108 NOTES ON LATIN INSCRIPTIONS 



NOTES ON LATIN INSCRIPTIONS FOUND IN BRITAIN. 



Paet XIII. 



BY THE EBV. JOHN McCAUL, LL.D,, 



PRESIDENT OF tTNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TORONTO, ETC. 



76. " The Roman Wall, a description of the mural barrier of the 

 North of England, by the Rev. J. Collingwood Bruce, LL.D., F.S.A., 

 * 3rd Ed. 1867," is a very handsome quarto volume, profusely illus- 

 trated by excellent lithographs and woodcuts. In it " the author has 

 endeavoured to bring the work up to the present state of our knowledge 

 upon the subject ; " so that '' this edition appears before the public as 

 almost a new work." The Inscriptions that have been found along the 

 line or in the neighbourhood of the Wall " are laid before the reader 

 in an extensive series of engravings." * * * " In a few instances 

 the letter-press and the woodcut illustrations slightly differ. Where an 

 inscription is nearly obliterated, independent on-lookers will come to 

 f different conclusions as to particular characters. The writer has 

 expressed in type such letters as he himself saw, leaving the engraving 

 to represent the views of the skilful and conscientious artist, Mr. 

 Mossman, who prepared most of the original sketches." Not only are 

 the illustrations considerably improved, but, also a large addition has 

 been made to the number of the inscriptions that were figured in the 

 second edition. Many of these, indeed, had previously appeared in the 

 Archseologia uEliana, Horsley's Britannia Romana, &c., but they are 

 here, generally, more distinctly or correctly given in superior representa- 

 tions, whilst others have never before been published. Of the render- 

 ings of inscriptions that have appeared in the second edition, or in the 



* Published by subscription, at three guineas, by Andrew Reid, Newcastle- 

 on-Tyne. The price will probably place the edition beyond the reach of many, 

 but the book is well worthy of a place in every public library. 



f This difference is often very perplexing to those investigators who, like 

 myself, have seen only copies. Sometimes readings are given on the authority 

 of personal inspection — and unquestionably in good faith — of which it may be 

 said, in the words of Kirchhoff, relative to a Greek Epigraphist — " Apparei — non- 

 nulla quidem vidisse in lapide, quce fugere testes ceteros, vidisse autem multa qua 

 scrij>fh extare nemo sanus sibi persuadeat." 



