190 RICARDUS CORINENSIS. 



eager reception, — without one dissentient voice, — of a professed manu- 

 script of the fourteenth century, unheard of before; unseen, so far as 

 now appears, by anybody; and ascribed to a monk whose chronicle and 

 theological writings were well known ; but whose name had never 

 before been heard of in connection with so remarkable a work : is 

 highly interesting as an illustration of the crude ideas as to literary or 

 historical evidence which then prevailed. 



As to Dr. Stukeley, his delight at the discovery of the treasure he 

 had been privileged to introduce to the learned world was unbounded. 

 Apologising for the short-comings of his earlier labours and researches 

 in the field of Britanno-Roman antiquities, he thus introduces the 

 new-found luminary by whose beams all doubt and obscurities are to 

 be dissipated : ^' the more readily, therefore, I can excuse myself, in 

 regard to imperfections in that work [the Itinerarium Curiosum], as I 

 had not sight of our author's treatise, Richard of Cirencester, at that 

 time absolutely unknown. Since, then, I have had the good fortune 

 to save this most invaluable work of his, I could not refrain from con- 

 tributing somewhat toward giving an account of it and of its author:" 

 and so — after once more felicitating himself and all who share in his 

 literary and antiquarian sympathies, on having reason to congratulate 

 themselves " that the present work of Richard is happily rescued from 

 oblivion, and most likely from destruction ; " — he proceeds to narrate 

 the mode by which his knowledge of it was acquired. 



The " iJe Situ Bntannise" was recognised from the first as a com- 

 pilation ; was indeed professedly set forth by its author as such. 

 " Compiled out of old manuscripts in Westminster Library, now lost/' 

 says Dr. Stukeley; "the old monk had before him a Roman itinerary 

 similar to that of Antoninus," says Mr. Thomas Wright. Of ancient 

 authors he, of course, makes use. Diodorus, Pliny, Ceesar, Tacitus, &c., 

 are quoted : and with such minute accordance with certain texts — as 

 we shall find, — as to furnish very amusing anachronisms for a monk of 

 the fourteenth century. Solinus, the Latiu geographer, is followed 

 verhatim in the opening sentence, as elsewhere, without reference or 

 acknowledgement. That, however, an old monk might perhaps be 

 allowed to do without challenge. But when he betrays a like famili- 

 arity with Camden; reproduces hints of Horsley; and even suggests a 

 suspicion whether he may not have been a borrower from Stukeley 

 himself: any faith in the authenticity of an ancient manuscript of the 

 De Situ Britanniae, becomes impossible. 



