THE CANADIAN JOURNAL. 
NEW SERIES. 
No. XXXV.—SEPTEMBER, 1861. 
NOTES ON LATIN INSCRIPTIONS FOUND IN BRITAIN. 
PART VIII. 
BY THE REV. JOHN M° CAUL, LL.D., 
PRESIDENT OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TORONTO. 
49. Restorations of imperfect inscriptions, although subjects of 
agreeable speculation, are generally very hazardous, excepting those 
cases in which the extant words or letters are parts of formule, and 
then a perfectly reliable reading may be supplied from known exam- 
ples. It is very different, however, when the attempt is made to 
complete a fragment by supplying facts supposed to have been stated 
in the missing or mutilated portions. In such cases the restoration, 
although sometimes ingenious, is scarcely ever more than plausible. 
A remarkable example is presented by Governor Pownall’s well known 
restoration of the imperfect inscription on stones found in Bath, and 
believed to have formed part of the frieze of the *temple of Minerva 
* The only ancient authority for this temple is the following passage in Solinas :—“ fontes 
ealidi opiparo exculti apparatu ad usus mortalium: quibus fontibus presul est Minervee 
numen, in cujus ede perpetui ignes nunquam canescunt in favillas, sed ubi iguis tabuit, 
vertit in globos saxeos.” The identity of the second syllable of presul with the Celtic 
name of the goddess suggests that Solinus may have referred to it when he used the word, 
but the suspicion is groundless, as he says, in another place, of Angerona:—diva presul 
silentii, Mr. Whitaker seems to have attached great importance to this passage in Solinus, 
and has built up some theories on it. In his estimate of its value I cannot concur: 
the facts and the Latiuity of Solinus seem to be equally worthless. I am not disposed, 
however, to question the existence of a temple of Minerva in Bath, as it is otherwise 
probable. 
Vot. VI. 25 
