Introduction, giving an account of the antique cup, the subject of this paper.

§ 1. Of the nature and ceremony of the convivial libations.

§ 2. Of the Deities to whom these libations were made at the convivial table, the Trina Numina. An inquiry who these were.

The causes of the confusion in this point even amongst the early Roman antiquaries.

Inquiry into the particular idea annexed by the ancients to the word Numen, and of the word Genius.

Close of this section of the Trina Numina. That Mercury, according to the original ancient idea of this God and his Numen, always was one.

And the two Lares, under the same original idea, the other two of these Trina Numina.

The cup described: and by the ideas above suggested and premised.

An attempt to show that this cup was one of those three, which used to be set on the table after the eatables were removed, and used in this ceremony of the Convivial Libation.

The following account of some late discovered antiquities I take the liberty of laying before you, as the properest person to communicate it to the honourable Society of which you are president, should you think it of consequence sufficient to entitle it to their notice. The drawing that accompanies it you will examine with an eye of candour, when I inform you it is the produce of untaught abilities.

Knowing your desire not only for finding out, but preserving every antiquity in South Wales (instance that beautiful tessellated pavement at Caerwent), I beg leave to inform you of a discovery made near this place.

Besides the common mistake of the annalists and historians in regard to this passage in Juvenal,

Regem aliquem capies, aut de temone Britanno

Excidet Arviragus—Juvenal IV. 126.

By taking Arviragus for the proper name of a person, and not of an officer; the words of the satyrist are memorable in another respect, as serving to inform us, by the word temone, of a singular mode of fighting amongst the Britons; as if by leaving his carriage, and running upon the pole, the combatant from thence, or from the yoke, engaged the enemy, as long as he thought prudent and convenient, and then retreated back into the body of the vehicle.

On reading over the old French poem of the Roman de la Rose I was struck with various particulars, that appeared to ascertain some of your sentiments. The regal or portable organ is exactly described.

“Orgues avoit bien maniables

“A une maine portables,

“Et chante haulte a plaine bouche

“Mottez à contre et a teneure.” V. 21955.

In compliance with your request to communicate to you what I can find concerning the old sepulchres seen in the southern parts of Russia and in Siberia, I send you some reasons which render it probable that they are all the work of one and the same nation, however opposite a judgment those may pass who have bestowed on them only a cursory attention. Every thing that relates to the customs of the various societies mankind have formed is a proper subject of research to the inquisitive mind. The repositories of the dead have in all ages been objects of regard; at first as honourable testimonies of human sentiment and in aftertimes as a ground of investication into the manners and opinions of men.

Having, in a tour which I made in Normandy in the summer of 1783, had an opportunity of viewing the remains of the ancient castle of Rouen, called Le Château du Vieux Palais, and of obtaining a drawing of it as it now stands, together with a ground plan, I beg leave to present them to you, and at the same time take the liberty of adding a few remarks by way of illustration; submitting to your judgement whether they deserve the attention of the learned Society, over which you preside.

The Society having so often indulged me in laying before them what hath occurred in relation to antiquities, emboldens me (through your friendly introduction) to give some account of a large extent of pits, which I conceive to have been excavated in most remote ages, before the inhabitants of this island were the least civilized.

Hoke, or Hock-day, Hoke, or Hock-tyde, was formerly a season of much festivity in England, but from what cause is still uncertain. In the following pages it is proposed to examine into its origin, and should the result of my enquiry be judged unsatisfactory, I shall not be surprized, the question being left doubtful by Mr. Lambard and Dr. Plott, Dr. Watts and Bishop Kennett, Sir Henry Spelman, and Mr. Bryant. My motive, for attempting this investigation is, that I think I see the subject in one point of view in which it does not appear to have been considered by these intelligent and learned writers.

In the course of my researches after the nature, character, and manners of those ancient northern Pirates the Vics or gWicks, called by the British fVicts, by the Saxon Pheachs and gWights, by the Romans Victi and Victones, and by those of the latter Empire Picti; I was inquisitive to trace their metaphysical notions about the state and the supposed beings, of an existence in a metaphysical world, derobed of gross matter.

All the Irish seanaches or antiquaries have seriously asserted that their Pagan ancestors had the use of an alphabetical character, called Ogham, that was used, not as a cipher, but as an uniform alphabet, in which all matters relating to the state, and to religion, were recorded. Hence, in late ages, this character was improperly named the Druidical Oghamy, for Druidism was not the established religion of the Pagan Irish, as I shall explain to this Society at another time.

In different parts of the island of Salsette, and in the neighbourhood of that of Bombay, we meet with some most stupendous monuments of human labour and ingenuity; which would be matter of admiration in any part of the world, but must astonish us still more, when we find them in a country remarkable for the indolence of its present inhabitants. These are a set of enormous excavations, all of which are made in solid rocks, and decorated with a variety of figures, most curiously cut from the same substance with the caverns themselves.

To form complete systems of early colonizations, of antient history, learning, and manners, from the few remaining vestigia of former times, to decorate them with the ornaments of language and erudition, to strain every nerve to give them consistence and credibility, hath engaged the attention and labour of the most eminent writers of this and the last century. Witness the works of Rudbeck, Bochart, Pezron, Bryant, Gebelin, and many more. To the sober eye of reason the talk must appear discouraging, and its accomplishment extremely difficult: no man, how learned or ingenious soever, can be depended on for supplying the great deficiency of matter which is necessary to fill up the chasms of antiquity. The attempt seems as arduous, and almost as absurd, as to endeavour to erect another Herculaneum with its prefect ruins and the lava that destroyed it.

The journalist, after stating the motives which induced him to visit the island of Elephanta, the preparations made for his excursion, the persons who accompanied him, and the precautions taken for their safety against the incursion of Caun Ainge Angery who often plundered the island, mentions his landing on the S. E. side thereof. The island takes its name from an elephant in stone. (plate XXI. fig. 1.) with another on its back which stands on a small hill and serves as a sea mark, but no tradition remains of the persons who formed or caused the rock to be formed into this shape. As they advanced towards the pagoda through a smooth narrow pass cut put of the rock, they observed another hewn figure which was called Alexander's horse (plate XXI. fig. 2.) though why so named they could not learn.

Salset is an island lying in the great Indian ocean, north of Goa, and separated from Bombay by a narrow channel. It is seventy miles in compass, twenty in length, and fifteen in breadth. The soil is fruitful, and the island intirely under the dominion of the Portuguese. It has in it several villages inhabited by Heathens, Moors and Christians. Within the island, and four miles from any house, and surrounded by thick woods abounding with lions, tigers, monkeys, and other wild and venomous animals, stand four very high hills contiguous to each other, and looking like one intire rock by the surface, which bears strong marks of calcination. On the sides of these hills are many pagodas, caverns, apartments, and other excavations cut out of the rock, called at this day the city of Canorin, from a village of that name adjoining.

I have the honour to lay before the Society the transcript of a record, which, in my opinion, contains some valuable, historical facts. It is divided into three parts. The first part contains the return of a subsidy granted by parliament to king Edward III. in the fifty-first year of his reign A. D. 1377, of four pence to be paid by every lay person in the kingdom, as well male as female, of the age of fourteen years and upwards; real mendicants only excepted. The grant of this subsidy may be seen in that valuable repository of historical information the Rolls of Parliament, vol. II. p. 364. This return states the sums of money which had been levied by the collectors of this tax in the different counties, cities, and principal towns in England, separately; and the number of persons at that time being in each county, city and town, subject to the payment thereof.

A knowledge of the radical letters of any language, is the surest means of obtaining information respecting the sounds of which such language was composed, and of the state of it when these radical letters only were used. This will best enable us to recover those which have been for many ages so intirely neglected as to be in a manner effaced. The utility which results from a distinction of the radical letters of such languages from their derivatives is too obvious to need any illustration; the separation of the one from the other, will assist in forming a right judgment of the age and authenticity of coins, inscriptions, and other ancient documents, and will be of the greatest use in distinguishing such as are genuine from those which are spurious.

The matrix of this oval seal was in the possession of the late Mrs. Mary Burnell of Winkburne, in the county of Nottingham, and is now the property of my kinsman Peter Pegge, Esq. lord of that manor. It is an episcopal seal, and the drawing by Hayman Rooke, Esq. with which I here present you, exhibits a bishop standing in a tabernacle with a heart in his right hand, and a cross of this form in his left. The coat underneath the figure is, a fesse charged with three pellets between three tons, and the inscription runs, s. DÕINI. TOME. EPISC. PHILADELPHIENCIS.

I have the honour of sending you for the inspection of the Society a model of the remains of the amphitheatre of Flavius Vespasian at Rome, which from the minuteness and accuracy with which it is executed, I flatter myself will deserve their attention. The purposes to which a Roman amphitheatre was appropriated are so generally known, and particularly to the Society of Antiquaries, that I shall here beg leave only to offer a few remarks, which occurred to me on the spot, and which you will do me the honour of communicating to the Society.

I have as yet no doubt but the old iron blade which you was to kind as to shew to me this morning is that of a Roman sword, and most probably a legionary gladius; for although its length is full nineteen inches, from where the cross piece of the Handle was fixed on it to the point, which is rather longer than Roman gladii appear to have been, from the greater part of bassi rilievi, yet that is by no means any conclusive proof against its being genuine, because it is highly probable that the blades of these swords were at different times made with a little variation in the length, and also in the breadth and shape; as indeed is evident from the figures of many Roman swords on antient sculptures &c. But the arguments which chiefly induce me to conclude that yours is Roman, although perhaps of the lower empire, are, 1st, that it is of iron, of which when hardened, or what is now called steel, I believe the Roman blades were generally, if not constantly made.