874 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



man was impressed upon gold ; 

 many duplicates of it were pro- 

 vided, and it was emphatically 

 styled the talisman of Cunoheline. 

 Its preparation was deemed the 

 highest effort of British magic; it 

 was the shield of the solemn festi- 

 val, sacred to the Arkite god and 

 goddess, whose names and attri- 

 butes appear upon the coins; and 

 it was given to the warriors as a 

 certain pledge, that these divinities 

 would attend them in their enter- 

 prize. 



If all this will not produce con- 

 viction, that man}' of the British 

 coins, published by our antiquaries, 

 are the identical talismans intended 

 by our Bardic magi, I have nothing 

 more to urge. Yet I trust, how- 

 ever this may be determined, that 

 the candid critic will acquit me of 

 having taken up the idea upon 

 slight or improbable grounds, and 

 that he will acknowledge, that the 

 Britons ascribed supernatural vir- 

 tues to some trinkets, of similar 

 device. 



But whilst I leave the original 

 use and application of these coins 

 to the judgment of the public, I 

 must declare my own conviction, 

 that the symbols and inscriptions 

 which I have remarked, agree so 

 minutely with the lore of the bards 

 and Triads, that it is evident our 

 writers and engravers had precisely 

 the same system in view. And this 

 unity of design gives the strongest 

 support to the credit of our na- 

 tional monuments. 



The fabrication of the coins can- 

 not be stigmatized as a modern de- 

 vice for the purpose of elucidating 

 the bards; nor will the judicious 

 critic assert, that the works of the 

 bards are recent forgeries, with a 



view to the explanation of the coing. 

 Both the one and the other have 

 remained inexplicable forages; but, 

 in my opinion, they may now be 

 regarded as consistent, not only 

 amongst themselves, but also, al- 

 lowing for local peculiaiities, with 

 the most ancient and general sys- 

 tem of mythology, developed by 

 two of the first antiquaries of out- 

 age. 



The bards, the mythological tri- 

 ads, and the coins, are therefore 

 proved by mutual evidence, in which 

 there can be no collusion, to be ge- 

 nuine monuments of the heathenish 

 superstition of Britain. 



And they unite in their testi- 

 mony, that this superstition, not- 

 withstanding the singularity of a 

 few minuter features, could boast 

 of no great and fundamental prin- 

 ciple, which was appropriate to 

 itself. Like the general error of 

 other nations, it consisted of cer- 

 tain memorials of the preservation 

 of mankind at the deluge, and some 

 perverted relics of the patriar- 

 chal religion, blended with an 

 idolatrous worship of the host of 

 heaven. 



Origin of the Marvellous or Poeti- 

 cal Machinery of Old England. 

 [ From a Letter subjoined to Part 

 ii. of Romantic Alt/thologj/, enti- 

 tled Faery. 2 



The notion of our marvellous 

 imagery being of Oriental, in- 

 stead of Northern extraction, is, 

 of course, solel)' tenable, on the 

 supposition that it originated from 

 the Saracens, who extended their 

 conquests into Europe at an early 



period ; 



