▼Oi.. XLI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. ~ 435 



and easily proved by Grecian and Roman authors, as Strabo, Polybius, 

 Pliny, &c. 



That the Romans conquered great part of Britain, is not disputed ; but whe- 

 ther they possessed the most western part, now Cornwall, many learned 

 doubt. 



Mr. W. states it as a vulgar error, that the Roman soldiers made the high- 

 ways in Britain ; when it is plain, he says, that the poor conquered Britains 

 under them, as masters and overseers, et inter verbera et contumelias, caus- 

 wayed the bogs, and pared woods ; paludibus et sylvis emuniendis, are Tacitus's 

 words. This was the unhappy state of our conquered ancestors the Britons. 

 He makes many remarks on the mixture of words in our provincial dialects ; 

 also on various Roman coins, &c. 



The Danes, he adds, certainly landed here in Cornwall, but by invitation 

 from the Britons, to assist them to overcome the Saxons, and probably never 

 had any settlement here. They, as friends, did not want fortifications for their 

 defence in Cornwall, since they went as far as Exeter with the Britons against 

 the Saxons, who could never penetrate Cornwall till the Qth century, when, by 

 one fatal battle, the Britons were obliged to become tributaries. 



Having, however, endeavoured to trace all the nations, which could be sup- 

 posed to have known Cornwall, Mr. W. leaves it to learned gentlemen to con- 

 jecture and discover what nation erected these tumuli. 



Extracts of two Letters from Sign. Camillo Paderni at Rome, to Mr. Allan 

 Ramsay, Painter, Covent- Garden, concerning some ancient Statues, Pictures, 

 and other Curiosities, found in a subterraneous Town, lately discovered near 

 Naples; dated Rome, Nov. 20, 1739, and Feb. 20, 1740. Translated by 

 Mr. Ramsay. N°458, p. 484. 



The king of Naples has lately made a discovery of a subterraneous town at 

 Portici,* a small village at the foot of Mount Vesuvius ; and our old friend 

 Sign. Gioseppe Couart, as sculptor to the king, has the care of the statues 

 found there, with orders to restore them, where they are damaged. He tells 

 me, they enter into this place by a pit, like a well, to the depth of 88 Neapo- 

 litan palms ; -|- and then dig their way, after the manner of our catacombs, 

 under the bituminous matter, thrown out of the mountain in the time of great 

 eruptions, and called by the people of the country, the lava, which is as hard 

 as a flint. And when they meet with any thing that seems valuable, they pick 

 it out, and leave the rest. They have already found the following things : 



* See these Transactions, N" 456i — Orig. f A Neapolitan palm contains near 9 inches. — Orig. 



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