[ 69 ° 3 
LXXXVII. An Explication of all the In - 
fcriptions in the Palmyrene Language and 
CharaBer hitherto publifU d. In five Let- 
ters from the Reverend Mr . John Swinton, 
M. A. of Chrift-Church, Oxford, and 
F. R. S. to the Reverend Thomas Birch, 
D. D. Secret . R. S. 
LETTER I. 
SIR, Chrift-Church, Oxford, May 30, 1754, 
Read June 20, £^Everal copies of the Ruins of Pal- 
I754 ' ?nyra reached Oxford, towards the 
clofe of December 1753 > one which was pur- 
chafed by the Reverend Mr. Godwyn, Fellow of Bal- 
liol College, a gentleman of great learning, and an 
eminent tutor of that houfe. At his invitation, I 
looked over with him the finished plates, exhibiting 
to our view thofe noble remains of antiquity, which 
gave both of us infinite pleafure and delight > though 
we then only call our eyes upon the infcriptions, and 
particularly thofe that are the fubjedt of this letter, 
in a curfory manner. 
In the beginning of January 1754, Mr. Godwyn 
informed me, that he had difcovered feveral letters 
of the Palmyrene alphabet, by the help of the Greek 
infcriptions correfponding with fome of thofe drawn 
in the Palmyrene character j and that he could even 
decipher a few words in feveral of the latter infcrip- 
tions. At the fame time, he defired me to apply my- 
(elf to the interpretation of thofe infcriptions, and the 
difcovery 
