Kippis's Biographia Britannica; or, the Lives of the moft eminent Per- fons who have flourished in Great Britain and Ireland, from the Darwin's Experiments, establishing a Criterion between mucaginous and purulent Matter, and an Account of the Retrogade Motions of the abforbent Veffels of Animal Bodies in fome Diseases Burke's Speech on prefenting to the House of Commons a Plan for the better Security of the Independence of Parliament, and the œcono- mical Reformation of the civil and other Establishments An Enquiry into, and Remarks upon the Conduct of Lieut. Gen. Burgoyne Remarks on Gen. Burgoyne's State of the Expedition from Canada THE LONDON REVIEW, FOR JANUARY 1780. A new Hiftory of Gloucestershire; comprising the Topography, Antiquities, Curiofities, Produce, Trade, and Manufactures of that County; the Foundation, Charters, and Endowments of Abbies, and other Religious Houses, the Foundation of the Bishoprick, &c. with a short Biographical Account of the Bifhops and Deans, the Names of the Patrons and Incumbents, and the ancient and prefent Value of all the Ecclefiaftical Benefices, Charters of Incorporation, and Civil Government of the feveral Boroughs; Defcriptions of the principal Seats; Defcent of the Manors; Genealogies of Families, with their Arms, Monumental Infcriptions, &c. In the Course of this Work is given the Hiftory of every Parish, Tithing, and Extra-Parochial Place in the County. Alfo the Ecclefiaftical, Civil, and Military History of the City of Gloucester, from its firft Foundation to the prefent Time. With a Copy of the Domefday-Book of Gloucestershire, now first printed in the Language, and after the Manner of the Original. Illustrated with a Map of the County, Views of Gentlemen's Seats, &c. & Folio. 31. 3s. Rudder, Gloucefter; Crowder, London. (Concluded from page 358.) IN treating of the town of Cirencester, Mr. Rudder obferves that "This is called an ancient city, and, according to the opi nion of fome perfons, of fo high antiquity as to have been built by the Britons before the Roman invafion. But that the Britons had then any cities or towns, in the fenfe we now understand those terms, is a notion very contrary to the teftimony of ancient authors of the greatest credit as to that matter. Cæfar indeed speaks of their towns, but he tells us what they were; "Oppidum autem * De Bello Gallico, 1. v. ć. 21. p. 129. B VOL. XI. Britanni Britanni vocant quum fylvas impeditas vallo atque fossa munierunt." The Britons call that a town, when they have furrounded and fenced about their thickest woods with a bank and a ditch. And Xiphilin fpeaking of the Maata, or inhabitants of the now most northern counties of England, afferts that they had neither walls nor cities; what paffed under the name of cities in Britain, being, according to Strabo, no other than groves. Thefe authorities will ftand their ground against the fond and loofe conje&ures of later writers; and upon, this ground I fhall venture to fay that Cirencefter was built by the Romans. The precife time of its founda tion I do not pretend to afcertain, but I apprehend it might be very foon after they had established themfelves in Britain. Three great roads meeting in this place, rendered it the most defirable fituation for a town that can be conceived, and no doubt that circumflance induced them to make choice of it. "Being the metropolis of the large province of the Dobuni, it was called Corinium Dobunorum, and became a very eminent ftation for the Roman armies. Antoninus places it at the distance of fourteen miles from Glevum or Gloucefter, in the thirteenth Iter from Ifca, now Caerleon in Monmouthshire, to Calleva, which Dr. Gale will have to be Henley, the Calleva Atrebatum, or chief city of the Attrebatii, whilft others give that honour to Wallingford in Berkshire. The wall and ditch which inclofed the old city, were more than two miles in circumference. Dr.. Stukeley, about the year 1723, traced them quite round, as Leland had done before him; but even in Leland's time there were but few veftiges of the wall remaining; ९ -Sic omnia fatis In pejus ruere, ac retro. fublapfa referri. VIRG "He tells us, that' a man may yet, walking on the bank of Churne, evidently perceyve the cumpace of foundation of towers fumtyme ftanding in the waul. And nere to the place wher the right goodly clothing mylle was fet up a late by the abbate, was Broken down the ruine of an old tower toward making of the mylle waulles, in the which place was found a quadrate ftone fawllen down afore, but broken in aliquot fruftra, wherein was a Romain infcription, of the which, one fcantly lettered that faw yt, told me, that he might perceyve PONT. MAX. Among divers numifmata fownd frequently there, Dioclefian's be moft faireft; but I cannot adfirme the infcription to have bene dedicate onto hymn. In the middes of the old town in a medow, was found a flore de teffellis verficoloribus, and by the town noftris temporibus was fownd a broken fhank bone of a horfe, the mouth closed with a pegge; the which taken owt, a fhepard found yt fillid nummis argentis. In the fouth-fouth-weft fice of the waul be lykelyhood hath bene a caftel, or fum other great building, the hilles and diches yet remayne. The place is now a waren for conys, and therin |