fall down headlong. Others there are who are still more expert in these amusements on the ice, they place certain bones, the leg-bones of some animal, under the soles of their feet, by tying them round their ankles, and then taking a pole, shod with iron, into their hands, they push themselves forward by striking it against the ice, and are carried along with a velocity equal to the flight of a bird, or a bolt discharged from a cross-bow.* Sometimes two of them, thus furnished, agree to start opposite one to another, at a great distance; they meet, elevate their poles, attack and strike each other, when one or both of them fall, and not without some bodily hurt; and even after their fall, they shall be carried a good distance from each other, by the rapidity of the motion; and whatever part of your head comes upon the ice; it is sure to be laid bare to the scull. Very often the leg or the arm of the party that falls, if he chances to light upon either, is broken: but youth is an age ambitious of glory, fond and covetous of victory; and that in future time it may acquit itself boldly and valiantly in real engagements, it will run these hazards in sham ones. Many of the citizens take great delight in fowling, with merlins, hawks, and such like, as likewise in hunting; and they have a right and privilege of hunting in Middlesex, Hertfordshire, in all the Chiltern country, and in Kent, as far as the river Cray. "The Londoners, at that time called Trinovantes, * Of this rude and simple kind of skating, this is, probably, the first description on record. repulsed Julius Cæsar, a man who ever marked his passage with the slaughter of his foes: hence Lucan says, Britain he sought, but turn'd his back dismay'd.' "This city hath produced some, who conquered many kingdoms, and in particular subdued the Roman empire:* it hath also generated many others, whose military valour hath exalted them to the skies, as was thus promised to Brutus by the oracle of Apollo : Brutus, there lies beyond the Gallic bounds Which time shall ne'er destroy, nor bounds confine.' "After the Christian religion had been planted here, London gave birth to Constantine the Great,t son of the Empress Helen, who, by donation, conferred the City of Rome, and all the insignia of the empire, upon God, and St. Peter, and Pope Sylvester, whose stirrup he condescended to hold,‡ and after In this passage Fitz-Stephen alludes to the stories of Ebraucus, Belinus, Brennius, and Gurgiunt Babtruc, as narrated by Geoffrey of Monmouth. + That Constantine was born in Britain has been fully established by Drake, in his Eboracum, but it is most probable that his birth-place was York, and not London, as here asserted by Fitz-Stephen. ‡ The grant here spoken of is admitted to have been a forgery by Papists as well as Protestants; and the story of Constantine holding the Pope's stirrup is alike legendary. wards declined to be called Emperor, as choosing rather to be styled the Defender of the holy Roman Church. And, lest the peace and tranquillity of our Lord the Pope should be molested by his presence, and by secular tumults and disorders consequent thereupon, he was pleased to leave the City, after he had invested his Holiness with it, and to found the City of Constantine for himself. London, also, in more modern times, hath been the cradle of some illustrious and Great Princes, the Empress Matilda, King Henry III.* and the blessed Archbishop Thomas, the glorious Martyr of Christ; than whom, to every person of worth throughout the whole Roman [Latin] world, The place ne'er bore A Soul more candid, nor a surer Friend.' * It has been conjectured, by different writers, that this is a clerical error for Henry II. ; yet all the manuscripts agree in reading tertium, though it is "demonstrable," as Dr. Pegge has remarked, that "the Description was written in the reign of Henry II." Neither Henry II. nor Henry III. were, however, born in London; the former being a native of Mentz, in Germany, and the latter of the City of Winchester. But the "Henricum Regem tertium" of Fitz-Stephen, was, according to Dr. Pegge's ingenious supposition, Henry, son of Henry II. who was actually born in London (vide Sandford's Genealogical History,” p. 66), and crowned King in his father's life-time. He also exercised all the rights and prerogatives of a sovereign, but died before his father, in 1182. Fitz-Stephen, therefore, with sufficient correctness, has designated him under that title by which he would have been recorded in our Annals had he survived his parent, 66 BAPTISMAL COIN OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT, That Roman Money was coined in Great Britain during the Lower Empire, is unquestionable, but there is a considerable degree of uncertainty in rightly appropriating those Coins which have escaped the lapse of time and the accidents of ages. This arises from the difficulty of ascertaining the true meaning of the letters in the EXERGUES, but which are generally considered as standing for the initials of those towns where the respective coins were struck. Thus the letters P. L., which Jobert, wherever they occur, reads Pecunia Lugduni, "the Money of Lyons," are, by his Commentator, read Pecunia Londini," the Money of London :" a careful examination of circumstances is, therefore, necessary, before we can positively fix the place wherein any particular coin, thus inscribed, had its origin. Constantine the Great, the first of the Roman Emperors that embraced Christianity, was born in this country in the year 274. He was the son of Constantius Chlorus, who governed Britain, and Helena, a female of obscure birth, who had been initiated in the Christian doctrine, and is said to have instructed her son in the same belief. It is evident, however, that for some time after he came to the Imperial throne he still adhered to the rites of heathenism, as all his early coins bear the impress and inscription of heathen worship, being frequently dedicated Jovi Conservatori," to Jupiter the Preserver," and to other deities of the heathen mythology.* His direct conversion, according to Ecclesiastical writers, was effected by a miracle in the year 312, when proceeding towards Rome to contend for empire with Maxentius. Eusebius states, that the Emperor himself declared to him, and confirmed it with an oath, that when on his march, near Verona, and whilst meditating on the difficulties of his situation," he was roused from deep thought by a bright light which suddenly illumined the sky, and looking up, he saw the sun, which was in its meridian, surmounted by a cross of fire, and beneath it this inscription, TOUт xα, "In this Conquer."Struck by this preternatural appearance, he immediately adopted the cross as his ensign, and formed upon the spot the celebrated Labarum, or Christian Standard, under which he marched forward, and having rapidly triumphed over all his enemies, had his new Standard everywhere substituted for the Roman eagle, and all his future coins bore an impress and legend strictly applicable to the extraordinary events of his conversiou.t Constantine deferred his baptism till increasing sickness and debility warned him that his days were * See Walsh's "Essay on Ancient Coins," &c. "as Illustrating the Progress of Christianity," p. 90: edit. 1828. Ibid, p. 91. The Labarum, according to Eusebius, was a spar crossed by an arrow, on which was suspended a velum, having inscribed on it the monagram, formed by the Greek letters chi and rho, the initials of Christ. |