1810.] Journal of a Winter Tour from Leeds to London: 
preferring the use of brick, which must 
Have been procured at-much trouble and 
expense, than a respectful regard for the 
melancholy, yet august, memorials of a 
remote and interesting period. . 
But if on the one hand, it would ap- 
pear that the relics have been treat. d 
with forbearance, it is most certain that 
on the other, théy have not been inves- 
tivated with due zeal and perseverance. 
Camden mentions ~an inscription found 
here, which was conveyed to* London, 
and placed in the garden of lord Bur-~ 
Jeivh. Aud since the time of Camden, 
the foundation of a large structure sup- 
' posed to have been a temple, was dis- 
covered near the middle -of the city, 
within a spacious square, formed partly 
by the intersection of the two principal 
streets. Romau coins are continually 
thrown to the surface, by the least cur- 
sory deviation of the plough, and found 
by the peasants, who term them (in allu- 
sion to a fancied giant) Onion’s pennies. 
But all these assurances of the soil 
within the walls containing a vast hoard 
of antiquarian treasures, are insufficient 
to stimulate the proprietor of the spot to 
an activity of research; and he is con- 
tented to let the ground (about 100 
acres) to a farmer, possessed of very 
little more feeling than the clod over 
which he drives his horses.* 
Recollecting the yreat value which the 
Romans placed on water, and how very 
scrupulous they were as to the purity _ 
and salubrious qualities of that used at 
their tables, I searched, with some in- 
terest, into the character of the rivulets 
on the confines of Vindonum, and found 
that the city had, in fact, been supplied 
by a spring of most inviting delicacy, 
which still pours its clear and bubbling 
torrent into the incumbered fosse. 
Respecting so vast (and to them in- 
comprehensible) a ruin, it may be sup- 
posed that the natives entertain fabulous 
and extravagant opinions. They, in- 
deed, suppose that the city was inhabi- 
ted during its prosperity by giants: 
and a person, who thought himself mere 
hutelligent than bis neighbours, informed 
me that these giaitts were of Hebrew 
origin, and that there was no history 
extant which mentioned the city, except 
* At the door of the farm-house, a horse- 
block is constructed of a portion of the 
shaft of a Roman column, on the top of 
which is placed the mutilated fragment of a 
Capital. Both of these were discovered near 
that central square which is supposed to have 
Been the site of a temple. 
Mowntuiy Mae. No, 202, 
17 
one written at the time of the giants in 
the Greek language. 
It is alsoa current opinion, that the 
city was impervious to all modes of 
assault, except the danger of conflagra- 
tion; and that brands, accordingly, were 
fastened to birds, who settled on the . 
city, and spread a flame throughout its 
buildings. A very credulous antiquary 
miglit almost believe that this latter 
circumstance has some connexion with 
traditionary fact, and that the strength 
of the out-works had really repelled every 
endeavor of the Saxons, until they cast 
torches over the walls, and added the 
horrors of conflagration to the fury of their 
external attack. 
The modern name of Vindonum (Sil- 
chester,) Camden supposes to signify 
‘<the great city.” Butit appears, from 
later critics, that the word Si/ or Sed, was 
understood to mean a hill, or elevation. 
It would, therefore, seem more likely 
that the compound term Silchester, was 
intended to express ** the high city,” or 
** the city on the hill;” a form of desig- 
nation supported, as we have seen, by 
the local circumstaices of antient Vine 
donum, 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
JOURNAL Of @ WINTER TOUR through 
several of the MIDLAND COUNTIES of 
ENGLAND, performed zn 1810. 
(Concluded from p. 546, vol. 29.) 
RODE the following morning, the 
weather being fine, although the 
ground was yet covered with snow, from 
Rippon to Hack-fal!, a distance of seven 
miles. The many minute and poetical 
descriptions which have been given of 
this celebrated pleasure-ground, would 
have induced me to omit mentioning 
it altogether, had J not happened to visit 
it under a novel and not uninteresting 
aspect. The feathered tribes had all fled 
to warmer climates; the little temples 
were shut up and deserted; there were 
no traces of pleasure-parties; and in 
many places the trees were stript of all 
their honors. But the water-falls were 
swelled by the snows; many firs covered 
the sides of the mountains; and the 
whole wore an air of solitude far from 
displeasing. The tops of the laurels, and 
other evergreens, that shaded the waiks, 
hore a thick outward coating of snow; 
but there was no appearance of winter 
underneath! and the clusters of red ber- 
ries, which bung from their branches all 
capped with crystal, recalled to my mind 
the iines of our bard: 
Cc «5 For 
