Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/75

 ii s. v. JAN. 20, i9i2.]; NOTES AND QUERIES.

Perhaps Keats meant to imply that the " magic casements, opening on the foam," were each charmed or graced by a nightin- gale in a cage a jewel of song in a gold and jewelled prison. Of course he keeps not to the letter of any tale, but handles it with a poet's recreating licence, as he does 'the tale of Ruth in the lines preceding those quoted. W. H. PINCHBECK.

ANTIGALI.ICAN SOCIETY (11 S. iv. 448, 512). I have a book called ' The Anti- Gallican ; or Standard of British Loyalty, Religion, and Liberty,' London, 1804. It is " respectfully inscribed " " To the Volun- teers of the United Kingdom." It is divided into twelve numbers, and therefore probably came out in parts. There is an index at the end. It need scarcely be said that it is violent in its hostility to the French, espe- cially to Bonaparte. It is not all abuse of the French, but contains patriotic songs, addresses. &c. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

A query in 1875 about the Manchester Antigallicans mentioned in Hale's ' Social Harmony ' (referred to by W. B. H.) led to some interesting information on the subject being given in ' Local Gleanings relating to Lancashire and Cheshire,' vol. i., articles 7, 17, 25, and 26. R. S. B.

Lucius (11 S. iv. 449, 534). From the latter reference it would appear that the letter quoted by Speed is fictitious. Might I ask if the authorities given are more reliable than, for instance, the ' Saxon Chronicle,' Beda, or even the note in ' N. & Q.' (5 S. xi. 306) bearing on the subject ?

If it be granted that Nennius did not write the ' Historia Brittonum,' some one did ; and from Nennius Speed quotes, " Missa legatione ab imperatore Romanorum et a papa Romano Eleutherio," and gives the names of the "learned clerks " who were sent to Lucius.

Geoffrey of Monmouth mentions the state- ment connected with Lucius, and quotes Gildas. In the preface to Nennius he states that his history was partly extracted from the writings of " ancient britons."

Are the authorities now mentioned worth- less, when placed alongside of those named at the second reference ?

ALFRED CHAS. JONAS.

CHRISTMAS AND ITS NAME IN EUROPEAN LANGUAGES (US. iv. 505). The modern Welsh name for Christmas should have been given at this reference (No. 13) as Nadolig, not Xadolie. H. I. B.

on

Romano-British Buildings and Earthworks. By

John Ward, F.S.A. (Methuen & Co.) THE aim of this volume is to interpret and illus- trate the more important structural remains of Roman Britain. As the author states, his work is to a great degree a compilation, but, it may be added, a compilation which satisfies a long- existing need. With such a guide ready to hand, it will in the future be easy for any one desirous of familiarizing himself with the early history of England and Scotland to follow the footsteps of the Romans from the English Channel to the Antonine Wall. The early pages of the book deal with camps, and Mr. Ward points out that " their absence at the present time from the more cultivated lowlands of England is no proof of their original sparseness." The plough has proved a great destroyer. In describing the extremely intricate defences of certain forts he states that in Scotland the elaboration of great ramparts of earth, such as may be observed at Ardoch, was- connected with the multiplicity of the defensive ditches, though the reason for this multiplicity is not clear, unless we may assume that the northern tribes were more difficult to hold in check than the southern. The necessity of tbe- ditches being granted, the " upcast " from them could not have been turned to better account than by forming these huge barriers. The internal arrangements of the forts are carefully considered, it being shown that, as the long buildings answer- to the lines of tents in the Hyginan type of camp,, both in form and distribution, there is little- doubt that many of them were barracks for the ordinary soldiers.

When the northern frontiers and their walls have been dealt with, domestic architecture,, baths, amphitheatres, forums, bridges, basilicas,, and religious buildings receive attention- Mr. Ward objects to the term " villa " as popu- larly applied to a Romano-British country-house' of importance. " The villa was the Roman; counterpart of the mediaeval manor the estate of a landed proprietor. It comprised not only his residence, but those of his villicus, or bailiff, and of his servile and semi-servile dependents, his farm-buildings and granaries. The estate was the villa ; the residence of the dominus was the villa-house." Later he comments on a like- ness between the arrangement of the houses built in Romanized Britain and mediaeval inns, both being derived from the same source, the peri- styled buildings of the Orient. As the columns of the peristyle discovered at Caerwent were quite large enough to support more than one gallery, the hospitiitm, of which it was a part, may have resembled a mediaeval inn very closely ~ On the other hand, Roman dwellings of the " basilical " type were remarkably like an ancient style of farmhouse which still survives in Ger- many, Holland, and elsewhere. That wattling- was used in erecting the cheaper sort of dwellings was demonstrated when the late General Pitt- Rivers undertook excavations on Woodcuts Common. The " finds " there showed that the villagers had become more or less Romanized. Fragments of painted wall-plaster were found at what had been the fashionable end of the village.