Efq. F. A. S.-This account is not a very extenfive one, but it contains fome remarkable information. Art. XIV. Account of the Discoveries in digging a Sewer in Lombard-ftreet and Birchin lane, 1786. Art. XV. Account of the Difcoveries before mentioned," referred to in the preceding Paper.-These two articles contain a particular defcription of the antiquities found in Lombard-street and Birchin-Lane. They are illuftrated with numerous engravings, without whofe affiftance we could convey no accurate idea of the fubjects. We fhall transcribe, however, a fhort account of the excavation in Lombard-ftreet, from a letter of fir John Henniker. A large trench has been excavated in Lombard-street, 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 uppermoft, thirteen feet fix inches thick, of factitious earth; the fecond, two feet thick, of brick, appa rently the ruins of buildings; the third, three inches thick, of wood afhes, apparently the remains of a town built of wood, and deftroyed by fire; the fourth, of Roman pavement, common and teffelated. On this pavement the coin in question (a gold coin of Galba) was difcovered, together with feveral other coins, and many articles of pottery. Below the pavement the workmen find virgin-earth. From the particular fituation of Lombard-street, elevated above the level of the marshes, and happily placed to enjoy the advantages of the river, and from the appearances here fpoken of, it is prefumed that it conftituted part of the fite of the ancient Augusta.' Art. XVI. Obfervations on a Picture by Zucarro, from Lord Falkland's Collection, supposed to represent the Game of Primero. By the hon. Daines Barrington.-The picture is a curious one: primero is, however, a game that Mr. Barrington has explained but imperfectly. Art. XVII. Obfervations on the Antiquity of Card-playing in England. By the hon. Daines Barrington. Art. XVIII. Obfervations on Card-playing. By the rev. Mr. Bowle. Art. XVIII *. Some Obfervations on the Invention of Cards, and their Introduction into England. By Mr. Gough.These different authors differ a little in their accounts of the antiquity and invention of cards. We must speak in general, for we cannot reconcile difcordant opinions. Cards were of Spanish origin, but, we fufpect, of Arabian or Saracen invention; though we can trace them with tolerable certainty no farther than Spain. About the middle, or more near to the end of the fourteenth century, they were known in that coun try; and the invention was carried to France, and to Italy; M 3 from : from France it feems to have been imported to England, from the English garrifon at Calais. We have no fatisfactory evidence of cards being common in England till about the middle of the fifteenth century, though they feem to have been introduced about the end of the fourteenth. In the original packs the ten is wanting the coate cards (for that is the term rather than court), reprefented ten, as they do at prefent. The queen was originally a knight, and the change feems to have been made in the gallant court of Paris. In the Spanish cards there were undoubtedly aces, though in fome of the earlier cards of uncertain origin, they feem to have been omitted, or, in the fpecimens which have reached us, are loft.The stamp is on the deuce. Perhaps there may have been some game where the ace was not employed: if a French pack of picquet cards was to reach to future times, an antiquary might ima. gine that the smaller cards were not at this period employed. On an old wrapper there are the Spanish words cartas finnas, though the rest of the infcription is in French, and the vender is an Englishman. This fact plainly thows from whence they were firft procured; for we ftill retain on our fealing-wax the Dutch infeription, Fyn Segellack, &c. because it was for merly on the wax imported from Holland. Art. XIX. Obfervations on our ancient Churches. By the rev. Mr. Ledwich, F. A. S.-Thefe obfervations deferve much attention: Mr. Ledwich, to the accuracy of an antiquary joins the erudition of a scholar, The British and the Roman tyle of churches is, in this article, well difcriminated; and what we ftyle the Saxon, our author thinks, is the Roman arch, while the Gothic, which we have been ufed to attribute to the Saracens, is a corrupted form of the ruder ages, and not older than the tenth century. It is not the form of the arch, but the ornaments and mouldings alfo, that diftinguifht the kind of architecture which, though ftyled Roman, was probably brought from the Eaft, as the earlier and more zealous Chriftians would reject the temples of idols, and every form connected with paganifm. In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, the architects, in our author's opinion, were not fo fcrupulous: they borrowed their ornaments from the Roman temples, and feemed to prefer thofe which were erected in the time of Adrian, and which the Egyptian fuperftitions had deformed with the monstrous reprefentations of the most contemptible idolatry. This is the ftyle of the capitals in the French church at Canterbury. These were firft introduced into France and Spain in the fecond century, by Bafilides, who debafed Christianity with many eaftern fupertitions. Art. Art. XX. A circumstantial detail of the Battle of Lincoln A. D. 1217. By the rev. Samuel Pegge. It is impoffible to abridge this particular detail of the battle of Lincoln, fought in the year 1217. on the acceffion of Henry III. It is compiled from the earliest and best informed hiftorians. Art. XXI. Some Account of the Brimham Rocks in York-fhire. By Hayman Rooke, Efq.-There is no fubject on which an eager antiquary may more certainly mislead the reader, than in those natural productions where art is, in fome degree, confpicuous, or where peculiar forms may give the appearance of defign to what is really accidental. Major Rooke describes many rocking ftones, and one which he calls an oracular flone; but, though we allow that these were fometimes confecrated places, and the rocks themfelves emblems of a divinity, yet a very accurate enquiry is necessary before we can pronounce every peculiar form of stone to be the effects of Druidical art, or confider every moving rock as fubfervient to divination or religion. The fituation of these rocks is often of confiderable importance in the decision. One of the largest rocks, moved with the least force, that we have seen, evidently owes its motion to accident. It is a valt maís, feparated from a mountain, where the fides, once contiguous, are evidently difcernible: we know two rocks which owe their motion to the effects of the tides; and it is remarkable, that thefe rocks reft on knobs like fome which major Rooke has figured, and whofe mobility is attributed to art. Natural history muft, therefore, come to the aid of the antiquary; and the nature of the rocks, their fituation, and the natural history of the adjoining country, will be required, before it will be easy to decide on the origin of their motion. In general, the Druids feem to have taken advantage of natural circumstances, and the very little art which we perceive in any of their monuments, forbid us to look very deeply for the caufes of their choice, or for their execution. The greater number of thefe ftones, as far as we can judge from the ap pearance of the plates, are indebted for their motion to their peculiar nature, and to accidental circumftances. The oracular tone is, however, very curious, and the effect is, in fome degree, artificial. We shall extract our author's account of it. No, 7. reprefents an eat view of a very fingular kind of mo nument, which I believe has never been taken notice of by any antiquary. I think I may call it an oracular ftone, though it goes by the name of the Great Cannon. It rests upon a bed of rock, where a road plainly appears to have been made leading to the hole, which at the entrance is three feet wide, fix feet deep, and about three feet fix inches high. Within this aperture, on the right hand is a found hole, two feet diameter, M4 рега perforated quite through the rock, fixteen feet, and running from fouth to north. In the above mentioned aperture, a man might lay concealed, and predict future events to thofe that came to confult the oracle, and is heard diftinctly on the north fide of the rock, where the hole is not vifible. This might make the credulous Britons think the predictions proceeded folely from the rock deity. The voice on the outfide is as diftin&tly conveyed to the perfon in the aperture, as was several times tried. The circumference of this rock is ninety-fix feet. There is reafon to fuppofe, that people in the dark ages of Druidifm, imagined that the rock idols had a power of articu lation. There is a remarkable story in Giraldus Cambrenfis, which shows, that the common people in his days, attributed the power both of fpeaking and protecting to thefe facred rocks, There was a large flat ftone, ten feet long, fix wide, and one foot thick, which, in his time, ferved as a bridge over the river Alun, at St, David's in Pembrokeshire. It was called in British leek lavar, that is, the fpeaking tone, and the vulgar tradition was, that when dead body was, on a.time, carrying over, this flone fpoke, and with the ftruggle of the voice cracked in the middle, and the chink, from which the voice iffued, was then to be feen. In this fimple ftory, the remains of that part of the Druid fuperftition, of which we are treating, are clearly to be perceived.' The curiofity of this quotation must apologise for its length. The many articles of this volume that remain, will be examined, in a future Number. Elements of Natural Hiftory, and of Chemistry. By M. da Fourcroy. Tranflated into English. With occafional Notes, and an Hiftorical Preface, by the Tranflator. 4 Vols. 8vo. 11. 45. in Boards. Robinfons. WE have been for fome time unufually anxious to promote the study and the progress of chemiftry in this kingdom, by pointing out errors in many publications, particularly thofe which relate to medical chemistry, and directing the attention of authors to thofe fyftems where they may ob tain better information. After having taken the lead in fcience, England is left behind in chemical enquiries; and, though, we boast of many distinguished chemifts, yet chemistry is not generally ftudied works of real utility are deformed by the groffeft errors; and thefe, whofe general knowlege is respectable, lofe the credit which they might have obtained by a flight attention to this fubject. We have reviewed M. Fourcroy's works, in the order of their publication, from the first English edition of the Leçons Elementaires, in our fifty-ninth volume. The Supplementary Obfervations we confidered in the fixtieth, and the original of this new edition was shortly noticed in the laft volume of our Journal. A work that we recom recommended, for we wished that it might be tranflated anew,” we cannot but approve of; and, from the ability which the tranflator has difplayed, we think it could not have fallen into better hands. His ideas are clear and precife; his intelligence extenfive, and his language neat. The part which we have tranflated, differs from the paffage in the tranflation before us, and from the original. In fact, it was taken from the preliminary differtation in another form, and differs rather in appearance than in reality. Of the errors which we noticed in that article, one only is amended; and, indeed, that part of the work must have been printed off before the appearance of our Number. The error which is altered is that of the language rather than of the chemical opinions. The tranflator has executed his task very well; and indeed the language of Fourcroy falls easily into good English. We differ from him occafionally only in little words, and in a few circumstances, where the error arifes from a fight inadver. tency. In reviewing the few remarks that we made in com paring different parts of thefe volumes with the original, we: find them too trifling to mention. Precis' is more properly an abstract, than an account, Perhaps the modern galles may be truly fajd not to have all the properties of air;' but Fourcroy obferves, that they have not in general its properties, In short, it would be unpleafing to the reader, disadvantageous to the tranflator, and highly difagreeable to ourselves, to enlarge in this microfcopical kind of criticifm, in a work where the faults have no real importance. Chatoyant is that kind of white which the eye of a cat affumes in the dark: the tranflator obferves, truly, that there is no English word for it: the idea is that of a femi-tranfparent whiteness. In other views, this work will not, at prefent, form an object of very extenfive difcuffion. We gave a pretty full ac count of the first edition; of the memoirs of chemistry, whose fubftance is interwoven in the prefent volumes; and a general plan of the changes in the prefent edition, with an outline of the preliminary differtation. Our chief object is, therefore, at prefent, the tranflator, the hiftorical preface, and the notes. In his preface we have a very neat, as well as a concise and correct view of the origin of the doctrine of a phlogistic principle, and of the fatal wound which it received from M. La. yoifier,—a wound which, however, gave occafion to a new difcovery that, once established, will have the most extensive influence; we mean, the compofition of water. We fhall transcribe the first accidental experiment that led to the fact of the compofition of this common element. Previous to the month of October, 1776, the celebrated Macquer, affifted by M. Segaud de la Fond, made an experi ment, |