and of equal authority. We shall therefore call in the assistance of the Itinerary of the monk of Ciren* and thus correct the questionable Iter. cester, Iter XIV. CIII. M. Venta Silurum IX. Caerwent. Trajectus IX. Portishead. IX. Clifton and Leigh Camps. XI. Bath. XV. Westbury. Abone Aqua Solis Verlucione Cunetione XX. Marlborough. Spinis Callena XV. Speenham Land. Of Venta Silurum there is no question. That Trajectus should be transposed, and stand next to Venta, is equally clear; because there is no place, which conjecture can furnish, answerable to this name, but the passage across the Severn: and the Iter of Richard places Statio Trajectus before Abone. The author of the Britannia Romana, strenuously opposes any change in the numbers, or transposition of the names; but the authority of Richard proves both may be right. Trajectus therefore appears to have been Portishead Point, at the mouth of the Avon, directly opposite the river Throggy; where is a This was a MS. discovered by Mr. Bertram at Copenhagen, 1749; the writing of which was pronounced, by Mr. Casley of the Cottonian library to be of the 14th century. The compiler was Richard, a native of Cirencester, who collected his materials from documents left by the Roman General Lollius Urbicus, who extended the conquests of that people into Scotland about A. D. 150. Vid. Whitaker's Hist of Manchester. small pill for boats, and which is said to have been navigable up to Caerwent. At this point are vestiges of a camp, which defended the entrance of the river. The military road takes this direction. " I observed it," says Horsley," to leave the high way to Chepstow, inclining to the south, and to bend its course towards the Severn; but I had no opportunity to trace it further." If he had pursued it, he would have discovered, that it led directly to the large camp at Sudbrooke, formed to defend the mouth of the Throggy, as that of Portishead was the mouth of the Avon. The mouths of these rivers are nearly in a direct line, and the distance exactly corresponds with the numbers of the Itinerary. With respect to the cor rection of the number opposite to Aqua Solis, substituting X for V, it may be observed, that where the places correspond to the Iter of Richard, the numbers often disagree; and in this the separate numbers, as they at present stand, do not collectively make up the sum total of CIII. But by inserting this change, which will answer nearly to the computed distance between the two stations, the aggregate numbers correspond with the number placed at the head of the Iter. What tends to confirm the conjecture is, that the Romans always, if possible, fixed their stations so as to be able to form communications by signals from one to the other. From the camp at Lansdown this of Clifton was visible; from Clifton that of Sudbrooke; and from Sudbrooke that of Caerwent. The Avon flows beneath through a stupendous chasm, the sides of which are immense lime-stone rocks of various kinds and colours, from light red to brown, dark grey, and black; consisting principally of marble, which, when polished, exhibits a pleasing variegation of vein and colour. It burns into a beautiful white lime, peculiarly sought for by the plasterer. Numbers of men are constantly employed in blowing up the rocks with gunpowder; whence the stone is carried coastwise to Devon and Cornwall, while the lime is packed in barrels, and exported as far as the West Indies. In the fissures of these rocks are varieties of spars, and those clegant crystals denominated Bristol stones. The spars are rhomboidal, stalactitic, and dog-tooth. The crystals, red, amethystine, diaphanous, and bright yellow; as beautifully formed as if cut by the most skilful lapidary. These two very different substances are frequently confounded; and those who collect them to sell to those who visit these extraordinary rocks, often vend the spars under the name of crystals. An easy criterion, however, is at hand. If you attempt to cut glass with spar, it breaks; and, if exposed to a red heat, quickly calcines into lime: it is corroded by the nitrous acid, by neither of which crystal is affected. They may also be distinguished by the form of their crystallization. The spars are triangular or pentangular; while the crystals are uniformly hexangular, and terminate in a point. We shall wonder less at the extraordinary relations of travellers, so properly ridiculed by the author of Baron Munchausen, when we are seriously told by Brann, in his Theat. Urb. L. IV. "That on the top of this rock, i. e. St. Vincent's, it is plain, are so many diamonds, that a ship may be loaden therewith." And there must have been more in the time of Camden to justify the observation, "that St. Vincent's rock was so stocked with diamonds, you might gather whole bushels full of them." Some few specimens of lead ore have, at times, been discovered; and we found great varieties of iron ore in the vicinity. Indeed from the change of the strata into ochreous limestone, as you approach the veins of coal, it is probable that iron might be sought for with success. The great variety of plants spon taneously growing in this neighbourhood, naturally suggested the idea of a botanic garden; and from the number of scientific men resident in Bristol, and frequenting the wells, such a plan was considered as embracing a most gratifying object. A subscription was set on foot by a few spirited individuals; but not meeting with support the scheme was relinquished. * These rocks are as remarkable, for their equal, as amazing height. The strata, on both sides the river, reciprocally answering each other, both in substance and inclination dipping towards the east in an * Apium graveolens, Campanula trachelium, Hieracium pilosella, Erica cinerea, Solidago virgo aurea, Aquilegia vulgaris, Asplenium scolopendrium, Arula muraria, Gentiana amarella, Rubia peregrina, Smyrnium olusatrum, Salvia verbenaca, the elegant Arabis striata, not noticed by Linnæus, and a rich variety of others. angle of about 40 degrees with the plane of the horizon. Towards the summit of the highest rock is a large cavern, called the Giant's Cave, said to have been the hermitage or retreat of the holy St. Vincent, who had a chapel and oratory on the top. cause. A similar and as extraordinary chasm in limestone strata may be seen to the south of this, at the small village of Cheddar; and one of smaller extent at Ashton and Wick, through which runs the small river Boyd. The nature of such phænomena have long been a subject of geological inquiries, and various conjectures have been made, as to the original Sir Robert Atkins, in his History of Gloucestershire, thought fit to insert the following relation. "Before the port of Bristol was settled in Frome river, there seems to have been a dispute, whether a place called Sea Mills was not as convenient a port as the other: several large and small ships having been built there. This occasioned the extravagant and fabulous story concerning St. Vincent and Goram, who it makes to be mighty giants; and who contended which way the rivers Avon and Frome should vent themselves into the Severn. If the port of Sea Mills had been judged more convenient, then Goram had prevailed; because his hermitage was at Westbury on the side of the brook Trim, which runs to Sea Mills. But the port of Frome being thought more advantageous, therefore the miracle relates, that St. Vincent clave the rocks asunder and so gave passage to the river, |