INTRODUCTION. xxt 



There is at Thunodrunum a triumphal arch, which Dr 

 Shaw thinks is more remarkable for its fize than for its 

 tafte or execution ; but the fize is not extraordinary ; on the 

 other hand, both tafte and execution are admirable. It is, 

 with all its parts, in the King's collection, and, taking the 

 whole together, is one of the moil beautiful landscapes in 

 black and white now exifting. The diftance, as well as the 

 fore- ground, are both from nature, and exceedingly well 

 calculated for fuch reprefentation. 



Before Dr Shaw's travels firfl acquired the celebrity they 

 have maintained ever fince, there was a circumilance that 

 very nearly ruined their credit. He had ventured to fay in 

 converfation, that thefe Welled Sidi Boogannim were eaters 

 of lions, and this was confidered at Oxford, the univerfity 

 where he had ftudied, as a traveller's licenfe on the part of 

 the Doctor. They took it as a fubverfion of the natural or- 

 der of things, that a man ihould eat a lion, when it had 

 long paned as almofl the peculiar province of the lion to 

 eat man. The Doctor flinched under the fagacity and fe- 

 verity of this criticifm ; he could not deny that the Welled 

 Sidi Boogannim did eat lions, as he had repeatedly faid ; 

 but he had not yet publifhed his travels, and therefore left 

 it out of his narrative, and only hinted at it after in his ap- 

 pendix. 



With all fubmiffion to that learned univerfity, I will not 

 difpute the lion's tide to eating men ; but, fince it is not 

 founded upon patent, no confideration will make me ftifle 

 the merit of Welled Sidi Boogannim, who-have turned the 

 chace upon the enemy. It is an historical fact ; and I will 

 not Suffer the public to be milled by a mifreprefentation 



Vol. I. d of 



