1804. ] 
the Oifter-hills; but neither thefe nor 
Kingfbury~could we vifit.. But return- 
ing to the mill in the valley between the 
abbey and the old town, we crofled the 
fields to the remains of Sopewell Nunnery. 
Our converlation chiefly turned upon the 
amazing firength which ancient Verulam 
poficffed, and on the heroic valour of the 
Britith Queen, Boadicea, who had cou. 
%aze to attack, and the fortune to conquer, 
fuch a (rong town, when defended even 
by Roman veterans. The converfation, 
on a {pot fo interehing, helped us on our 
road to Sopewell, This nunnesy was 
founded about 1140, by Geoffrey, abbot 
of St. Albans. Its ruins are not very 
coniiderable, and in themfelves by no 
means piéturefque, having litile bat the 
fkeletons of a few old windows, In the 
chapel of this houfe Henry the eighth is 
faid to have been married to Anne Buleyn ; 
and it was the (pot afterwards inhabited 
by Nell Gwyn. ‘The wall which once 
furrounded the adjoining grounds, and 
reaches to the London soad, was erected 
by Sir Richard Lee, to whom the fite of 
the monaflery had been granted by Henry 
the eighth. The ruins are of brick and 
flint. From Sopewell we returned to 
dinner at St. Albans, and afterwards took 
another walk to Verulam. 
Verulatn is believed by moft writers to 
have been the town of Caffivellaun attack- 
ed by Cefar. The town which Cxfar 
took was fortified with fens and woods ; 
and the fenny condition of St. Albans, tll 
950, when the mire in the meadows, al- 
ready mentioned, was dried up by Abbot 
Zé l\fric, is well known. The Britifla coin 
mentioned by Camden, with an horfe and 
TASCIA, or tax, on one fide, and VER upon 
the other, is not improbably referrcd here- 
to; and it receives countenance from a 
unique coin of the fame period lately in 
the poflcfion of Mr. Clayton Cracherode, 
which had, on one fide, the figure of a 
bell, and on the other, at full length, 
.E.R.L.A.M.1.0. 
London, at the time we are {peaking of, 
was not fo confiderable as Verulam, 
though both towns are fpoken of as re- 
markable places in the reign of Nero. 
And Tacitus, who gives an account of 
the revolting Britons under Boadicea, in 
the year 61, particularly mentions the 
flaughter of no lefs than 70,000 at Lon- 
don and Verulamium. Verulam is called 
a municipium ; and of London he fays, that 
jt was tamous for trade and navigation, 
though not honoured with the name of a 
Speftral Appearances: 
119 
colony. By this hint in Tacitus, Verulam 
appears to have been the more ancient of 
the two, and, in Cefar’s time, was, very 
probably, the moft flourifhing place. Cam- 
den thought that the name of Caffii, a 
body of Caffivellaun’s fubjeéts, was still 
retained in Cai/ho hundred, in which Ve~- 
rulam is fituated. Ptolemy, the geogra- 
pher, calls it Urolanium. 
The only cbjeét which remained to 
attract our notice on the road to town 
was the pillar near Gladefinere heath, by 
Hadley, It was erected by Sir Jeremy 
Sambrooke, in 1740; and commemuratcs 
the fecond battle which was fought in this 
neighbour: hood between the Yorkitts and 
Lancaltrians, i 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magaxine. 
SIR, 
WAS much entertained with Nicho- 
lai’'s Memoir on the Appearance of 
Spcétres, which is publifhed in the 23d 
number of Mr. Nicholfor’s Journal; and 
as many people are pleafed with the mar- 
vellous, I lent it to tome of my friends. 
A lady, on returning the book, informed 
me that the faw nothing extraordinary in 
Nicholai’s relation, tnat fhe herfelf had 
feen phantoms of this kind, fome of which 
fhe ftill remembered. At one time, when 
confined by ijl health, fhe faw three old 
women dancing before her, in fuch a 
manner as caufed her to laugh very hear- 
tily, and to afk her attendants if they did 
not fee the fame extraordinary {peétacle, 
Thefe phantoms were fycceeded by fef- 
toons of the moft beautiful fl wers, which 
appeared to be cut ovt of {now-white 
ivory, in the moft exquifite manner: but 
thele fpectres the knew at the time to be 
nothing’ more than the effects either of 
difeafe or of a camphorated medicine which 
fhe had taken. A phyfician, who had (een 
Nicholai’s Memoir on Spectres, told me 
very gravely, that he faw nothing in if 
that was new to him; for it is a matter 
commonly known to gentiemen in the 
practice of medicine, that fick people fre» 
quently fee phantoms of this defcription. 
Hence it appears, that the {peétres occa- 
fioned by difeafe are nothing more than 
waking dreams, and have no more con- 
nceétion with the known laws of optics, 
than the phantoms which we ice in a proe 
found Meep. 
T am, Sir, 
Your's, &e. 
Z. We 
21ff Dec. 120% 
uy 5 ae : POPU- 
