14 On an ancient Monument, 



In a former publication upon the Colchester Sphinx, I had 

 hazarded a supposition, that the head of the mutilated victim 

 might have been designed, in conjunction with the more an- 

 cient emblem of Grecian allegory, to allude to the united wis- 

 dom and strength of the Roman army, having in co-operation 

 with a native Trinobantine force, succeeded in the destruction 

 of the power of some great chief of another district of the 

 island. 



Yet, further than mere conjecture, I dare not adventure : 

 here therefore I dismiss this abstruse subject, with these rude 

 sketches of theory perhaps presumptuous. I may have al- 

 ready incurred the charge, of wildly expatiating upon what 

 time has placed, as I fear, far beyond the ken of the most 

 learned inquirer. Indeed could we see through all the dark- 

 some distance of its history, the amplest results might prove, 

 like many of the fruits of antiquarian labour, to have been 

 scarcely worthy our ungrateful toil. 



There now remains little more, for our immediate purpose, 

 than to point out the probable circumstances that may have 

 preserved unto our time, this Stone Sphinx ; which I apprehend 

 to have been a principal decoration of the temple erected at 

 Camulodunum, in the time of the first Claudius. 



This Sphinx had probably been placed upon a pedestal, and 

 perhaps companion to another ; as we see in Montfaucon, that 

 a Sphinx was erected upon either side the entrance to the tem- 

 ple of Diana Pergsea. It has evidently been designed, to be 

 seen at an elevation somewhat above the level of the eye ; for 

 the only parts of the work, which have not been highly 

 finished, excepting around the base, are the upper edges of the 

 wings at their contact. 



The temple at Camulodunum is recorded by Tacitus to have 

 been destroyed by the natives, irritated with the tyrannous 

 sway of the Romans at that station*. The historian says ex- 

 pressly, that this temple which had been erected in honour of 

 the deified Claudius, was looked upon by the inhabitants as a 

 fortress, built for the purpose of their eternal bondage ; and 



* A. D. 62. 



