is found infufficient to carry out the fand, and the south-west wind makes the entrance dangerous for want of a pier. It is a market and borough town, and gave birth to Giles de Bridport, bishop of Sarum, t. Henry III. Here was a priory and hof pital of John Baptist.'

Chefil bank is very remarkable, and derives its name from Teorl, Gravel, being a prodigious heap of pebbles thrown up by the fea, beginning at Chelel on in Portland, and reaching beyond Swyre fixteen miles and three quarters. A ftrong north-eatt wind cleaves it afunder, fweeps away all the ftones, leaving only the bafe of black clay. A fouth-west wind throws up the pebbles again and binds the whole firmly as before. At Chefelton the beach is very high, and the stones of the fice of an egg, or bigger, diminishing to that of a pea at Swyre. By it you pafs from Portland to Abbotbury. On it grows much eryngo and formerly fea cale. "This arm goith up fe like to Abbatefbyri about a seven miles off, a little above which is the head or point of the Chifil, lying north-weit, that from them fretch up feven myles as a maine narow banke by a right line on to fouth-east, and ther buttith on Portland, fcant a quarter of a myle above the new caftel in Portland. The nature of this bank of Chifil is fuch, that as often as the swind blowwith firene at foutheft fa often the fe hetith it and lofith the bank and breaketh thorough it. So that if this winde might continually blow there, this bank should soon be beten away, and the fe fully enter and dvide Portland making it an ifle, as furly in times past it hath ben, as far as I can by any conjecture gather. But as much as the foutheaft wind doth bite and broke off this Chifille bank, fo much aoth the north-weft wynd avain focor, frengith and augmentith it. the farther point of the trajectus into Portland from Waymouth is a point of land like a caufey al of pible and fand cał up by rages of the fea, whercon I went fcant a mile to the lowest part of the rotes of the high ground of Portland, where a late aright, ftrong, and magnificent cattel is buylded (at this caufey end). The arme of the fe that goith up to Abbatesbyri gulfith in betwene the fouth-eath point of the Chifil and the caftelle. Portland is eminent and hilly ground on the store of it and a great plain yn the midle. The compace of it is countid to be about a feven myles, but if a man fhould compace it by the very rootes and depe fhore the cumpace would mount to a ten myles. The foile is fumwhat floney, and the fhore very rokky. The idle is fruitful of corn and grafs, and hath plenty of fheepe.-Ther he very few or no trees. The people bring wodde out of Wight and other places, and bronne cor-dung dried with the bete of the fun. Ther be at this prefent about eighty houses and one paroche chirch about half a myle from the king's new caftelle. The people be good in Bynging of flones, and use it for defence of the ifle. Portland continued in the church of Winchefter till to Edward 1. when Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucefter had it in exchange.

On

The

The quarries at the west end of the island afford excellent stone, first brought into repute in James the Firft's time. Near the lighthoufes is a remarkable cavern, from which the water rifes up like a fountain, and small boats fhelter in it. The Race is a dangerous eddy of two tides in the calmeft feafons. Portland gave title of earl, 1612, to Richard lord Wellon, of Neiland, Jord high treafurer which expired with his grandfon Thomas. William Bentinck of Holland was created baron of Cirencester, vifcount Woodstock and carl of Portland, 1689, 1 William and Mary, and his fecond fon William, duke of Portland, 1716. He was fucceeded 1726 by his fon William, and he 1762, by his fon William, third and prefent duke.”

From other parts of the additions to this county printed in Italic letter, and from collating Leland and Camden throughout, it is evident that Camden may be placed near the head of the lift of plagiaries, in any future edition of Thomafius de Plagio Literario.

Let us now proceed to give fome remarks upon particular parts and paffages of the work.

Mr. Gough has given us additions to Camden's topography of each county; but to the general account of Britain, its fucceffive inhabitants, &c. prefixed by Camden, we find only a few trifling notes. Mr. Gough indeed does not quote Mr. Whitaker above once, except in treating of Manchester: aud though we do not think the omiffion any great defect, we are the more furprised at it, when we find Stukely copied in every page, though a far more fanciful writer than Mr. Whitaker. Mr. Gough's work is about a century behind in common hiftorical knowledge concerning the fucceffive inhabitants of Great Britain; but from the confufion and inaccuracy of what he has faid in his notes, every reader must be indebted to him for his forbearance. We are, however, obliged to Mr. Gough for pointing out many mifquotations by Camden in this and other parts; which fhew that this honeft topographer was not very fcrupulous when any hypothefis was to be proved.

In the editor's notes to Camden's article concerning the British coins, we are a little furprised to find the late Mr. White's plate of these coins often referred to as authentic, while it is known to every one converfant in the fubject, that Mr. White was a notorious fabricator.

The plate of Roman coins relative to Britain is defective, and not well engraved. Mr. Gough rightly obferves, that Camden took the coin of Claudius, infcribed COL. CL. for one ftruck at Camalodunum, while it really belongs to Claudiopolis. Two other colonial coins of Britain, mentioned in Goltzius, are equally falfe, and there is no true coin extant

of

of any Roman colony in Britain. We have lately feen the filver ingot, engraved plate II. and it does not bear EX OFIC HONORI, but EX OFFICIO HONORINI; so that its reference to the emperor Honorius falls to the ground. ~

It is trange to find the towns mentioned in the Efcurial MS. (see p. lxxx.) here flated as, not in any other author," while they all appear in Ptolemy, and in the Itinerary printed in this very work! But many flips of this kind, though marks of great careleffnefs, we fhall pafs over.

The leaden crois found in the pretended tomb of Arthur, plate V. is a monkish forgery, and the infcription quite unlike any of genuine antiquity. The monks of Glastonbury furely were the authors of this impofition, to exalt their own monaftery; and the Welch bard who pointed out the fpot of Arthur's interment to Henry II. was probably prefent when the tomb was made. In Mr. Gough's remarks we find little of what the French call faine critique, few marks of difcernment and penetration. It is eafy to compile but difficult to examine.

Vol. I. p. 107. Mr. Gough fays that Camden was the first writer who noticed Stonehenge, except Henry of Huntingdon: while Nennius first mentions this famous monument, three centuries before Henry.

The dates in the work are fo often misprinted, that one knows not what to truft: witnefs, among many others, the following. Vol. II. p. 200. Mr. Simpfon, the mathematician, was born here 1770, and died in this neighbourhood 1761.' Mr. Gough clofes his additions to the defcription of Scotland in the following terms:

Mr. Camden apologifes for the fhortnefs of his defcription of Scotland, not doubting but fomebody elfe would improve on it by availing himself of the opportunity afforded by the acceffion of James I. which united the two crowns. But not the union of the two kingdoms a century after, nor the various difcoveries that have been made in the geography of England, have been extended to the fitter kingdom in a degree to enable me much to enlarge the modern defcription. Little of Scotland was known to its natives before Mr. Pennant's curiofity explored it. The reader will fee to what other printed defcriptions I am indebted: for the earliest applications and moft patient expecta tion have obtained very little additions to them, and fearce an attempt to correct and rectify errors, whem fubmitted to fome of the best antiquaries of Scotland. So little do the philofophic unenterprifing Scots attend to the advantages with which Nature or Art have endowed their country.'

To have been more particular and ample in our examina. tion of this work, would have drawn us into a length inconfiftent with our plan; and we truft that what we have faid will

be

be found fufficient to give our readers a juft idea of the whole, after concluding with a few general remarks.-We have been obliged attentively to perufe the whole work, elfe we could not have fulfilled our duty to the public; but the true point in which we should view fuch large compilations is, to confider them merely as books of reference. The original edi tion of Camden, 1607, is a folio of 860 pages clofely printed. We have now three volumes: the latt of 760 pages. Surely, if compofition and kill were exerted, instead of indigefted compilation, one volume is fufficient to contain every thing neceffary to be known, froma general topography of Britain, fince Camden wrote. Perhaps the most perfect plan of fuch a topography would be, to give a tranflation of Camden's work in one volume; and in a fecond to give the neceffary fupplements; and inftead of compiling large extracts from ftandard books, as Horley's Britannia Romana, Gordon's Itinerarium Septentrionali, Pennant's Tours, &c. to refer accurately to thefe books. For though every book fhould be as complete in it felf as poffible, yet there are now, in every branch of science, certain effeemed works to which reference only is necessary. And it is as abfurd to amplify a book by large extracts from fuch works, as it would be, for a writer on the Newtonian Sys tem, to reprint Newton's Principia in various parts of his work.

British topography is, no doubt, much indebted to Mr. Gough; and it is with great pleasure that we acknowledge his merits, and with pain that we obferve the defects of his prefent publication. This book will not fuperfede the ufe of the county-hillories in England; but to foreigners, among whom thefe hiftories feldom come, it will be found a more complete fyftem of British topography than any preceding edition of Camden..

Molt of the plates are well engraved, and the maps very neat, and generally accurate: the names of rivers in particular are, however, fometimes wanting. As there are many fets of county-maps published separate, it might perhaps have been fufficient in a work of this kind, to have only inferted fuch names of places as are mentioned in the description.

The New Annual Regifter, or General Repofitory of Hiftory, Politics, and Literature, for the Year 1789. To which is prefixed, the Hiftory of Knowledge, Learning, and Tafe, in Great Britain, during Part of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 800. 75. Half-bound. Robinfons.

WE E have been accuftomed to meet the annually returning

volume of this valuable work with fimiles of congratulation, and the chearings of applaufe. We met now change.

in fome degree, our tone; and we take the earliest opportunity to mix a little wholefome reprehenfion, to correct those errors which, if continued, might fully a work whofe importance annually increases, and whofe reputation the compilers and hiftorian have earned by the most unwearied labour.

An Annual Regifter is an history and brief chronicle of the times the period which it comprehends is limited, and its return is expected while the facts are yet new, while paffions and prejudices ftill hold their fway. It cannot, it ought not to be strictly confined to the year, for many fubjects, whose. confequences are important, will not admit of being fully detailed within so short a period'; and, if they are mentioned, it must be in general, and a more full connected account deferred to a fubfequent time, when the confequences become more evident. It is on this account, that what occurred in France, the foundation of the prefent revolution, though previous to the limits of the year, and the conduct of the prefent king of Pruffia respecting Holland, are with propriety examined at length in this volume. Indeed it has always been usual for the hiftorian of every Annual Register to close his account of the foreign tranfactions, and frequently of the domeftic ones, in the middle of the year whofe events he is narrating. It is not therefore on account of the lateness of the publication, for when the Editor reflects with pleasure' on its early appearance,' he must mean a comparative earliness, nor on account of the details introduced, that we think this work a little reprehenfible, but for fome of the reprefentations contained in it. The Editor is an idolater of liberty, and this bias, in itself laudable, may be carried to an improper height, when it fees the infringement of his darling liberty in circumstances which are not connected with it. We perceive too, that the time which has elapfed fince the dif cuffions on the regency is not fufficient to allow our author to lofe the influence of party-heat. But we must be more particular.

After the continuation of the Hiftory of Learning and Talle, which contains a part of the era of Elizabeth, an era which will require, it is faid, two other Numbers, and is executed with the Editor's ufual care and accuracy, the Hiftory commences with the affairs of France. We are happy at being able to fay, that this part of the work is executed with an accuracy and a degree of candour, which reflects high credit on the hiftorian. We have gone over this period of the French History with different authors, but we have never yet feen it fo clearly elucidated. Perhaps he has not fufficiently brought forward, that it feems to have been the defign of the notables to render the Bates-general neceffary, by their refufing to lay any impost; yet he certainly has mentioned the fact, with its different connections.