M A B 
broad, being contrived for the reception of large ve/Tels, 
the other 26 feet in breadth, and intended for fmall. Af¬ 
ter this it extended itfelf (till farther to the main fea. 
England, relenting this new canal, indited, at the treaty- 
in the year 1717, that France fhould engage to demolifh 
the large paflage of the new flnice; tine fmall fluice to be 
continued of the fame depth, but with a reduction of its 
breadth to 16 feet ; and all the other works, together with 
the dams and fluices of the new canal, to be deftroyed 
and’ levelled, and none ere fled any more on that coaft 
within fix miles of Dunkirk and Mardick. It is three 
miles fouth-weft of Dunkirk. 
M AR'DICKERS, or Topasses, a breed of Dutch, 
Portuguefe, Indians, and other natives, incorporated with 
the Dutch, at Batavia, probably deriving .their name from 
the -fubject of the preceding article. As the Dutch adven¬ 
turers formed the leading party when Batavia was taken 
poflcfiion of, the natives attached the appellation to all 
perfons of European defcent or connection. 
MAR'DjE, a town of Egypt, fituated in a fpot abound¬ 
ing in palm-trees : -fix miles north-eaft of Cairo. 
MAR'DIN. See Merdin. 
M ARDOCHE ! US, a man’s name. Apocrypha. 
MARDO'NIUS, a Perfian general l'on-in-Iaw of Da¬ 
rius. See the article Greece, vol. viii. p. 853, 863, 4. 
MAR'DOX, a village in Hertfordfliire, two miles and 
a half from Ware. Near this place was dug up, in May 
1787, a curious torques, or collar, of maffy gold, of 
which we have given a reprefentatio.n on the preceding 
Plate, at fig. 10. It may not be fuperfluous juft to men¬ 
tion, that the torques (ufed both by the Gauls and Bri¬ 
tons) was worn round the neck ; and, being only worn 
by perfons of diftinCtion, was generally of gold. JBoadi- 
cea had a great one of that precious metal; and we read 
that Virdomarus wore one that was fattened behind with 
hooks, and which fell off when the conqueror cut off his 
head. The one here reprefented was molt probably 
forced open fufficiently to pafs over tbe neck, and then 
clofed, there being no appearance of any fattening; and, 
from the circumftance of its having been broken at a, 
where the foldering appeared very diftinCt, and with all 
the rudenefs of a very early period, it is not improbable 
that it might have been broken by this very means. This 
choice morfel of antiquity was found by one Ifaac Ben¬ 
nett, a labourer, upon a piece of land called the Brick- 
ground. He difcovered it about two feet below the fur- 
face, lying in a bed of ftrong clay ; and, through hafte in 
taking it up, broke it where marked b. The general thick- 
nefsof the torques was 5~i6ths ofan inch; at the extremities 
nearly one inch, and the ends fomewhat concave. The 
whole weight 13 oz. 15 dvvts. troy, and the quality of the 
p-old good. In a few- days after the difcovery of this 
ornament, the labourer brought it to a watch-maker in 
Ware ; who, defirous of knowing the tinenefs of the gold 
before purchafing it, lent a fpecimen to London for the 
purpofe of having it affayed. In the interim, perhaps 
from a fear of having it claimed by the lord of the manor, 
the poor fellow fold his prize to a Jew for aol. (fcarcely 
half its value in metal;) and, being inttantly coniigned to 
the crucible, every trace of this great curiofity, had been 
loft ; but, fortunately, the watch-maker had made a cor¬ 
rect drawing of it, which, with the above account, was 
transferred to the Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1800. The figure 
is exactly one-third of the fize of the original. 
La It year (1814), two fpecimens of this ancient and 
now extremely-rare ornament, were difcovered in foine 
reclaimed ground of the county of Meath. They are 
wreathed bars of pure gold, nearly five feet in length, 
bent into a circular form, flexible, but returning with 
elafticity into their natural curved (hape. Each bar con- 
fiffs of four flat bands, molt accurately united along one 
of their edges, and then clofely and fpirally twitted through¬ 
out the whole length. The extremities end in fmooth, 
folid, truncated cones, fuddenly reflected backwards, fo as 
to form two hooks, which can be brought mutually to 
Vol. XIV. No. 979. 
M A R StJ-ii 
cla.fp in one another. Perpendicularly from the bsfe of one 
of thefe cones proceeds a gold wire, a quarter ofan inch 
thick and eight inches long, terminating alfo in a folid 
conical knob. This laft appendage is different in every 
other torques hitherto found, and adds conliderable dif¬ 
ficulty to what already exilled in explaining the ufe of 
thofe expenfiveand fingularly-wrought ornaments. The 
weight of the larger is about 25 oz. of the (mailer ij oz. 
Three particulars contribute to render thefe ornaments 
objects of great intereft and admiration to the antiquarian : 
their invariably wreathed or twitted form ; the perfect pu¬ 
rity of the gold they are compofed of 5 and, laftly, there 
being no other ornament in the life of which fo many na¬ 
tions have confpired. The Egyptians, Perfians, Greeks, 
Romans, and a Ira oft every people of ancient Europe, have 
adorned themfelves with them in the early periods of their 
hiltory. The purpofes to which they were defigned feein 
merely ornamental; and they were, at firft, confined to 
the royal and facerdotal characters; in the latter ages they 
were extended to the military. Diodorus Siculus fays, 
that among the Egyptians the high prieft and judge wore 
them round their neck ; and thence was fufpended the 
breaft-plate, compofed of the molt precious gems, (analo¬ 
gous to the Jewifh Urim and Thummim,) which mani- 
fefted, on being infpeCted, the required augury or judg¬ 
ment. Many luppofe, that the Romans lulpended their 
bullae from forne fuch ornament; and, that it occalionally 
ferved to gird, or gracefully tuck up, their garments. 
Might not the longer kind of torques have been a phalera, 
or ornament for the breads of horfes ; the fibulse clafping 
near their withers, and the appendages ferving to hold the 
bridle occafionaily ? Scheffer bellows eight chapters on 
the torques in his very learned and ingenious treatife, De 
Antiquorum Torquibus Syntagma. He correctly maintains 
that three fpecies of ornaments were included under the 
generic name Torques, viz. iff, the torques proper, called 
alio catella cum fibulis, compofed of rings and books, 
linked together like a chain ; 2d, the circulus, formed of 
rods o( gold, laid together like cords, and twitted into a 
wreath ; laftly, the monile, a plain broad collar of gold, 
which was fitted clolely to the neck. 
The Greek and Roman writers make frequent mention 
of the torques; fo generally was the fmaller kind to be 
met with, that Polybius fays “ex cokortibus neminem cerneres 
maniacis five torquibus aureis armillijque non ornatum .” Livy 
relates, that, when Publius Cornelius triumphed over the 
Boii, he produced, among the trophies, 1470 torquefes ; 
and Auguftus is laid to have prefented fome auxiliaries 
with a torques weighing ioolb. as a reward for military 
fervices. Of Englilh writers, Lhvyd is the firtt who pub- 
liftied any account of the torques ; the one he defcribes 
was found in 1692, at Harlech, Merioneth ; its weight was 
80 oz. circumference nearly four feet. Dr. Leigh, in his 
defcription of Lancafhire, introduced a communication 
he had received from Mr. Smith, refpetting a ponderous 
torques of fine gold, found in 1700, at Pattingham, in Staf¬ 
ford, weighing 31b. 20Z. its circumference two feet. Mr. 
Smith employs leveral arguments to prove that it was of 
Phsenician and not Britifh manufacture. Another is de- 
fcribed by Woodward in his Collection of Curiofitics, pub- 
li(hed 1728. The mod recent account of this fpecimen 
of Britifh antiquity that has been publifhed, is a paper 
from C-J. Harford, efq. which may be feen in the four¬ 
teenth volume of the Archseologia, p. 64, “Concerning a 
Torques found at Quantoek Kills in 1794.” The weight 
barely 2lb. the length, when firaighteneu out, 2 feet. The 
metal of which it was compofed proved to be an alloy of 
copper, zinc, and tin. From two cells being difcovered 
on the fame fpot, its origin was doubtlefs Britifh, and not 
Roman. Thelrifh fpecimens are in the poffeflion of Mr. 
Weft, of Skinner-row, Dubliu, who obligingly fubmits 
them to the infpeCtion of the curious. They have been 
fhown to many artitts, none of whom can clearly decide 
in what manner they were manufactured. Some parts of 
the worktnanfhip could not have been executed by calt- 
4 U ing, 
