A loud shout broke from the multitude on witnessing this dexterous shift, which irritated the choleric Norman, who was, perhaps, besides disconcerted at missing bis aim. It cost him his life; for Walter springing forward, smote him on the head with such violence, that his hood of mail was shivered to pieces, and his skull was crushed like an egg-shell!-He fell to the ground as if struck by a thunderbolt! Immediately the lists were broken in, in spite of the threats and blows of the men-at-arms who kept the field; and all ranks crowded round the fallen champion, whose head was now supported on the knee of his follower Argentine. His face presented a hideous spectacle; the forehead being completely destroyed, and a stream of blood flowing in such profusion that every feature was disguised. A monk pushed his way through the crowd, crucifix in hand, and knelt by the side of the dying man. IMPRIMIS, As Green-field would write in a brief; relief: They're a Club of good Members design'd for There's Jardine mounts so high that three notches he makes, stakes: Though 'tis out of all bounds, 'tis told in for all That the ball when he bowls it curls up to. his Ginger Smith takes his place in his straw onelooped hat; Effervescent as soda, as spruce as his beer, He's quite certain to catch every ball mounted near: In the "Milky Way," Oldfield, the “Long Stop," attends, And the ball to the Wicket's short distances sends; batting, "Rudulf de Bracy," said he, "look on this blessed emblem of redemption, We advise him, however, when given to. and say after me." Hexwas about to repeat the Latin prayer for sinners in extremis, when he was interrupted by Argentine "He hears thee not, priest," said the follower, "he is gone-speak, Sir Rudulf; my master, how is't with thee?" At that moment the dying man's mailed hands were raised as if in prayer, but it was only for a moment; they fell listless to the ground-his head bowed-and Rudulf de Bracy slept with his fathers! Without dwelling on the customary mutilation of the body of the vanquished, we have only to add, that, ere the month was out, Walter of Wallington became the husband of Agnes Meryl ;-and, as courage was then the greatest recommendation at court, he did not long remain unnoticed by the Lion-hearted Monarch, who advanced him to great favour and preferment. J. Y. A-N. Not to shrink in the cause, like a minister ratting: Bowyer's "Points," like good epigrams, strike. to the s-core, And he bats well to bowls, though a tinker come o❜er; Just as merit, when true, is by diffidence graced, So by artless desert as the foremost he's placed. Schabner's" Short Slip" is fine, and his batting is good, And the balls leather wings fly away from the wood; Could he run like "Delvall," (not by straining his voice), He'd be first in his line, for his manner is There's Tombleson proves he's an artist in choice: play, For he bowls' wickets up that go down to his That all blockers, or block-heads, his quickness may fear: A hard hitter, quick catcher, swift bowler and runner, Is a youth of much promise, the Hants, Alton, Gunner. And a pity 'tis true, 'tis a pity, that Greig, Though of elegant height, is contracted in leg; Yet, it seems, like Peg's Epitaph, wonderously cunning, While his one leg stands still that his other leg's running. Barber, Reilly, and Croft; Goldham, Price, Blogg and Gould, And Dunell, Lowe, and others, in scores are enroll'd, And the scorers, we shadow, "wide balls" and their "byes," And apart from the Ladies, take "partners" and "ties." British Antiquities. KIT'S COTY HOUSE IN KENT. By J, FITZGERALD PENNIE, Author of The Royal Minstrel, Tales of a Modern Genius, &c. A Mr. George Pryce, of Chelsea, has lately given to the public a compiled account of this interesting relic of antiquity, in which he boldly asserts, without an iota of ancient testimony to support such an assertion, that those venerable stones of which it is composed, are the sepulchral monument of Catigern, the brave son of Vortigern, or more properly Gwrtheyrn; who, after the sanguinary battle of Arles-in which Constantine, created emperor at Vindomi,* fell among the slain-usurped the supreme authority, and became the PENTEYRN, or chief king in Britain. In the first place, I would simply ask Mr. Pryce, where are his proofs for this unqualified assertion, and who are his authorities for not merely hazarding such an ungrounded opinion, but dogmatically averring he is quite sure of its being correct; seemingly as sure as if he had been present at the setting of them up by the British army, on the day after their victorious battle with the Saxons, in which Catigern fell. Perhaps this gentleman will also be kind enough to inform us by what method those immense blocks of stone were brought to their present site, and what mechanical powers the Britons * Silchester, the ruins of which still remain. Here was a temple to Hercules, "the greatest part of the dedicator's inscription, set upon the pediment thereof, together with the moulded frame in brass that inclosed it," says Dr. Stukely, "is in the possession of Mr. Foote." Here, also, are the remains of a Roman amphitheatre, of large dimensions, nearly covered with trees. possessed to elevate them-a very useful piece of information to add to the antiquarian lore of the present day, and which would, no doubt, put an end to the many hypotheses and disputes of various members of a certain learned society. But to be serious.-If Mr. Pryce can show us any ancient authorities, from either Celtic, Triad, Brito-Roman legend, or Saxon chronicle, that those stones composing Kit's Coty House, were erected as a funeral monument for a Saxon prince, I will give up my opinion, and implicitly submit to his. But I am confident, that neither he nor the most diligent and legitimate antiquary can bring forward any testimonials of the kind to support such an absurd theory. 'Tis true, this Mr. Pryce has led onward a host of modern names, as vouchers for the truth of his ipse dixit; such as Hasted, Philipot, Lambarde, Batteley, Somner, Kilburne, Baker, Dr. Harris, &c. But what is this long and pompously arranged battalion of authors to the purpose? They are not the voice of a thousand ages, but the mere echoes of each other, and Mr. Pryce's opinion the last faint echo of them all; while King, in his splendid work of Munimenta Antiqua, completely refutes such idle notions, by positively declaring it to be a cromlech, or stone of sacrifice. This author is in himself a host, and as far outshines Mr. Bryce's long array, in antiquarian lore, as the sun surpasses the rayless moon, when she presumes to show her pale orbit with his in the same hea vens. That Catigern might have been buried near the site of this ancient British ALTAR, we are not disposed to contend against, because it was the eternal custom of the Kimmerians to inter their chieftains near, or in sight of their sacred circles or temples; and this, on some occasions, might be done so late as the time of the early invasions of the Saxons, the customs and superstitions of Druidism, as Sharon Turner justly observes, having a great influence on the minds and manners of the Britons, ages after the introduction of Christianity into this island. It is from this circumstance, and this alone, if it ever took place, that Kit's Coty House has been believed to be the funeral monument of Catigern. But there are two things at least, which utterly destroy the confident assertions of Mr. Pryce, which are equally silly and absurd as the opinion often broached, that Stonehenge was erected as funeral monuments to commemorate the massacre of the British princes assembled near that meeting-place of ancient councils, by Hengist. The first, is, that after the dominion of the Romans in this island was established, and their refinements, luxuries, gorgeous palaces, villas, temples, and amphitheatres, had superseded the barbarism and rudely_gigantic edifices of its aborigines, the Britons raised no such stupendous monuments of any king, as Kit's Coty House, nor its neighbouring circle, which, in Mr. Pryce's own words, "is somewhat in the manner of Stonehenge." The next is simple analogy-Kit's Coti House being precisely similar, as we shall hereafter show, to other cromleches, which still exist both in Britain, Ireland, Gaul, Syria, and Persia, and which are allowed to be such by all real antiquarians. A flat stone, which lies at the distance of seventy yards from the altar, was the great hearth-stone, placed on the ground where it still remains, at which the victim was prepared by fire for a sacrifice, or burnt offering, after being stabbed on the altar or cromlech; and never, as Mr. Pryce asserts, closed the aperture, or the open side of what he is pleased to consider Catigern's tomb, for it neither corresponds with it in size, nor was fitted for such a purpose. This cromlech, or altar-stone of sacrifice, was called by the Britons their Botal or Bethel, having the same signification in the Irish, Hebrew, and Phoenician languages, (the latter being greatly mingled with the ancient British or Celtic,) that is, the House of God.* To this Mr. Pryce has put the following tained some remains of this name? Instead of which, its present name of Kit's Coti House, certainly bears a much nearer resemblance to Catigern's House, than the House of God; and there are few instances of any place or ancient memorial in this island, which does not bear some resemblance to the name by which it was known prior to the Norman Conquest.' We reply, that the present termination of its name remains still the same in import, while Kit's Coti has no more affinity to Catigern, than Stonehenge has to Choir Gaur, or to Gwaith Emrys; the Celtic names by which that place was known to the Britons. But I beg to inform Mr. Pryce, that it still bears the closest resemblance in sound to its ancient British name, which was Maen Cetti, (Ketti), or the stone of Ketti;-and to overthrow at once his groundless theory of its being a funeral monument for Catigern, Gwaith Emrys, (the work of strength, and Maen Ketti, Kit's Coti House, are said in Triad 88, to have been " TWO BOASTED WORKS OF THE BRITONS."+ This Cromlech, or altar of human sacrifice, is composed of four immense stones; two of them are set in the ground, forming its ends, the third stands in the middle between them, the fourth rests on the up-question" How is it that it has not reright ones, forming a vast table or altar, considerably sloping towards the front, after the manner that all Druidical altars were, I believe, invariably placed; not only for the blood of the victim to flow off more easily, but also for the people to have a better view of the victim as he fell beneath the sacrificial knife of the priest. The dimensions of the stones which form this altar (we shall now copy Mr. Bryce's own words)" are nearly as follow:-that on the south is nearly eight feet high, about seven and a half broad, and two thick; its weight is about eight tons. That on the north is near seven feet in height, rather more in breadth, and about two thick; its weight is about eight tons and a half. The middle stone is very irregular; its medium is more than five feet in length, as well as breadth, and in thickness fourteen inches, weighing about ten tons. The transverse, or impost, is a very irregular hexagon, its greatest breadth from north to south is more than eleven feet, and from east to west near eight feet, and thickness two feet; its weight about ten tons and seven hundreds. None of these stones have the least mark of the chisel, or any workmanship upon them." This last mentioned fact is of itself alone sufficient to prove its design and end. None of the earlier Druidical sacred monuments were ever profaned by any kind of workmanship; and in the bible we read respecting an altar, "Thou shalt not lift up thy tool upon it to defile it." Any one at all acquainted with Druidical antiquities would on the very first sight of this venerable relic of by-gone ages, immediately pronounce it what it really is, -a Celtic altar; unless, indeed, they saw it through Mr. Pryce's wonderful vision, which seems to transform things into what they really are not, nor ever were. "The heap of the like kind of stones," (to use Mr. Pryce's words, in his] description of this place,)" at the distance of two fields" from this grand altar of the idolatrous Celta, partly upright, and partly lying on the ground, to the num All the ancient altars found in Ireland, and now distinguished by the name of Cromtechs, or Sloping Stones, were originally called Botal, or the House of God, and they seem to be of the same kind as those mentioned in the Book of Genesis.-Vide Col. Vallency, Reb. Heb. v. 11. + From an expression of Tysilio's, that, in the reign of Dyfnwal Moelmund, temples were built, and public roads made in Britain, some suppose this altar to have been erected by that prince, celebrated for his just laws. reigned 400 years before the Christian era. Не ber of nineteen or twenty, were not raised, as Mr. Pryce asserts, over the remains of some of Catigern's brave followers, but once formed the sacred circle, or open temple of the sun, Bell or Baal, to which the Cromlech was an indispensable appendage; while the impost, still resting on its pillars, proves it to have been erected after the manner of the magnificent circle of Stonehenge, and other temples of the same kind. No doubt, this impost, with others now fallen, formed Trilithons, high places, or altars of oblation, on which the offerings were lifted up, after having been prepared at the hearth, or fire-stone, near the Cromlech, by the officiating Druids. This impost of itself is a still-existing confutation of the absurd theory which Pryce, and all his host of authors to boot, attempt to maintain, as no funeral monument of antiquity has ever been found, formed of compasses of stones like these, but are merely single pillars or obelisks, such as we read Jacob set up by the grave of his beloved Rachel. 66 Again, Mr. Pryce asserts, with his usual confidence, that "these stones were originally in such a position, as to have rendered it impossible for a priest to officiate in so small a place, which occupies but a few feet.-Now these stones," he continues, are so heaped upon one another, and overgrown with shrubs, that I could not ascertain their exact number." How Mr. Pryce could be certain that these stones were placed in such a position as to render it impossible for any priest to officiate within them, when he confesses they are now in such a confused state, and so overgrown with wood, that he could not even count their number, appears to me not only strange, but quite inexplicable-nor can I understand what he means by a priest officiating. I must tell him that neither in the Adytum, nor within the outer circle, were the victims sacrificed, but on the Cromlech, which stood sometimes at a considerable distance from the circle, and sometimes in the pillared avenue, as at Aburi. But, granting this circle to have been but a few feet in diameter, it cannot militate against its having been a Celtic place of worship, as we well know that the inner circle at Pokeswell, in Dorsetshire, which no antiquarian has ever yet doubted to have been a British temple, is perhaps of still narrower dimensions than the one at Kit's Coti House. This fine relic of antiquity, this House of Baal, or the sun, perfectly corresponds with other Cromlechs, as I have before observed, scattered throughout the British islands, and many parts of the east. 66 ; Maundrell, in his account of the ancient Arphad of Scripture, the Ardus of the Greeks and Romans, situated in the country of the early Phoenicians, gives an interesting description of a Syrian altar, strikingly similar to Kit's Coti House being, as he says, composed of four large stones, two at the sides, one at the back, and another hanging over all at the top." Did I want further confirmation of what I have here advanced, by way of illustration respecting this monument being an altar, or the stone of death, I would refer to King, Rowland, M. Cambry's "Monumens Celtiques," Aylett, Sammes's "Britannia Antiqua Illustrata," and a host of other authors of equal authority, but I think further quotation in support of my opinion on that point quite unnecessary. It is certain that the Druids sacrificed human victims. One of the maxims of those priests, according to an ancient Burgundian author, is, 66 Prisoners of war are to be slain on the altars, or burnt alive, enclosed in wicker, in honour of the gods." Strabo says, " And other sacrifices of men by them are spoken of, for some they shoot with arrows, and some they crucify in the sacred groves." "The Britons hold it right to sacrifice on their altars with the blood of their captives, and to consult the gods by the inspection of the entrails of men."-Taciti Annales, lib. 14, sec. 30. And thus we read in the Psalms, "They offered their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they offered unto the idols of Canaan, and the land was defiled with blood." Again, 66 They joined themselves to Baal Peor, and ate of the sacrifices of the dead." It cannot be doubted that the Druid pries's in some instances did the same, and thus became at their horrid sacrifices detested cannibals! Theutates was also one of the chief deities of the ancient Gauls and Britons, to whom human victims were offered, and thus we read in Lucian, -"immitis placatum sanguine diro Theutatis." two men were slain as victims with all due xlm, 24. And Augustus, when L. CHARACTER AND HABITS OF THE WE extract the following remarks upon the Turks, from Captain Frankland's interesting narrative of a Journey to and from Constantinople. "The Turks," says our author, " are, personally, extremely brave, but so are all barbarians; and this quality is more than counterbalanced by their want of discipline, tactics, and activity. They are generally esteemed for their veracity; and yet no government THE BURIAL OF THE YOUNG RAJAH. has ever been stained by so many acts of (For the Olio.) [During a truce between Feroze Shah, the Sooltan of the Deckhan, and the powerful Dewul Roy of Beejanuggur, the son of the latter, a brave and handsome youth, was treacherously murdered by two Dervishes, who gained admittance to the Hindoo camp, under pretence of exhibiting their religious dances before the prince.] Borne on the stilly air, the solemn dirge Of hapless women rend the echoing sky, At once his country's and his father's hope, Mourn, hapless Rajah! mourn thy son! perfidy and atrocity as theirs. They are said to be honourable in their dealings; and yet they worship gold, and are sordid and avaricious, and will have recourse to any measures short of actual theft, to obtain this sovereign good. Nay, they have a proverb, Riches are power;', and it is notorious that corruption has always been, and still is, the medium through which almost every thing is transacted in the Divan; that the Pachalicks and great offices are generally sold to the highest bidder, and that each man has his agent at his opponents in the council. the Porte, to make a golden bridge to all Their hospitality is a thing much talked of, but, I fancy, very little known; for Europeans seldom put themselves in the way of experiencing it. Their humanity to animals is strangely opposed to their cruelty to man; and they would think less of beheading or bastinading a whole province, than they would of ill-treating a horse or a camel. In their exterior, they are re Mourn, childless prince! yes, mourn the markable for a decency and apparent pro while Thy vassals feed the lofty pile; The solemn rites are done; the weeping throng The expiring embers, glare, or whirls aloft The torture rack'd, until the stubborn heart, throe. B.. priety of conduct; but yet we know that "If indeed were a fair maxim to estimate the virtues of a nation by the measure of the acts and influence of its government, and by the effects produced by its policy, one would arrive at this con |