400 
of places, &c. marked on them. The 
above errors of Ptolemy are not his 
only geographical defects: Baron Clark 
considered him among the most incor- 
rect of all ancient authors; and Mr. 
Horsley has demonstrated his inaccuracy 
by giving another more rectified map of 
Britain, from a comparison with which 
the futility of the former becomes more 
apparent. Knowing this, and similar 
instances in later accounts and more 
recent maps, we cannot too strongly re- 
commend to topographers and anti- 
quaries, the necessity of visiting and 
examining places and things. Had Mr. 
Polwhele been more attentive to this part 
of a topographer’s duty, we should have 
felt more satisfied wit: his descriptions 
and inferences; but observing his ready 
acquiesence in other’s opinions, and his 
copious quotations from Borlase, Hals, 
Tonkin, and other speculatists, we fol- 
low him with great caution, and suspect 
many of his deductions. In the follow- 
ing quotation, this will be clearly ex- 
emplified :—* Pryce,’’ Mr. Polwhele ob- 
serves, states, that * Redruih--Dreduith-- 
signifies the Druid’stown.’ And of this 
he is assured, ‘¢ from its vicinity to 
Karnbre, that celebrated station of dru- 
idical superstition, where are to be seen 
a multifarious collection of monumental druid- 
ism.’? Before we proceed with this ex- 
tract, it may be necessary to inform’ the 
reader, that Mr. Pryce was an apothe- 
cary of Redruth, and having, like his 
countryman Borlase, amused himself 
with reveries on druidism, at last fancied 
every heap of stones a druidical monu- 
ment, and Karnbre, which is a large 
granite hill covered with detached masses 
of rock, he hyperbolically pronounces, 
© a multifarious collection of monumental 
druidism.”? Mr. Polwhele, imbibing a 
little of his predecessor’s spirit, remarks 
on this passage. 
«« At all events, there is no doult but Red- 
ruth, in the vicinity of Karnbre, was one of 
the chief towns of the drnids of Danto- 
nium; and at Plas-an-guere, in Redruth, 
there were very lately the remains of an am- 
phitheatre. This is evident from the very 
name. But the amphitheatres of St. Just 
and St. Piran, bear evident marks of the 
judicial court in this canton of the Carnabii. 
‘The amphitheatre of S¢. Just, in the hun- 
dred of Penwith, situated near the church, 
is somewhat disfigured By the injudicious 
repairs of late years; but by the remains it 
seems to have been a work of more than 
usual labour and correctness. It was an 
exact circle of 126 feet diameter. The per- 
BRITISH TOPOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 
pendicular height of the bank, from the 
area within, is now seven feet; but the 
height from the bottom of the ditch with- 
out, at present ten feet, was formerly more. 
The seats consist of six steps, fourteen inches 
wide, and one foot high, with one on the 
top of all, where the rampart is about seven 
feet wide. ‘That plays. were acted here, I 
have not a doubt: but I concur with Mr. 
Whitaker in thinking that these circles were 
designed for British courts of judicature.” 
From the tenor of this extract, a 
reader would conclude it was dictated - 
from personal inspection, and that “the 
amphitheatre” is now in the state de- 
scribed by the author: but upon refer- 
ring to Borlase’s account of it, we find 
the same words adopted... Had Mr. 
Polwhele acknowledged his authority, 
we should have been satisfied with Aim, 
though perhaps not equally so with the 
original author. From the description 
of a correspondent in Cornwall, we learn. 
that the monument above described is 
merely ‘a simple raised bank, or val- 
lum, running round a flat area. The 
bank has no indication of seats or steps, nor 
is there the least appearance of repair.’ 
In describing many encampments, crom- 
lechs, circles, &c. we observe a similar 
practice in our author; and as the prac- 
tice conduces to perpetuate and propagate 
falshood, and tends to depreciate liberal 
antiquarianism, we must discountenance 
and reprove such conduct. ; 
In the third chapter Mr. Polwhel 
takes a review of the religion of the 
Danmonians, as influenced by drui- © 
dism, by Roman paganism, and by 
christianity. Among the objects of 
religious veneration of the pagan Cor- 
nish, the serpent was, according to our 
author, the most pre-eminent. ‘* To the 
famous anguinum they attributed high 
virtues. The anguinum, or serpent’s 
egg, was a congeries of small snakes 
rolled together, and incrusted with a 
shell, formed by the saliva, or viscous 
gum, or froth of the mother serpent. 
This egg, it seems, was tossed into the 
air by the hissings of its dam; and, -be- 
fore it fell again to the earth (where it 
would be defiled) it was to be received 
in the sagus, a sacred vestment. The 
person who caught the egg was to make 
his escape on horseback; since the ser- 
pent pursued the ravisher of its-young, 
even to the brink of the next river. 
Pliny, from whom this account is taken, 
proceeds with an enumeration of other 
absurdities relating to the anguinum.” 
What will naturalists say to this ridi- 
