PRUSSIA.

Prussia was anciently possessed by the Venedi, whose kings were anciently descended from Athirius, first king of the Heruli on the Baltic, 320 B. C. The Venedi were conquered by the Borussi, who inhabited the Riphoan Mountains. Hence the country was called Bo-Russia, or Prussia. It consists of two great divisions: the eastern, or larger portion; and the western, or smaller portion.

PEERLESS POOL.

Peerless Pool, City Road, was anciently a public conduit, which supplied the metropolis with water, before the New River was brought to London by Sir Hugh Myddleton. Stow speaks of it as “a cleere water, called Perilous Pond, because," says our chronicler, "divers youths, by swimming therein, have been drowned." Again he says, "Upon Saturday the 19th of January, 1633, sixe pretty young lads, going to sport themselves upon the frozen ducking pond, neere to Clearkenwell, the ice too weake to support them, fell into the water, concluding their pastime with the lamentable losse of their lives; to the great griefe of many that saw them dying, many more that afterwards saw them dead, with the inexpressible griefe of their parents." This water was afterwards filled up, and rendered entirely useless, till one Kemp, an eminent jeweller of the city of London, who had a high opinion of this water, having got clear of a violent pain in the head by bathing in it, to which he had for many years been subject, generously reopened the same spring for the public benefit in the year 1743, and formed the completest swimming-bath in the whole world; and in reference to the improvements he had made on the ruins of that once Perilous Pond, and by a very natural transition, he changed that disagreeable appellation of perilous, "that is," says Maitland, "dangerous or hazardous, to the more agreeable name of Peerless Pool, that is, Matchless Bath, a name which carries its own reason with it."

PALATINATE OF DURHAM.

Guthred being seated on the throne of Northumberland, under the auspices of Alfred, the sovereigns, as a joint act, granted, that wherever St. Cuthbert's remains should rest, there should be an inviolable sanctuary; and that the possessions of St. Cuthbert and his church, as well such as were at that time, or theretofore granted, as those which might thereafter be acquired by purchase or otherwise, should be for ever freed and discharged from all customs and services, and should be held and enjoyed by the church, with all such sovereign jurisdiction and power as the

demesne of the crown was held; and this was confirmed by the acclamations of the assenting people, assembled on this solemn occasion, and became an ordinance established for ever. This was the origin of the "Jura regalia," which dignifies the "Palatine of Durham." Durham is derived from Dun-holm, i.e., a town in a wood.

PACIFIC OCEAN.

Otherwise called the South Sea, lying between Asia and America, and upwards of 10,000 miles in breadth. When Magalhaens entered this ocean, through the dangerous strait that bears his name, he sailed three months and twenty days in a uniform direction to the N.W. without discovering land, and enjoyed such uninterrupted fair weather, with fair winds, that he gave the ocean the name of Pacific.

POLAND.

The name Poland is said to be derived from the Sclavonian word Pole, which signifies plain and even, as is the face of this country. Some derive it from Polachi, which signifies the posterity of Lechus, who is held to be the founder of this monarchy. But it is very doubtful, as the history of Poland previous to the introduction of Christianity is involved in great obscurity.

PALESTINE.

It was called Palestine from the Philistines, who inhabited the sea-coasts. It was also called Judea, from Juda; and the Holy Land, from our Saviour's residence and sufferings; and it is called Canaan and the Promised Land, in the Scriptures. It is 180 miles in length, and 80 in breadth; and in the time of Solomon it seems to have extended from the Mediterranean Sea to the river Euphrates. As a part of Asiatic Turkey, it is bounded by Mount Lebanus, which divides it from Syria on the north; by Mount Herman, which separates it from Arabia de Serta, on the east; by the mountains of Seir, and the deserts of Arabia Petræa, on the south; and by the Mediterranean Sea, on the west.

RECULVERS.

These ruins, viewed with such peculiar interest by those who visit the isle of Thanet, and which are a well-known water-mark to mariners, was called by the Romans, Regulbium; by the Saxons, first Raculf, afterwards Raculfcester, on account of its castle, and then Raculfminster, from the monastery afterwards built there. In the time of the Romans it had a watch-tower and fort, said to be built by Severus, anno 205; in which, as the

"Notitia" tells us, "lay in garrison the first cohort of the Vetasians." Its two spires, commonly called “the Sisters" (from the romantic notion of their being built by relatives, who went from thence on a pilgrimage and returned in safety), are of great utility as a landmark, and from the pier of Margate and the neighbouring cliffs may be viewed distinctly. For a full and interesting account of Reculver, see Mr. G. R. Smith's Antiquities of Richborough, Reculver, and Lymne.

RIEVAULX ABBEY, YORKSHIRE.

*

Rievaulx Abbey, as it is termed, is the most superb ruin in England. It is on the estate of Charles Slingsby Duncombe, Esq., of Duncombe Park. In the vicinity also, is a Roman Catholic College. If ever, reader, you sojourn at the ancient city of York, forget not to visit Duncombe Park and Rievaulx Abbey. A pleasant ride of fifteen miles will bring you to this second Elysium, where your curiosity will be amply repaid. The following notice is taken of it, by a spirited little work of the present day. “In the reign of Henry I. flourished St. Bernard, abbot of Clairval, a man full of devotion, and chief of many monks, some of whom he sent to England about A.D. 1128, 28th of Henry I., who were honourably received by both king and kingdom, and particularly by Sir Walter L'Espec; who, about A.D. 1131, allotted to some of them a solitary place in Blackmore, near Hemelac, now Helmsley, surrounded by steep hills, and covered with wood and ling, near the angles of three different vales, with each a rivulet running through them; that passing by where the abbey was built being called Rie, whence this vale took its name, and this religious house was thence called the abbey of Rie-val or Rie-vale.+ The descent of this valley reaches chiefly from north to south. Here William, the first abbot (one of these monks sent by Bernard), a man full of great virtue, and of an excellent memory, began the building of the monastery, and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary, which the said Sir Walter L'Espec amply endowed." Again, "the site was granted, in exchange for other lands, to Thomas Earl of Rutland, in 30th of Henry VIII.; and from him it descended to the dissolute George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham; and from him, by purchase, to Sir Charles Duncombe, knight, from whom it passed to his grand-nephew, Thomas Duncombe, Esq. M.P., who, in 1758, erected one of the finest terraces in England on the brink of the hill that overlooks the ruin, and a temple at each end of the walk; one of which is enriched with mythological paintings by Bernice, an Italian artist. The view from the woody steep of these Ionic temples surpasses all conception; 'suffice it,' to quote the words of a descriptive author on the *Now vulgarly called " Helmsley Blackamoor."

Now corrupted to Rieeaulx.

subject, who says, 'to be believed, it must be seen; and, once seen, can never be forgotten.""

RED SEA.

So called, not from any redness of either water or weeds, &c., but because anciently styled the Sea of Edom (as being partly on the coast of Edom). The Greeks, knowing that Edom signified red, by mistake called it the Erythrean, or Red Sea.

RICHMOND.

The ancient name for Richmond, or Rich Mound, was Sheen, which signifies splendour; but when Henry VII. rebuilt the royal palace, he called it Richmond, from his having borne the title of Earl of Richmond before his accession. The choice of a walk in a place like Richmond, where all is beauty, is rather perplexing, the more so to him who pays his first visit. We are invariably at a loss to know, out of the vast number of paths, which to adopt:

The Saxon division of the county of Sussex into Rapes, which in the singular number is Saxon for district, or barony, and which term is peculiar to Sussex, was strictly adhered to at the Conquest. To each was annexed a castle, with large demesnes. There are six Rapes, with their separate baronies, as originally granted. Chichester and Arundel were held jointly by Montgomerie and De Albine, in succession, till the extinction of the last-mentioned family, when the barony was held to have ceased by reason of partition.-The Rape of Bramber was given to William de Bariose; Lewes, to William de Warren; Hastings, to Robert de Owe; and Pevensey, to the Earl of Mortein.

ROME.

His

Romulus commenced the foundations of Rome, 753 B.C. brother Remus was slain by him, or his workmen, for having ridiculed the slenderness of the walls. Thus raised in blood, they became the sanctuary of refugees and criminals, and to increase the population, neighbouring females (the Sabine women) were forcibly dragged within its boundaries. Such was the origin of the once mighty city of Rome, which derives its name from its

founder, and it was governed by a succession of kings to the year

510 B.C.

OLD SARUM.

Few places have exercised the ingenuity of etymologists more than this. Old Baxter will have it to be a corruption of the British Sur-Avon, that is, angry or violent river, which ran at the base of the hill on which is placed Old Sarum, and flows through the streets of the new. Johannes Sarisburiensis calls it Severia,

from the emperor Severus; but the Roman name of Sorbiodunum is much nearer the mark, being an almost literal translation of its original British appellation, Caer Sarflog, the fortified place abounding with the Service Tree. Now, Sorbus is Service Tree in Latin, and dunum is a common Latin termination for places which have the adjunct dun, or caer, in the British; so that it was impossible to Latinize the word with less violence to the original.

STONEHENGE.

These venerable and ancient piles have been the subjects of much unprofitable speculation. A curious old work, entitled Campion's Historie of Irland, has the following: "In the plain of Kildare stood that monstrous heap of stones, brought thither by gyants from Afrique, and removed thence to the plain of Salisbury, at the instance of Aurelius Ambrose, king of Britain!" It is, however, the general opinion of antiquaries, that it was an ancient temple of the Druids, or at any rate, that it was employed by them for the celebration of some of their mysteries. In the year 1797, three of the stones which formed part of the oval in the centre fell to the earth, and this appears to have been the only instance on record of any alteration having taken place in these remains of antiquity. Such, indeed, is the general fascination imposed on all those who view this mysterious monument of antiquity, that no one can quit its precincts without feeling strong sensations of surprise and admiration. The rustic, with a vacant stare, will attribute it to some imaginary race of giants, and the antiquary, equally uninformed as to its origin, will regret that its history is veiled in perpetual obscurity; even the most indifferent passenger over the plain of Salisbury, must be attracted by the solitary and magnificent appearance of these ruins; and all with one accord will exclaim, "How grand! how wonderful! how incomprehensible!" Stukeley, Webb, and others, state, that the said pile of stones were originally Druidical altars, on which the Druids made their periodical sacrifices to their deities! Jeffrey of Monmouth ascribes the erection of it to Merlin, who, as he lived in the time of AureliusAmbrosius-in Welsh, Emrys-is called Merddin Emrys, to commemorate the Saxon treachery, in the massacre of the British