398 
with satisfaction and pleasure their ac- 
counts of Richard of Cirencester, of An- 
toninus, of Ptolemy, and the anonymous 
Ravennas. The writings and literary 
characters of these authors are ably dis- 
criminated, and those parts of each that 
particularly relate to Dorsetshire are cri- 
tically examined. 
Under the head of “ Ecclesiastical 
History,’ is given a concise and well- 
“ ‘written account of the.introduction and 
establishment of christianity in this coun- 
try; and its influence in Dorsetshire is 
manifested by the foundation of churches, 
the erection of bishopricks, and by the 
effects produced on the inhabitants. The 
next division of the work refers to the 
civil history of the county, and includes 
a history and lists of sheriffs, trom the 
beginning of Henry the second to the 
time of publishing the first volume. Te- 
dious lists of all-the civil officers of the 
county follow, and these are succeeded 
by ‘‘ some observations on the maritime 
affairs, on beacons, the population, a list 
of market towns, seats, public and civil 
buildings, &c.” The natural- History 
of Dorsetshire is but slightly touched on. 
This very interesting branch: of topo- 
graphy was scarcely noticed by many of 
our former county historians; and some 
of the present day either totally neglect 
it, or treat itso very superficially, that 
their dissertations prove more detrimen- 
tal than beneficial to the stibject. A 
tong account of the agriculture, &c. of 
the county is extracted from Claridge’s 
report, and the introduction closes with 
an essay On coins, or provincial tokens, 
which we think almost unworthy of no- 
BRITISH TOPOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES, 
tice in'the history of a county. In de- 
scribing Dorsetshire the author has di- 
vided it into districts and hundreds, and 
subdivided these again into’ parishesy 
manors, hamlets, tithings, &c. Each of 
these furnishes matter for a separate his 
tory, and, as'is commonly the case in si- 
milar works, the reader is obliged to laa 
bour through a vast mass of uninterest- 
ing, dull narrative, for the purpose of 
catching a few glances of curious or en-- 
gaging information. It has not been 
the fortunate lot of many county histo- 
rians to excite much interest in theif 
works, or render them amusing and at 
tractive to the general reader, to foreign- 
ers, and such persons as wish to be ac- 
quainted with the local history and topo- 
raphy of ouf island. To effect thts we 
now is no easy task, but we believe it 
to be attainable, and hope that some men 
of genius, talent, and science; will exert 
their powers to rescue this branch of 
literature from the opprobrium of sopo- 
rific dulness and insipidity, which it has 
long laboured under. As the work is 
very incomplete we suspend our final 
opinion on its general character and exe- 
cution, and datey any further account of 
its contents, till the third: volume is pub- 
lished. It may however be proper to 
observe, that the volumes aré printed on 
three or tour different sorts’ of paper, 
which gives them a disreputable ap- 
pearance ; and the plates are more diver- 
sified than the paper. Some of them 
are tolerably executed in their draw- 
ing and engraving, but the greater part 
are insignificant and bad. 
Art. XI. The History of Cornwall, civil, religious, architectural, agricultural, com- 
mercial, biographical, and‘miscellaneous. 
If. 4to. pp. 436, in both volumes. 
WE presume that the writings and 
literary character of Mr. Polwhele are 
well known to most of our readers. He 
has leng laboured in the literary vine- 
yard, and though we cannot compli- 
ment him on the success, or felicity of 
his topographical publications, yet his 
industry and general talents will ever 
demand our respect. Some of his poeti- 
cal writings are highly honourable to 
his feelings and fancy; and in the poem 
of the “ Old English Gentleman,” we 
are delighted with the judicious discri- 
mination of character, and with the 
“mice delineation of manners and cus- 
toms which were formerly the pride and 
By the Rev. R. PorwH Eve, 
Vols. I. and 
boast of Englishmen: but if we critically 
examine his fragments towards a history 
of Devonshire, and these first volumes 
of a history of Cornwall, we discover 
too much of the poet in the historian, 
and too much of the theorist in the an- 
tiquary. Having said thus much of 
Mr. Polwhele’s literary character, we 
proceed to lay before our readers the 
leading features of these two volumes of 
the history of Cornwall, reserving our + 
decisive opinions on the work’ till the 
next time we meet him in our annual 
journey. ; 
The first volume commences with a 
dedication to the prince of Wales, where 
