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from Senna, in Arabia; others have never, according to tradition, been heard that it was brought from Cash-subjugated by invaders from the mir. The Cabul Jews, who travel north of Hindostan. annually into the interior of China, say, that in some synagogues the law is still found written on a roll of leather; not on vellum, but on a soft flexible leather, made of goats' skins, and dyed red; which agrees with the description of the roll abovementioned.

Such of the Syriac and Jewish manuscripts as may, on examination, be found to be valuable, will be deposited in the public libraries of the British universities.

The princes of the Deccan have manifested a liberal regard for the extension of Shanscrit learning, by furnishing lists of the books in their temples for the college of Fort William, in Bengal. His excellency the rajah of Tanjore was pleased to set the example, by giving the voluminous catalogue of the ancient library of the kings of Tanjore. And his example has been followed by the ranny of Ranmad, patroness of the celebrated temple of Ramisseram, near Adam's Bridge; by his highness the rajah of Travancore, who has given lists of all the books in the Travancore country; and by the rajah of Cochin, patron of the ancient Shanscrit college, at the temple of Teichiur. It is understood that a copy of any book in these catalogues will be given when required. The brahmins of Travancore consider that their manuscripts are likely to have as just a claim to high antiquity, or at least to accurate preservation, as those in the temples in the North; and for the same reason that the Christian and Jewish records have been so well preserved; which is, that the country of Travancore, defended by mountains, has VOL. XLIX.

The design of investigating the history and literature of the Christians and Jews in the East, was submitted to the marquis Wellesley, before he left India. His lordship, judging it to be of importance that the actual relation of the Syrian Christians to our own church should be ascertained, and auguring something interesting to the republic of letters from the investigation of the Syriac and Jewish antiquities, was pleased to give orders, that publie aid should be afforded to Dr. Buchanan in the prosecution of his inquiries, wherever it might be practicable. To the operation of these orders it is owing, that the proposed researches, of which some slight notices are given above, have not been made in vain.

Cochin, Jan. 1807.

Antiquities at Soddington, Worcestershire. By Mr. J. Milner.

Soddington, in the parish of Mamble, and the county of Worcester, at a small distance from the road between Bewdley and Tenbury, is the ancient seat of the Baronet family of the name of Blount; though at present they reside at a new seat, erected within these thirty years, at Mawley, near Cleobury. The mansion at Soddington has been built at different times; but the most ancient part of it seems to be about four hundred years old. The workmen at present are taking down the whole of it, which has given me an opportunity of making the following discoveries.

In digging beneath the oldest part 3 M of

of the house, at the depth of about three feet, the workmen struck upon an antient focus, formed of thin bricks, which had each of them a semicircular termination, and had evidently been framed m a similar mould. In digging at a small distance from the focus, five feet below the level of it, a pavement, laid with large thin bricks, such as the Romans are known to have used, and as are commonly to be met with at Verulain and other Roman cities, was discovered. In levelling the ground near the house of Soddington, the labourers have dug up a vast number of curious tubes, which formed an antient aqueduct. The existence of this was previously unknown to the inhabitants of the place. The tubes are formed of the finest clay, and exceedingly well baked, being of a grey colour on the outside, and, when broken, of a dark colour in the interior. They appeared to be exactly of the same composition with several Roman urns which I have seen. Each tube is about two feet long, and four inches in the total diameter; the aperture for conveying the water being about an inch and three quarters in diameter. They have hollow tenons at one end, and mortices at the other, so as to fit together very exactly, and to appear air-tight with out the use of mortar. They were Jaid in the direction of a spring which flows at the distance of a mile and a half from Soddington, at the top of an eminence still higher than the site of the mansion, though the latter is very high ground, and they have been traced a great part of the way to it.

But the most curious discovery of the whole occurred in a field within a quarter of a mile of the old house; where, in levelling a hillock, on which

an oak quite decayed with age, besides other trees, stood, at the depth of about two feet from the sod, the workmen found a complete brickkiln, consisting, by computation, of 10,000 bricks, the greater part of which were well-burnt, the rest being only half-burnt. The kiln was not made as kilus are usually made at present; nor were the bricks of the same size with our bricks, being larger and thinner.

These being the facts, it remains for learned and ingenious antiquaries to determine to which race of the successive inhabitants of this island these articles originally belonged, and what is the date of them? It is plain they belonged to a people who were in the habit of building with brick, and of making their bricks larger and thinner than we do at the present day. It is equally plain, that the people in question must have been a civilized and, in some degree, a refined people, from the discovery of the aqueduct, and the perfection of the tubes of which it consisted. I think also it may be asserted that the brick-kiln was made just before some great change in the state of the country took place, as the workmen seem not to have had time to finish the burning of their bricks. It likewise appears to me that this change must have been attended with dreadful political consequences, and the desolation, if not the destruction, of the former inhabitants. This I gather from so large a number of bricks, the greater part of them fit for use, being left unemployed in an open field, till, by degrees, a bed of earth was formed over them, upon which an oak tree, now rotten with age, actually grew.

My conjectures are, that Soddington was a Roman fort; the situation

of

of it being adapted to this purpose, and the ground on the sides of it still bearing certain vestiges of a Roman intrenchment; that the brick-kiln was built for the use of the Romans, or for their civilized British subjects, about the year 418, in which year, according to the Saxon chronicle, the Romans left this island, carrying with them all their treasures; that, in consequence of this event, and of the confusion which followed it, from the inroads of the Picts, Scotch, and Saxons, the Britons had no leisure nor inclination to raise new buildings; until, at length, they were driven out of the open country, and confined to the mountains of Wales and Cornwall; that the Saxons were too much employed, and too little civilized for almost a century after their arrival here, to think of new buildings; and that, when they did begin to build, they, as was the practice with their successors the Normans, used stones, or even flints, in preference to bricks; that, during all this time, the dust and earth accumulated, as I said before, upon the heap of bricks, till they completely covered it. With respect to the focus, floors, &c. at the house which I suppose belonged to the Roman fort, these being in situations where no cellars were dug, they must have escaped the mattocks of the workmen, when they were digging the foundations for the old house, How demolished.

gory, bishop of Neocesarea, in Pontus, instituted, that festival days should be celebrated to them who had contended for the faith, that is, to the martyrs." And Nysen adds this reason for the institution, viz. "When he (Gregory) observed that the simple and unskilful multitudes, by reason of corporeal delights, remained in the error of idols, that the principal thing might be corrected. among them, namely, that instead of this vain worship, they might turn their eyes upon God, he permitted, that, at the memories of the holy martyrs, they might make merry, delight themselves, and be dissolved into joy. The heathens were delighted with the festivals of their gods, and unwilling to part with those delights; and therefore Gregory, to facilitate their conversion, instituted annual festivals to saints and martyrs." Hence it came to pass, that for exploding the festivals of the heathens, the principal festivals of the christians succeeded in their room; as the keeping of Christmas with ivy, and feasting in the room of the Bacchanalia and Saturnalia: the celebrating of May-day with flowers, in the room of the Floralia; and the keeping of festivals to the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, and divers of the apostles, in the room of the solemnities used at the entrance of the sun into the signs of the zodiac in the old Julian calendar, "The church (says an ingenious writer) hath only christened these heathen fes

Origin of placing Holly in Churches tivals with the name of some saints;

at Christmas.

The great Newton, in his dissertations on prophecy, says, "Gregory Nyssen tells us, that after the persecution of the emperor Decius, Gre

and as December was a dead time of the year, when the heathens had their Saturnalia, and gave loose to recreation, the christians honoured the season with the name of their Saviour."

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Here

Here then we may discover the honourable origin of Christmas, and by consulting Kennet or any other writer on Roman antiquities, we may also discover how the Bacchanalia were observed, the gross licentiousness of that festival, and the reason

of "placing sprigs of ivy, holly, &c. in our churches at Christmas;" a season of more dissolute pleasure and criminal indulgence than any other in the whole year, as if Christ was become the minister of sin!

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MISCELLANEOUS

MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS,

&c. &c.

American Expedition of Discovery, under the Command of Captain Lewis.

HE following is a copy of a let

order the more effectually to explore the country, and discover the most practicable route which does exist across the continent by the way of the Missouri and Columbia rivers.

The from Captain Clarke, the In this we were completely success

second in command, to his brother, general Clark; which ascertains that this Expedition succeeded in penetrating through the continent between the rivers Missouri and Columbia, and in navigating the Columbia down to the Pacific.

ful, and have therefore no hesitation in declaring, that such as nature has permitted, we have discovered the best route which does exist across the continent of North America in that direction. Such is that by way of the Missouri to the foot of the Rapids below the great falls of that "St. Louis, Sept. 23, 1805. river, a distance of 2575 miles; "Dear brother,

"We arrived at this place at twelve o'clock to-day, from the Pacific Ocean, where we remained during the last winter, near the entrance of the Columbia river. This station we left on the 27th of March last, and should have reached St. Louis early in August, had we not been detained by the snow, which barred our passage across the Rocky Mountains, until the 24th of June. In returning through those mountains, we divided ourselves into several parties, digressing from the route by which we went out, in

thence by land passing by the Rocky Mountains, to a navigable part of the Kooskooske, 340; and with the Kooskooske 73 miles, Lewis's River 154 miles, and the Columbia 413 miles to the Pacific Ocean, making the total distance from the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi, to the discharge of the Columbia into the Pacific Ocean, 3554 miles. The navigation of the Missouri may be deemed good-its difficulties arise from its falling banks, timber embedded in the mud of its channels, its sand-bars and steady rapidity of its current, all which may be over3 M 3

come

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