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courfes, and which will be found of particular ufe from the variety of manner in the different writers. We confefs, however, that, from the fituation of the writers, we were led to expect more efforts, in the way of impaffioned eloquence, than we have found. This, in part, is no doubt owing to the rareness of talents for fo high a walk of compofition, and in part, perhaps, to the example which the leading writers of our church have fet, in whofe writings little of this quality is to be found; and that little, although from those evidently capable of attaining fuccefs, feems rather the effect of accident than of intention. It is faid of the French tragedians that they are afraid of being too tragical; and it is equally true of the English divines that they feem afraid of being eloquent. A prejudice against specimens of this kind of writing still appears to prevail in this country *.

We wished to find more of the difcourfes in this volume turning upon living manners and characteristic preaching. Thefe are the chief defiderata in preaching. We are fenfible of the difficulties to be encountered here; but it fhould be remembered that in this field there is more fame to be acquired than in any other; and perhaps the scarcity of labourers in it may be owing more to inattention and want of early direction to the importance of the object, than to want of abilities for the task. In this view, it is with pleasure we recommend to the perufal of all who have lately entered, or are about to enter into holy orders, the eleventh fermon of the volume before us, upon the end of preaching, and the way to attain it. The importance and fuperior excellence of characteriftic preaching are there fet forth; and we join in fentiment with the author respecting the utility of recurring frequently to particular views and perfonal delineations; and in fhort to making what he properly calls characteristic preaching a chief endeavour. Yet we are of opinion that he has not done full justice to the views he has taken up; at least that his illuftrations are not immediately obvious; for he requires a fecond and a third reading

*It was lately afked in a company of divines, at one of our univerfities, in what manner the bishop had preached the charity fermon? It was anfwered, that his difcourfe appeared fenfible, but conveyed in a manner that was flat and unengaging. What! replied the querift with fome marks of contempt, would you have had a bishop attempt to make you cry? As if it were univerfally confeffed that all aid from the paffions to bring us to a fenfe of our duty ought to be carefully rejected.

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before we can follow him. Too little indulgence alfo is fhewn to other modes of public teaching. To what fize must we reduce the great mafs of modern divinity, if we retain no more than falls within the author's plan? We nevertheless acquiefce in his obfervations upon a pulpit ftyle.

The peculiar idioms and phrases of our northern neighbours, are gradually disappearing. Of these we have found here lefs than we expected; and while, in the graver fubjects of philofophy, hiftory, and fermons, they are setting a diftinguished example of parts and judgment, they feem no lefs ready to excel in the purity of their diction. But in the lighter walk's of compofition it is found they are not fo happy. It has long been remarked that the Scotch are deficient in works of humour. To account for this, natural and local caufes have been affigned. But if we may judge from our intercourse with many individuals of that country, the Scotch are not deficient in humour; and perhaps their difficulties in the language will alone account for their having produced few works of humour, which, beyond any other, require facility of expreffion, and an intimacy with the language employed. Their modes of expreffion in converfation, as well as their accent, are ftill different from the converfation of their English neighbours.

ART. III. Archeologia; or, Mifcellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity. Published by the Society of Antiquaries of London. Vol. VIII. 4to. Il. Is. White. London, 1787.

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• XIV. Account of the Discoveries in digging a Sewer in Lombard-Street and Birchin-Lane, 1786. In a Letter to Mr. • Gough.'

N the interval between thofe houses, in Lombard-Street, which are numbered from 82 to 85; at the depth of about nine feet from the furface, a pavement was found compofed of fmall rough ftones; the paving of a back-court, we suppose. And about three feet below this, that is, about twelve feet from the furface, another pavement was difcovered of the kind ufually fupposed to be Roman, and compofed of fmall irregular • bricks, most of them red, but fome few black, and fome white;" a teffellated pavement, and the flooring of fome Roman parlour, that had been afterwards buried, covered with three feet of earth, and then paved as a back-court. Though they were of irre'gular form, they did not differ much in fize; being in length 2ÑG. REV. VOL. XV. JAN. 1789. B

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about two inches, and in breadth about one inch and an half. They were roughly cemented with a yellowish mortar, and were laid in a thick bed of coarse mortar and stones.' This confirms them to have been a teffellated pavement. This pavement from west to eaft-extended about twenty feet.' But near this pavement eastward, on the north fide, parallel with the fide of the fewer, stood a wall compofed of the smallerfized Roman brick, about ten feet high and eighteen feet long; in which were two flues near each other, one femicircular, the other rectangular and oblong: the top of this wall was about ten feet below the furface of the street.'. This was another houfe built in the Roman fashion. The flues, as they were called, appear in p. 127 to have been perpendicular, and were therefore very like our prefent chimnies; being air-holes to the fhallow room under the flooring, in which a fire was lighted for warming the room above. And from the depth of the wall below, we may be fure there was a cellar under both.

Near the poft-office, on the north fide of the fewer, about fourteen feet under the furface, was found a wall of the ufual Roman ftructure. From the top for about two feet down, was rough work, and then regular layers of flat bricks at fmaller intervals;' the common wall of the house, and the fides of the hypocauft below. Near this wall, but not more than nine feet below the furface, was a pavement of flat tiles.' This was at the fame depth as the pavement of the back-court ̈before, and ferved for the flooring of fome outhouse.

Thefe concur to fhew the rife, which has been given to the ground of London, as well as of Rome, and which has taken off confiderably from the height of the hills of both. Then follows a lift of articles found, and five plates of the articles accompany it. And next comes an account of the coins found. ›

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·2XV. Account of the Discoveries before mentioned,-from Mr. John Jackfon, of Clement's-Lane.'

This confirms the preceding account. The teffellated pavements above are thus defcribed. This pavement, as well as moft of the reft, was laid on three diftinct beds of mortar; the loweft very coarfe, about three inches thick at a medium, and mixed with large pebbles; over this is fine mortar, very hard, and of a reddith colour, being mixed with powdered brick. This is about one inch thick, and on it the bricks are laid in

a very fine white cement.' It alfo improves on the account before. < Oppofite Abchurch-Lane, there appeared two walls of unhewn ftone, their direction across the ftreet, at the diftance of about eight or ten feet from each other; between them

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was much black wood, apparently burnt; and indeed many things dug.up bereabouts, difcovered plain marks of conflagration.' This fhews a ftreet to have run in the direction of Lombard-Street, during the early period of the Romans. And the burnt wood, &c. is the evident relic of one of the many fires, from which London has fuffered.

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In many parts of Lombard-Street and Birchin-Lane (which was afterwards opened), a very large quantity of oyfter-fhells was found at the fame depth as the pavements, &c. with a few muscles Shells; both of the common English kinds,' and both the remains of our muscles and our oyfters eaten by the Romans. Between the houses No. 21 and No. 22, another pavement was met with of the common fort; and by this there were fragments of plaifler walls, painted red, with a black border. But when 'the workmen proceeded up Birchin-Lane, they found a fine teffellated pavement of very fmall bricks and ftones, nearly 'oppofite No. 12. Of this only a corner appeared, which is compofed of black, red, green, and white ftones and brick, • forming a beautiful border. It feems by the men's defcription, that this pavement runs under the footway and the houses thereabouts, if not deftroyed when they were built.' And both in Lombard-Street and Birchin-Lane there were found, great quantities of Roman earthen ware, but chiefly fragments; coins of gold, filver, and copper, of Claudius, Nero, Galbus, and other emperors down to Conftantine; feveral handles and fragments of glafs urns, bottles, &c.; Roman keys, horns and bones of different animals: and, in the upper part of the foil, Nuremberg counters, coins of Queen Elizabeth, and other ' relics of modern times :-no remains of Saxon antiquity having been found, that could be ascertained to be fuch."

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The whole of thefe difcoveries is very judiciously fummed up thus: A large trench,' fays John Henniker, Efq. F. R. A. S. in a letter, has been excavated [it should be, dug] in LombardStreet for the first time fince the memory of man, which is funk about fixteen feet deep. The foil is almoft uniformly divided into four ftrata: the uppermost, thirteen feet fix inches thick, of factitious earth; the fecond, two feet thick, of brick, apparently the ruins of buildings; the third, three inches thick, of wood-afhes, apparently the remains of a town built of wood and destroyed by fire; the fourth, of Roman pavement, common and telfellated. On this pavement the coin in question,' a gold one of Galba, was difcovered; together with feveral other coins, and many articles of pottery. Below the pavement the workmen find virgin earth."

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This effay is accompanied with two plates of veffels and coins found.

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• XVI. Obfervations on a Picture by Zuccaro, from Lord Falkland's Collection. By the Hon. Daines Barrington.'

This picture, according to tradition in the family, reprefented Lord Burleigh playing at cards with three other perfons, who from their drefs appear to be of diftinction.' But the cards are marked as at prefent; and differ from those of more modern times, only by being narrower and longer.' And 'there are alfo confiderable heaps of gold and filver on the table; fo that thefe dignified perfonages seem to have played, for what would not at present be called a chicken stake. Mr. Barrington thinks the game a Spanish one, called Rimero.' This probably, he says, might have been introduced by Philip the Second or fome of his Juite' [an affected word for train] while he was in England.' He fhews it to have been much in i vogue, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth;" from this paffage in Shakespeare,

I left him at Primero

With the Duke of Suffolk.

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He then fhews from Duchat's notes on the 22d chapter of the Ift book of Rabelais, how Primero was played, and how the picture fuits the account. And he adds that our word flush, which, when applied to cards, imports that they are all of the fame colour,' and which is ufed at Primero as well as other games, is only the Spanish term flux' of the fame import; as xin that language-hath the power of fb, or nearly fo.'

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XVII. Obfervations on the Antiquity of Card-playing in England. By the Hon. Daines Barrington."

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In this pleafing account, Mr. Barrington finds the first intimation concerning the ufe of cards in France, under 1426; when no perfon was permitted to have in his houfe, tabliers, efchiquiers, quartes,' &c. tables, chequers, or cards; and under 1404, when, in a fynod held at Langres,-the clergy are forbid the ufe of cards.' These two facts, however, we beg leave to ob ferve, prove decifively the much earlier introduction of cards. What was exprefsly interdicted by a law, must have become very extenfive in its practice. What was fpecifically forbidden to the clergy, must have been common among the laity. And what was thus common and extenfive at the beginning of the fifteenth century, could not but have been long known. This obfervation carries us back to the evidence in Menustrier, which Mr. Barrington too hastily rejects; of three packs of cards, ' trois jeux

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