the temple of Corinth defcribed by Le Roy.' Our author mentions many other particulars which fufficiently prove the great antiquity of thefe temples, and concludes with faying that about the time when the temples at Poeftum were built architecture feems to have received that degree of improvement which the elegant tafte of the Greeks had ftruck out from the rude masses of the Egyptians, the firft inventors of this as of many other arts.' To this account of Poeftum are fubjoined four very fine prints engraved by Miller, which will be a lafting monument of the abilities of that artift in works of this nature. In the first we are prefented with a view of Poeftum in its prefent ftate. The fecond exhibits an oblique view of the three Grecian temples. In the third we have an infide profpect of the temple Amphiproftylos; and the fourth reprefents the temple Peripteros. The keeping, and in fhort the entire execution of thefe four plates, is altoge ther admirable. Among the infcriptions is the following, which fhews that a man's having 28 children and 83 grand-children was deemed by the ancients a fufficient reafon for preferving his name from oblivion. TVLL. OLERII. POESTANI. QVI. VIX. A. LXXXXV. D. XI, FF. XXVIII. NN. LXXXIII. C. L. PP. of a defert. Some of the Tartars fay it was built by Tamerlane, called by the Tartars Temvr-ack. fack or Lame-temyr; others by Gingeez-chan. The building, according to the best information I could obtain, is of brick or stone, well finished, and continues ftill entire. It confifts of feven appartments under one roof, from whence it has the name of the Seven Palaces. rooms were filled with fcrolls of glazed paper, fairly wrote, and many of them in gilt characters. Some of the fcrolls are black, but the greatest part white. The language in which they are written is that of the Tonguits, or Kalmucks. While I was at Tobolsky, I met with a foldier in the street, with a bundle of thefe papers in his hand. He asked me to buy them; which I did for a fmall fum. I kept them till my arrival in England, when I diftributed them among my friends; particu. larly to that learned antiquarian Sir Hans Sloane, who valued them at a high rate, and gave them a place in his celebrated mufeum, Several of thefe Two of thefe ferolls were fent, by order of the emperor Peter the first, to the royal academy at Paris. The academy returned a tranflation, which I faw in the rarity chamber at St. Petersburg. One of them contained a commiffion to a lama, or prieft; and the other a form of prayer to the deity. Whether this interpretation may be depended on I fhall not determine. The Tartars efteem them all facred writings, as appears from the care they take to preferve them. Perhaps they may contain fome curious pieces of antiquity, particularly of ancient history. Above the Sedmy Palaty, towards the fource of the Irtish, upon the hills and valleys, grows the best rhubarb in the world, without the leaft culture. Of fome ancient monuments in the fame country. From the fame. or ten ABOUT eight or ten days journey from Tomíky, in this plain, are found many tombs and burying places of ancient heroes; who, in all probability, fell in battle. Thefe tombs are eafily diftinguished by the mounds of earth and tones raised upon them. When, or by whom, thefe battles were fought, fo far to the northward, is uncertain. I was in. formed by the Tartars in the Baraba, that Tamerlane, or Timyr ack-fack, as they call him, had many engagements in that country with the Kalmucks; whom he in vain endeavoured to conquer. Many perfons go from Tomíky, and other parts, every fummer, to thefe graves; which they dig up, and find among the afhes of the dead confiderable quantities of gold, filver, brafs, and some precious ftones, but particularly hilts of fwords and armour. They find alfo ornaments of faddles and briddles, and other trappings for horfes; and even the bones of horfes, and fometimes those of elephants. Whence it appears, that when any general or perfon of diftinction was interred, all his arms, his favourite horse and fervant were buried with him in the fame grave; this cuftom pre. vails to this day among the Kalmucks and other Tartars, and feems to be of great antiquity. It appears from the number of graves, that many thoufands muft have fallen on thefe plains; for the people have continued to dig for fuch treasure many years, and ftill find it unexhaufted. They are fometimes, indeed, interrupted, and robbed of all their booty, by parties of the Kalmucks, who abhor the difturbing the afhes of the dead.. I have feen feveral pieces of armour, and other curiofities, that were dug out of these tombs; particularly an armed man on horfe back caft in brafs, of no mean de. fign nor workmanship; alfo figures of deer caft in pure gold, which were fplit through the middle, and had fome fmall holes in them, as intended for ornaments to a quiver, or the furniture of a horfe.. While we were at Tomíky, one of thefe grave-diggers told me, that once they lighted on an arched vault; where they found the remains of a man, with his bow, arrows, lance, and other arms, lying together on a filver table. On touching the body it fell to duft. The value of the table and arms was very confiderable. Some account of a remarkable monument in the Ifle of Purbeck; known by the names of Agglefton, Stone Barrow, the Devil's Night-cap, &c. HIS prodigious ftone, hardly equalled by any in England, and the greatest piece of antiquity in this county, ftands in the N. E. extremity of the ifle of Purbeck, in an heath on the east fide of Studland bay, in that parish, on the eftate of John Bankes, of Kingston-hall, Efq. about a mile N. W. from Studland, and fix leagues from the ifle of Wight. It is furrounded on all fides by feveral little hills, or rifing grounds, which form a theatre, except on the eaft, where they open, and give an agreeable view of part of Pool and Studland bays, and the ifle of Wight. The name Agglefton feems to be derived from the Saxon balig, or hælig, bly; and ftan, a ftone; which is expreffive of its ancient fuperftitious ufe,. for it was, no doubt, a rock-idol or deity in the British age. The country people call it the devil's night-cap, and have a romantic tradition, that the devil, out of envy, threw it from the isle of Wight, with a defign to have demolished Corf Castle, but it fell fhort, and dropt here. It is a red heath, fand, or moorftone, which, though very common over all the heath, does not abound hereabouts, or at leaft of any bignefs. It stands on an high barrow, or tumulus: its prefent form is that of a pyramid inverted; or an irregular triangle, one of whofe fides is placed uppermoft, though it is probable it was originally quadrilateral. On the cft front it is convex or gibbous, on the west nearly flat. On the top, a ridge or bulge runs its whole length from north to fouth, whence it flopes away to the east fix feet, to the weft five. There is a confiderable cleft croffes it in the middle from east to west. On the furface are three hollows or cavities, no doubt + rock bafons, in which ravens have bred. The furface is overgrown with heath, and turves have been cut there. *See Dr. Borlace's Antiq. of Cornwall, lib. 3. cap 3. p. 161. All All the ftone is rough, full of cracks, fiffures, and inequalities, and parts into horizontal layers, or lamina, efpecially on the east fide, and at the ends. The dimenfions are as follow: The girt or circumference at bottom is 60 feet, in the middle 80, at or near the top 90. But thefe measurements, by reafon of the inequality of the furface, cannot be very exact. The quarriers compute it contains 407 tuns. On the top of the barrow lie feveral ftones, one of which contains 16, another 9 tons. On the fides and bottom a multitude of others, of yarious fizes, mostly covered with heath, furze, and fern. Some tuns have been broken off, and carried to Pool and Studland, for building. If we confider this, and the detached ftones before-mention ed, which were certainly fragments of the great one, feparated from it by violence, time, and weather, it muft have been a prodigious one indeed, not inferior to the Tolmen at Conftantine in Cornwall, the measurements of which, in Dr. Borlace, fall short of this, though he makes it contain more tuns. There is little doubt but that the ancient Britons had kill to lift great weights, and fpared no pains to erect fuch vaft rude monuments, many of which are extant at Stone Henge, Abury in Cornwall, and other parts of the three kingdoms. Yet the enormous bulk of this ftone, in its primitive ftate, may incline one to imagine it to be a natural rock, and that the barrow was formed by a collection of earth thrown up round it; or if the barrow be thought too large to be artificial, perhaps the ftone might grow here on a natural hil lock, and the earth at top might be removed, and the ftone laid bare, to a depth suitable to the ufe it was defigned for, and then the hillock might be fhaped into its prefent regular form.. Yet Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, and many other vaft barrows al lowed to be artificial, mentioned by Dr. Borlace, lib. 3. c. 8. p. 205-207, are much larger than this, and are strong evidences of the labour and time bestowed by the ancient Britons, and other nations, on fuch works. The etymology of Agglefton, and the rock bafons on it, determine it to be a rock idol, erected in the British age, and the object of their fuperftitious worship. The barrow on which this stone ftands is very large. Its diameter on top is 60 feet, at bottom it oc cupies half an acre and 14 rood of ground. Its flope on the eaft fide, where it is fteepeft, is 300 feet, the perpendicular height 90 feet. On the north and fouth, it is nearly of an equal height. On the weft, it is much lefs fteep. It is all covered with heath, furze, and fern. On the top it is concave, worn down by fheep lying there, as by attempts to break off ftone. Reund the bottom appears traces of a fhal. low ditch, almost filled up, and covered by heath, &c. About it are feveral other barrows of differens forms and fizes. On one, a little north from it, called Puck ftone, is a ftone thrown down ten feet by eight. This monument, standing in an unfrequented part of the country, and hid by the hills that almoft environ it, was fcarce known or obferved, till it lately drew the attention of James Frampton, of More. it to the notice of the public, as it deferved. The Tolmen at Conftantine is of an oval form; its long diameter, which points due north and fouth, is 33 feet, its fhort one 14-6. Its breadth in the middle of the furface, where it is deepest, from east to west, 18-6. It circumference 97 feet, and about 60 crofs in the middle, and contains 750 tuns. Dr. Borlace, ibid. 1. 3. c. 8, p. 168, plate II. Silbury hill, is a large barrow, without any ftone on it. Its diameter at top is 105 feet, at the bottom above 503, its perpendicular height is 170. See Dr. Borlace, 1. 3. c. 8, p. 206; and Dr. Stukeley on Stone Henge. Moreton, Efq. who recommended feft and ileftinde in alle thinge abutan ænde, and the heaten alle ure treowe in the treowthe thet heo us ogen, that heo ftede-feftliche healden and weren to healden and to fwerien the ifetneffes that beon makede and beon to makien thurg than to foren iseide rædefmen, other thurg the moare dal of heom alfwo; alfe hit is beforen iseid. And thæt æhcother helpe that for to done bitham ilche other agenes alle men [paucula quædam hic dreffe videntur, hæc fcilicet aut fimilia: in alle thinge that] ogt for to done and to foangen. And noan ne mine of Loande ne of egetewher thurg this befigte muge beon ilet other iwerfed on oniewife. And gif oni ether onie cumen her ongenes we willen and heaten, that alle ure treowe heom healden deadlichistan. And for thæet we willen thet this beo ftedefæft and leftinde, we fenden gew this Writ open ifeined with ure Seel to halden amanges gew ine Hord. Witnefs us faluenæet Lundænthane egtetenth day on the Monthe of Octobr, in the two and fowertig the geare of ure crunninge. And thirwes idon ætforen ure ifworen redefmen, Bonefac. Archebifchop on Kanterbur. Walter of Cantelop, Bifchop of Wirechester, Sim. of Montfort Eorle of Leicheftre, Rich. of Clare Eorl on Glochester and on Hartford; Roger Bigod Eori of Northfolk and Marefcal on Engleloand, Perres of Sauueye, Will. of Fort Eorl on Aubem, John de Pleffe Eorl on Warwick, Joh. Geffereeffune, Perres of Muntfort, Rich. of Grey, Rog. of Mortemer, Iames of Aldithel, and ætforen othre moge. A charter of King Henry the Third, in the old English of that time; with a tranflation of it into modern English, by Mr. Somner. From the Appendix to Lord Lyttleton's Hif. H® Rot. Pat. 43. H. III. m. 15. n° 40. ENRY thurg Godes fultome on Engleneieande Lhoauerd on Yrloand Duk on Normand. on Acquitain and Eorl on Aujou. fend I, greting to alle hife holde ilæarde and ile wede on Huntindonnfchierre; that witen ge wel, alle that we willen and unnen, that ure rædefmen alle other the moare del of heom, that beoth ichofen thurg us and thurg that Loandes Folk, on ure Kuneriche habbeth idon, and fchullen don in the worthnefs of Gode, and ure treow the for the freme of the Loande, thurg the befigte of than to foren ifeide rædefmen beo stede AND all on tho ilche worden is ifend in to aurichte othre Schire Quer |