RICARDUS CORINENSIS. 199 



unlike tliat engraved by Stukeley, that tlie latter seems a mere crude 

 sketcli preparatory to tlie otter. 



But such discrepancies, if noticed, excited no suspicion. So greatly 

 was the work in demand, that, some eight years later another Eng- 

 lish edition was projected, and its proposed editor wrote to Copen- 

 hagen in order to procure an exact fac-simile of the original map. 

 But Bertram had died on the 8th of January, 1765, and nobody from 

 that day to this has been heard of who ever had a glimpse of either 

 map or manuscript. Richard's other, and undoubtedly genuine works 

 are traced without difficulty ; but the amplest catalogues of ancient 

 manuscripts contain no notice of that to which he owes all his modern 

 fame. 



But let us hear what one of the most diligent of modern Roman 

 investigators has to say on his behalf. " Richard of Cirencester's 

 De Situ Britanniee has been questioned," says Mr. Charles Roach 

 Smith, in his " Richborough ;" " and Bertram, who published it, has 

 been accused of having collected his materials from the best ancient 

 and modern authorities, and arranged the entire work. Hatcher, in 

 the preface to his translation, has ably combated the objections brought 

 against the originality of the Itinerary ; and in one of his letters to me, 

 dated Salisbury, November 23, 1846, he writes : ' Captain Jolliffe 

 kindly called my attention to the Gentleman'' s Magazine^ for the obser' 

 vations on Richard of Cirencester. After all, they are only fighting 

 with the wind. In my edition I gave up, long ago, his description of 

 Britain, and his chronology, except the account of the rank held by the 

 British towns, which was known only to our native antiquaries ; and 

 this in more instances than one. As for poor Bertram, the sneers at 

 him are as unmerited as they are ridiculous.' '' The old editor of 

 Richard adds, " I intended once, to have set this question at rest; but 

 that time is gone by;" and so the worthy antiquary died in the faith 

 of Bertram's honesty, and Richard's genuineness. 



But there is a confirmation, of a kind peculiarly suitable to the 

 character of Bertram's " Richard," which has escaped the notice of 

 his enthusiastic defenders. The very reverend Jeremiah Milles, D.D. 

 Dean of Exeter, and President of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 

 rendered the same pious services to " Thomas Rowlie, parish prieste 

 of St. John's, in the city of Bristol, A.D. 1465," which Dr. Stukeley 

 did to " Richard of Cirencester," the Benedictine monk of Westmin- 

 ster. Our incredulous age has come, for the most part, to believe that 



