380 
within the consecrated ground of the church. 
Ht is well known that there was no spring 
at the bottom of this, wherefore its supply, 
which depended wholly on rain, was very 
precarious.” 
Mr. Dickinson very charitably, and 
xery justly, rejects the fables invented at 
the time of the reformation, which state 
thit the priests used to make this well 
flow with blood on particular festivals. 
It was evidently intended as a drain for 
the water falling from the church. Mr. 
Fowler, father to one of the vicars, fell 
mto this well on a dark evening, 1764, 
and was drowned. The chapter thus 
warned of their own danger, had it co- 
vered. 
«* The third well was. at the extremity of 
Westhorpe, and was called St. Catharine’s 
Well, from a chapel contiguous to it, which 
was dedicated to that saint. The waters of 
this spring are said to be nearly the coldest 
4n the kingdom. Within a century they 
were much recommended for their virtues tn 
the cure of several complaints, particularly 
the rhenmatism. A house was built here 
by Mr. Burton, of Norwood-park, the pro- 
prietor, about 1720, for the accommodation 
of persons who came to bathe ; and many 
additions were made to the well, both of 
convenience andof ornament: over the head 
of the fountain was a plate, on which soxare 
Latin verses were inscribed, much to the 
honour of the tutelar saint and the reputa- 
tion of the water. The extraordinary purily 
of both was the subject of the panegyric, and 
a participation of ¢his quality was the pro- 
mise holden out to those who came to seek 
BRITISH TOPOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 
the protection of St. Catharine. The bath 
still remains little injured in its appearance, 
not at all so in its salutary qualities; but the 
deity of the place is Jeft to lament the absence 
of her high priestess fashion, and the conse 
quent diminution in the number of her vo« 
taries.” ; 
The reader will find, upon comparing 
the two editions of this work, that the 
author has made many additions ; some 
of which, particularly the tedious repetition 
of conjectures upon styles of building, 
might have been greatly compressed 5 
others are of undisputed advantage to 
the plan: to point out those, and bring 
parallels, would extend this review to an 
unpardonable length, but we cannot dis- 
miss the history of Southwell without 
our acknowledgments to the author for 
laying before the public a vast variety 
of original and authentic articles, un- ~ 
known to them before: these are ge~ 
nerally judiciously arranged, though 
not uniformly so. Mr. Dickinson’s 
style is clear and nervous, with the 
exception of some inelegancies, which 
are perhaps common to all topographical 
writers, imbibed insensibly by constant 
reference to the obsolete language of 
our ancestors. 
The two parts contain 23 engravings, 
the first of which is a portrait of the 
author, who has. omitted that of his 
father inserted in the first edition, which 
contains 14 plates, re-ingraved in’ some 
instances for the present edition, 
Art. Il. The History and Description of Colchester (the Camulodunum of the Britains, 
and the first Roman Colony in Britain), with an Account of the Antiquities of that most 
antient Borough, 
THIS work comes under our cogni- 
zance Ht a very suspicious manner. 
Without an auihor’s name, advertise- 
ment, or preface, we were at a loss for 
some time how to treat this unceremo- 
sious intruder ; and the wording of the 
title rather excited cur suspicion than 
our curiosity. This was increased upon 
reading the two paragraphs in the frst 
page, where the writer rather ambigu- 
ously expresses himself in the following 
terms : 
«© Those whose researches unavoidably 
Iead them to trace the intricate and doubtful 
mazes of remote antiquity, have such fre- 
quent illusions present themselves, that it is 
not much to be wondered at if the path is 
often mistaken which leads from the con- 
fice Jabvrinth of events to times wherein 
2 Vols. 12mo. pp. 536. 
conjecture and sagacity are equally useless. 
Whoever becomes thus bewildered and 
lost amongst the innumerable uncertainties 
which surround him, has no other way to 
extricate himself, than either to overleap, or 
cut a path through his wanderings, and at 
once escape the labour and difficulty of a 
right judgment.” 
This curious kind of sophistry is not 
highly creditable to the author’s talents, 
or to his honesty : for wherever difficulty 
or labour presents itself, we presume he 
would give us some random remarks 
rather than encounter any trouble to 
investigate a doubtful point .of antiquity. 
Indeed this seems very evident from 
many passages in the work, wherein 
various transactions relating to the An- 
glo-Roman history are related with a 
degree of confidence and decision, which 
