200 ENGLAND. 



Roman camps are discernible all over England ; one particularly, very 

 little defaced, near Dorchester in Dorsetshire, where also is a Ro- 

 man amphitheatre. Their situations are generally so well chosen, and 

 their fortifications appear to have been so complete, that there is 

 some reason to believe that they were the constant habitations of the 

 Roman soldiers in England ; though it is certain, from the baths and 

 tessellated pavements, that have been found in different parts, that 

 their chief officers or magistrates lived in towns or villas. Roman 

 walls have likewise been found in England ; and, perhaps, upon the 

 borders of Wales, many remains of their fortifications and castles 

 are blended with those of a later date. The private cabinets of no- 

 blemen and gentlemen, as well as the public repositories, contain a 

 vast number of Roman arms, coins, fibulse, trinkets, and the like, 

 which have been found in England; but the most amazing monu- 

 ment of the Roman power in England is the. prsetenture or wall of 

 Severus, commonly called the Picts' wall, running through Northum- 

 berland and Cumberland ; beginning at Tinmouth, and ending at 

 Solway-Firth, being about eighty miles in length. The wall at first 

 consisted only of stakes and turf, with a ditch ; but Severus built it 

 with stone forts and turrets at proper distances, so that each might 

 have a speedy communication with the other ; and it was attended all 

 along by a deep ditch, or vallum, to the north, and a military high- 

 way to the south. 



The Saxon antiquities in England consist chiefly in ecclesiastical 

 edifices, and places of strength. At Winchester is shown the round 

 table of king Arthur, with the names of his knights. The antiquity 

 of this table has been disputed by Camden and later writers, perhaps 

 with reason ; but if it be not British, it certainly is Saxon. The 

 cathedral of Winchester served as the burying-place of several Saxon 

 kings, whose bones were collected together by bishop Fox, in six 

 large wooden chests. Many monuments of Saxon antiquity present 

 themselves all over the kingdom, though they are often not to be 

 discerned from the Normannic ; and the British Museum contains 

 several striking original specimens of their learning. Many Saxon 

 charters, signed by the king and his nobles, with a plain cross in- 

 stead of their names, are still to be met with. The writing is neat 

 and legible, and was always performed by a clergyman, who affixed 

 the name and quality of every donor, or witness, to his respective 

 cross. The Danish erections in England are hardly discernible from 

 the Saxon. The form of their camps is round, and they are generally 

 built upon eminences ; but their forts are square. 



All England is full of Anglo-Normannic monuments, which we 

 choose to call so, because, though the princes under whom they 

 were raised were of Norman original, yet the expence was defrayed 

 by Englishmen with English money. Yorkminster, and Westminster- 

 hall and abbey, are, perhaps, the finest specimens to be found in Eu- 

 rope of that Gothic manner which prevailed in building before the 

 recovery of the Greek and Roman architecture. All the cathedrals 

 and old churches in the kingdom are more or less in the same taste, 

 if we except St. Paul's. It 'is uncertain whether the artificial exca- 

 vations found in some parts of England are British, Saxon, or Nor- 

 man. That under the old castle of Ryegate in Surrey is very remark- 

 able, and seems to have been designed for secreting the cattle and 

 effects of the natives, in times of war and invasion. It contains an 

 •blong square hall, round which runs a bench, cut out of the same- 



