General Literature. 395 



" Essay on the peculiar Character of the ancient Gael, with 

 their Institutions, and civil and warlike Habits." The Essay to 

 be given in to the secretary, by March 1, 1822. 



4. Cambrian Society in Dyfed. Premiums for \ 820. — A pre- 

 mium of ten pounds for the best " Glossary to the Poems of 

 the Cynfeirdd, or most ancient Bards of Britain, who lived 

 prior to tlie end of the eighth Century, preceded by an Essay 

 on the Authenticity of the said Poems, on the true Orthography 

 of their Language, and, on the Characteristics of their Fictions." 



A premium of ten pounds for the best " Essay on the Origin, 

 Credibility, and authentic Evidences of the Tradition respecting 

 the Chair of Glamorgan, and the political and religious Prin- 

 ciples of Bardism." 



A premium of ten pounds for the best " Essay on the Evi- 

 dences and latent Remains of Druidism and Paganism in the 

 Poems of the ancient British Bards." 



5. Prize Question. — The Royal Society of Sciences at Got- 

 tingen has proposed for the subject of a prize to be awarded in 

 November, 1820, " A critical Synopsis of the most ancient 

 Monuments of every Description hitherto discovered in Ame- 

 rica, to be placed in Comparison with those of Asia, Egypt, 

 Sfc." The Memoirs to be written in Latin. Value of tha 

 prize, fifty ducats. 



6. Antiquities. — Some time since, in digging, to make gas-tanks 

 at the low lights near North Shields, in a place called Salt Marsh, 

 in Pen Dean, at the distance of 12 feet 6 inches from the surface, 

 the workmen came to a framing of large oak-beams, black as 

 ebony, pinned together with wooden pins, or tree-nails, the whole 

 resembling a wharf, or pier, whither ships, drawing 9 or 10 feet 

 ofwater, had come. Julius Agricola had his fleet in the Tyne 

 about the 83d year of the Christian sera ; and it is supposed he 

 may have moored some of his ships here, though the brook 

 Don, near where Jarrow church now stands, is said to have been 

 his station. The Danes often moored fleets in the Tyne, during 

 their excursions in the ninth, tenth, and elevcntli centuries. 



