RICARDUS CORINENSIS. 195 



enters on tlie defence of his labours in an orthodox fashion which 

 seems about as much of an anachronism as his antiquarian zeal. He 

 yields, however, to the good Abbot's remonstrance, lest he should 

 indeed merit the title of an unprofitable servant, and hastens to bring 

 his work to a close. '' The following Itinerary," he says, " is derived 

 from fragments left by [a Koman G-eneral. Its order is in some in- 

 stances changed, according to Ptolemy and others : it is hoped for the 

 better ;" and so he proceeds to treat of the ninety-two cities of the 

 Britons. 



Ptolemy, Antoninus, and other available authorities have been freely 

 used and improved upon. Vespasiana, for example, is a province 

 affirmed to have been formed in the time of Agricola out of a region to 

 the north of the Antonine wall, conquered in the reign of Domitian ; 

 but of which Agricola's own son-in-law and biographer says nothing. 

 Among the Koman Stations in Richard's fourteenth Iter, '^ Ad Isca 

 per glebon lindum usque," is Alauna, mentioned by Ptolemy as a 

 town of the Damnii, in Warwickshire, with its modern name of Alches- 

 ter. But there is another Alchester, or Alcester, in Oxfordshire, also 

 celebrated as the scene of Roman discoveries. The former of those is 

 stated in Baxter's Glossary to have been called " EUencester," by 

 Mathew Paris; and so Richard — it might almost seem blundering over 

 Baxter's Glossarium Antiquitaium Bntannicarum of 1733, — makes 

 out of the wrong Alchester his .^lia Castra ; which properly belonged 

 to a wholly different Iter. Again, the establishment of another pro- 

 vince, that of Valentia, erected by Theodosius, about A.D. 3G9, is 

 ascribed to Constantino, who died thirty-two years before. In the 

 Ninth Iter, " Ad montem Grampium," all Scottish antiquaries were 

 charmed with the promised identification of the famous Mons Grampius 

 of Galgacus. But the location given to it would in no way harmonize 

 with their theories ; and, if modern critics are to be believed, monk 

 Richard anticipated a blunder of the printing press when he adopted 

 the popular name : for Tacitus, according to the most trustworthy 

 MSS., wrote Groupms, not Grampius. 



The first doubts cast on the authenticity of the '' De Situ Britannise" 

 of Richard of Cirencester, were set forth in a document issued by the 

 English Historical Society in 1838, as reasons which guided the Coun- 

 cil in omitting it from their republication of ancient materials of English 

 History. But the judgment was not a unanimous one; and research 

 was encouraged, in the hope that the discovery of an ancient manu- 



