It is probable that Julius Frontinus, Prefect of the Legio 2da Augusta under Vespasian, who was detached to reduce the Silures, and from whom Julia Strata is said to have been denominated, passed the Severn three little miles below Oldbury, at Awst passage, perhaps termed from that legion, Trajectus Augustæ; as the Monk of Ravenna stiles Caerleon Isca Augusta, and the Britons at this day call the month of August Mîs Awst.

The late earl of Colerane presented to the Society a collection of inscriptions given to him by Ferdinand Passarini, who transcribed them from stones found at Spello, the antient Hispellum, and illustrated them with short notes. The first and most considerable of them on a pedestal six palms high and four square, with a hole in the top, formerly standing near the amphitheatre, but at this time on the right hand of the door of the town-house, had been before incorrectly published by Fabretti. A fuller and more critical commentary upon the same inscription was afterwards drawn up by the late Roger Gale, esq; which, being read to the Society, was entered in their minute book, whence it is now published, together with the notes by the antiquary of Spello:

In March, 1748, while some ploughmen were tilling lands upon Carne, the estate of Keedah Geoghagen, esq; about seven miles west of Mullingar, in the county of Westmeath, the plough, cutting through a sandy hillock which lay in the middle of the field, turned up a flag stone, about four feet long and three broad. Underneath they discovered a grave, or rather ossuary, to which this stone had served as a cover. The bottom, sides, and ends of the grave were composed each of a single slab. Within were deposited the bones of a human body, but of a size greatly above the common proportion of men.

This figure is engraved from an ancient seal in the possession of John Lawson, esq. purchased abroad by his brother the late Dr. Issac Lawson, who received from a French Antiquary an attempt to explain it, which I beg leave to produce in the following translation.

In a tour I made the last summer, over part of the north of England, I met with a remarkable Monument in Penrith Church-yard, in Cumberland, an elevation of which I now do myself the pleasure of laying before you, it having never been yet engraved, or, indeed, accurately described by any author. It is called the Giants Grave; and we have the following account of it in Bishop Gibson's edition of the Britannia (Vol. II. p. 1020) communicated to him (as I was informed) by Dr. Todd, of Carlisle.

That judicious Antiquary Mr. Horsely says, there is no one Roman station in Britain, where, he believes, so great a number of inscriptions have been discovered, as at Ellenborough, in Cumberland, and most of the original inscribed stones were yet preserved at Ellenborough hall (now called Nether-hall) the seat of Humphry Senhouse, esq; proprietor of the ground where the station was, and lineal descendant from John Senhouse, esq; praised by Mr. Camden, for his great civility to Sir Robert Cotton and himself when they visited these parts; also for his excellent skill in antiquities, and for the care he took in preserving such valuable literary curiosities.

Mr. Senhouse, digging in the Roman station, on his estate here, 1766, made some very curious discoveries, which he communicated to the late bishop of Carlisle, the same year.

It is an observation of Plato in Cratilo, Ος αν τα ονοματα ειδη, εισεται και τα ῶρατματα, “That the knowledge of the etymology “of words, leads to the knowledge of things.” In this view I propose to enquire into the origin of the expression of the Gule of August, which is to be met with in our statutes and elsewhere.

The remark which I had the honour to make to your Lordship, that the late Mr. Hearne, when he liked his author, would follow him implicitly, without giving himself any trouble to examine into the truth of his assertion, I am now going to verify, by producing, what I think, a very palpable instance.

In a paper lately communicated by your Lordship to the Society, from Mr. Pegge, that learned gentleman has animadverted very properly on the mistakes which Mr. Lisle, and after him Mr. Hearne, have been guilty of in translating a passage of king Alfred's preface to Gregory's pastoral; for they represent him as sending a copy of this book to each of his cathedral churches, together with certain mancusses or marks of gold the fairest of his coin. But the passage is thus rendered in Spelman's life of that king, “Ad unamquamque episcopi sedem in regno unum (sc. librum) “misi, superque singulos libros stylum qui est quinquaginta man-“cussae.”

When I lately made the tour of the south west parts of Ireland, I saw several of those buildings called usually Penitential Towers; not one of them had either belting or girting, nor the least sign of there having been any room in them till within ten feet of the top; that room had windows exactly facing the cardinal points; from thence, downward to the entrance, which is about fifteen feet above the surface of the ground, only a few slits were cut, just to give light to persons going up or down the stairs. These towers are all built of stone, and exceeding strong, the stones and mortar remarkably good; and in general they are intire to this day, though many churches near which they stood are either in ruins or totally destroyed.

Mr. Gordon, in his Itinerarium Septentrionale, p. 164, 165, and pl. LXII. has described and exhibited two round towers in Scotland; one at Abernethy, near Perth, the other at Brechin. The first being in the capital city of the Picts, of whom it is the only remain, has probably occasioned these monuments to be called Pictish. But as they are more numerous in Ireland, where we have no reason to think that people ever were, and all in that kingdom, as well as in Scotland, stand near parochial or cathedral churches, or churches of some consideration, it seems a more probable conjecture that they were erected in the earliest ages of Christianity, before the introduction of bells (which were first invented or made use of in the 6th or 7th century), from whence to call the people to church by the sound of trumpets or horns, such having been found near, several in Ireland. That at Ardmore has since been used as a belfrey; and Mr. Smith describes two channels cut in the door sill, to let the rope out, the ringer standing below the door, on the outside: in which manner the bells are still rung at Kelso in Scotland.

I know of nothing that affords the inquisitive mind of man so much pleasure, as the developing the original of antient and obscure customs; and if it happens, that former conjectures have miscarried, and men's opinions concerning them have been thereby misled, the satisfaction will then be double, because, at the same time that you establish a truth, you are routing and convicting an error.

The person who communicated this inscription to the Society a few years ago, informed us that it was found about Corbridge, in Northumberland, near the wall; where, as there were many Roman legions, particularly the Legio Secunda Augusta, and Vicesima Victrix ordered thither, the first from Isca Silurum, the other from Deva, or Chester, in order to keep the wall in repair, and defend it.

I have paid attention to the inscription which you submitted to me. I am sorry I cannot ascent to the explanations which other learned gentlemen have offered; neither am I well satisfied with my own. Inscriptions ingeneral, Greek ones particularly, are accompanied with great embarrassments, owing to their shortness, the ignorance of carvers, and the inaccuracy of transcribers and publishers. Few copies are fac similes. Though this inscription may be looked on as such, I apprehend nothing can make grammar or sense of it, but reading it in this manner:

Dr. Percy, in that part of the Essay on the Ancient English Minstrels, prefixed to his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, which concerns the state and condition of these people in the Saxon times, previous to the Norman conquest, has given us, in my opinion, a false, or at best, an ill-grounded idea of their rank and condition within that period. This imaginary notion, for such I take it to be, I propose to discuss in the shortest manner I can.

In the parish of Addington, near Town Malling, in Kent, about 500 paces to the north east of the church, in a rabbit warren, upon a little eminence, are the remains of several large stones, placed in an oval form. The inside of the area from east to west is 50 paces, the breadth in the middle from north to south 42 paces; at the east end is a flat stone, placed somewhat like that which they call the Altar at Stone Henge: Pl. vi. fig. 1. No. 1. This stone in the longest part is nine feet, in the broadest seven feet, and near two feet thick. Behind this, a little to the north, is another flat stone, No. 2. which seems to have stood upright, but is now, by some accident thrown down. This is fifteen feet long, seven feet wide, and two feet thick. The stone No. 3. next the altar on the north side, is seven feet high, seven feet wide, and two feet thick; the top of this hath been broken off.

The stone I have now the honour of laying before you for your inspection, was found some years ago, on ploughing some new enclosed pasture ground, near Spurnston, in the parish of St. Cuthbert, Carlisle, in a little hillock, or raised piece of ground, about four yards one way, and three the other, a little above a foot in height, consisting entirely of earth.

We have had two stone instruments lately discovered in this island, which are supposed, and I think with reason, to be British, and of a very remote antiquity. They were exhibited at the Society accompanied with learned dissertations by the respective members; the first by the late worthy president, the bishop of Carlisle, and the second by the Rev. Mr. Lort. Another of these instruments has lately fallen into my hands, on which occasion, as there seems to remain some doubt concerning the use of them amongst our ancestors, I shall take the liberty of giving my opinion upon that head, together with the grounds thereof.

The parish church of Sunning-Hill in Berkshire, is a specimen, both in its form and size, of the earlier parochial churches which were built in this kingdom, consisting only of a nave, and a small chancel, divided by a square belfry tower.