ENGLAND. 199 



nsanly, and expressive, than either the French or the Italian ; more 

 copious than the Spanish, and more eloquent than the German, or the 

 other northern tongues. It is, however, subject to some considera- 

 ble provincialities in its accent, there being much difference in the 

 pronunciation of the inhabitants of different counties : but this chief- 

 ly affects the lowest of the people ; for, as to well-educated and well- 

 bred persons, there is little difference in their pronunciation all over 

 the kingdom. People of fortune and education in England, of both 

 sexes, also commonly either speak or understand the French, and 

 many of them the Italian and Spanish ; but it has been observed that 

 foreign nations have great difficulty in understanding the few English 

 who talk Latin ; which is perhaps the reason why that language is 

 much disused in England, even by the learned professions. 



Antiquities. ...The antiquities of England are either British, Ro- 

 man, Saxon, Danish, or Anglo-Normannic ; but these, excepting the 

 Roman, throw no great light upon ancient history. The chief British 

 antiquities are those circles of stones, particularly that called Stone- 

 henge in Wiltshire, which have been attributed to the times of the 

 Druids. Stonehenge is, by Inigo Jones, Dr. Stukeley, and others, 

 described as a regular circular structure. The body of the work 

 consists of two circles and two ovals, which are thus composed : the 

 upright stones are placed at three feet and a half distance from each 

 other, and joined at the top by over-thwart stones, with tenons fitted 

 to the mortises in the uprights, for keeping them in their due posi- 

 tion. Some of these stones are extremely large, measuring two yards 

 in breadth, one in thickness, and above seven in height; others are 

 less in proportion. The uprights are wrought a little with a chisel, 

 and sometimes tapered ; but the transoms, or over-thwart stones, are 

 quite plain. The outside circle is nearly one hundred and eighty feet 

 in diameter, between which and the next circle there is a walk of 300 

 feet in circumference, which has a surprising and awful effect upon 

 the beholders. 



Monuments of the same kind as that of Stonehenge are to be 

 met with in Cumberland, Oxfordshire, Cornwall, Devonshire, and 

 many other parts of England, as well as in Scotland and the northern 

 isles. 



The Roman antiquities in England consist chiefly of altars and 

 monumental inscriptions, which instruct us as to the legionary sta- 

 tions of the Romans in Britain, and the names of some of their com- 

 manders. The Roman military ways give us the highest idea of the 

 civil as well as military policy of those conquerors. Their vestiges 

 are numerous : one is mentioned by Leland, as beginning at Dover, 

 and passing through Kent to London, from thence to St. Alban's, Dun- 

 stable, Stratford, Towcester, Littleburn, St. Gilbert's Hill near 

 Shrewsbury, then by Stratton, and so through the middle of Wales 

 to Cardigan. The great Via Militaris, called Hermen-street, passed 

 from London through Lincoln, where a branch of it, from Pontefract 

 to Doncaster, strikes out to the westward, passing through Tadcaster 

 to York, and from thence to Aldby, where it again joined Hermen- 

 street. There would, however, be no end of describing the vestiges 

 of the Roman roads in England, many of which serve as foundations 

 to our present highways. The great earl of Arundel, the celebrated 

 English antiquary, had formed a noble plan for describing those which 

 pass through Sussex and Surrey towards London ; but the civil war 

 breaking out put an end to the undertaking. The remains of many 



