therin hath be fownd mennes bones infolitæ magnitudinis, alfo to fepulchres ex fecto lapide. In one was a round veflel of leade covered, and in it afhes and peaces of bones. Thus far Leland. "The walls and gates were entire in the reign of king Henry the fourth, but 'tis uncertain when they were thrown down. At prefent great part of the foundation is vifible on the east and fouth fides of the town, but covered with earth, and overgrown with thorns aud bushes. In the year 1774, a part being uncovered, it was found to be eight feet thick, and about three feet high, built with hewn ftone, ftrongly cemented with lime and fand. The greatest part of the wall has been levelled by improvements in agriculture. "The beautiful Roman pavements, the fquare stones with PONT. MAX. and other infcriptions upon them; the Roman coins, rings, and intaglios which have been found here in fuch abundance, all bear teftimony to the ancient grandeur of this place. A great part of the ground within the old city wall, fouth-east of the town, called the Leaufes, is now pafture and garden-ground. Dr. Stukely fuppofes this fpot, from the name and other circumftances, to have been the Roman Prætorium, or head magistrate's quarters; for llys in the British language, fignifies a court. Large quantities of carved ftone, fays he,' are carried off yearly in carts [meaning from this place] to mend the highways, befides what are useful in building! "A fine mofaic pavement was dug up here in September, 1723, with many coins. I bought a little head, which had been broken' off from a baffo-relievo, and feems, by the tiara, of a very odd fhape, like fortification-work, to have been the genius of a city, or fome of the Deae Matres which are in old infcriptions, fuch like in Gruter, p. 92, The gardener told me he had lately found a fine little brafs image, I fuppofe one of the Lares; but upon a diligent fcrutiny, his children had played it away. Mr. Richard Bishop, owner of the garden, on a hillock near his houfe, dug up a vault fixteen feet long, and twelve broad, fupported with fquare pillars of Roman brick, three feet and a half high, and on it a ftrong floor of terras. There are now feveral more vaults near it, on which grow cherry trees, like the hanging gardens of Babylon. I fuppofe thefe the foundations of a temple, for in the fame place they found feveral ftones of the fhafts of pillars, fix feet long, and bases of stone near as big in compafs as his fummerhoufe adjoining, as he expreffed himself; thefe, with comices very handsomely moulded, and carved with modillons and the like ornaments, were converted into fwine's-troughs. Some of the ftones of the bafes were faftened together with cramps of iron, fo that they were forced to employ horfes to draw them alunder, and they now lie before the door of his houfe as a pavement. Capitals of thefe pillars were likewife found, and a crooked cramp of iron, ten or twelve feet long, which probably was for the architraves of a circular portico. A mofaic pavement near it, and entire, is now the floor of his privy vault. "A por "A portion of one of thefe pillars, and the capital of a pilafter, of the Corinthian order, perhaps the very pieces the Doctor faw, are now in tolerable prefervation in Mr. Bufh's gar, den. The fhaft of this pillar must have been at least twelve feet long, independent of the capital and other members. In the Leaufes alfo, as the workmen were clearing away the ftones and rubbish in the year 1683, they difcovered, about four feet under the furface of the ground, a building of fifty feet long, forty broad, and four, or according to another account, fix feet high, fupported with near a hundred brick pillars. Large iron bars, upon which hung a great number of brick pipes or funnels, were laid from pillar to pillar. The floor was paved with broad bricks, and the roof, which was flat, covered with the fame materials, in many parts of which were flews, or draught-holes; and on the top of all was a coat of terras near a foot thick. This was certainly the beginning of an hypocauft; for the Romans, to whom this building may reafonably be attributed, were very fond of bathing. Dr. Stukeley mentions this hypocauft, but without defcribing it. Speaking further of this place he fays, Sometimes they dig up little ftones as big as a fhilling, with stamps on them. I conjecture they are counterfeit dies to caft money in. We faw a monumental infcription upon a stone of Mr. Ifaac Tibbot's in Cattle-ftreet, in very large letters, four inches long. * It was found at a place half a mile weft of the town, upon the north fide of the Fofs-road, called the Querns, from the quarries of ftone thereabouts. Five fuch ftones lay flatwife upon two walls, in a row, end to end; and underneath were the corpfes of that family, as we may fuppofe. He keeps Julia Cafta's fkull in his fummer-houfe, but people have ftole all her teeth out, for amulets against the ague. Another of the ftones ferves for a table in his garden; 'tis handfomely fquared, five feet long, and three and a half broad, without any infcription. Another is laid for a bridge. over a channel near the crofs in Caftle-ftreet. There were but two of them which had infcriptions; the other infcription perished, being unluckily expofed to the wet in a frosty season, probably of the husband-Several urns have been found thereabouts, being a common burying place. I fuppofe them buried here after Chritianity. Itineraria Curiofa. A fine figure of Apollo in Corinthian brafs, of the height of eighteen inches, was found in the fame gardens about forty years fince, and is now in the Bodleian library at Oxford, by the favour of Thomas Mafter, Efq. who prefented it to the University. And a fmall altar, about feven inches high, was thrown up among the rubbish a few years fince, but there is no infcription on it. This is now in Mr. Bush's poffeffion, and was probably the portable altar of fome poor man, ufed only in the offering of incense or *This ftone alfo ftands in the garden-wall of Thomas Bufh, Efq; in Cirencester. falt falt flour, fuch as Camden mentions in his account of Lancashire, adding, that the Romans raised altars not only to their Gods, but out of a fervile flattery to their Emperors likewife, under the im、 pious title of Numini Majeftatique eorum. At thefe they fell on their knees and worshipped, thefe they embraced and prayed to, before thefe they took their oaths, and, to be short, in these and their facrifices the whole of their religion confifted; so that thofe among them who had no altar, were fupposed to have no O religion, and to acknowledge no deity." Speaking of Religious Foundations Mr. Rudder mentions the difcovery of an impofture in the time of Henry the Eight, "begun and carried on by one Elizabeth Barton, afterwards called the Nun of Kent, and fome priefts that confederated with her. This woman had been for a while troubled with fits, or else counterfeited them, and spoke fuch things as made thofe about her think he was infpired. The parfon of the parish, hoping to draw advantages from this, engaged her for his purpose, and taught her fo to counterfeit thofe fits, if they were ever real, that he became very ready at it. The matter was much noised about, and the priest intending to raife the credit of an image of the bleffed virgin's that was in the church, that fo pilgrimages and offerings might be made to it, alfo engaged one Bocking, a monk of Canterbury,. in the scheme. They taught her to declare in her fits, that the bleffed Virgin appeared to her, and told her she could not be well till the vifited that image. She inveighed against an ill course of life, herefy, and the King's fuit of divorce, then depending; and by many distortions of her body, feemed to be inwardly poffeffed. A day was fet for her cure, and before an affembly of two thoufand people, fhe was carried to that image; where, having acted her fits all over, the feemed fuddenly to be recovered, which was af cribed to the interpofition of the virgin, and the virtue of the image. Upon this the entered into a religious life, and Bocking was her ghoftly father. There were violent fufpicions of incontinence between them, but the esteem she was in bore them down. Many thought her a prophetefs; and Archbishop Warham among the reft. A book was written of her revelations, and a letter fhewed in characters of gold, faid to be fent to her from heaven by Mary Magdalen. She pretended that when the King was laft at Calais, he was carried invifibly beyond fea, and brought back again; that an angel gave her the facrament; and that God revealed to her, that if the king went on in his divorce, and married another wife, he should fall from his crown, and not live a month longer. Bihop Fier, and many monks, friers and nuns, gave credit to this, and grew very infolent upon it. Her confederates published her revelations in all parts of the kingdom, whereupon the and nine of her accomplices were apprehended, who, without rack or torture, confefied the whole confpiracy, and were appointed to to St. Paul's, wh.re, after a fermon preached on that o go 3 occafion occafion by the Bishop of Bangor, they repeated their confeffion in the hearing of the people, and were fent prifoners to the Tower. But it was given out that all was extorted from them by violence, and meffages were fent to the nun, defiring her to deny all that he had confeffed; which made the King judge it neceffary to proceed to farther extremities. So fhe and fix of her accomplices were attainted of treason; and on the twentieth of April following were executed at Tyburn; where freely acknowledging her impofture, and the justice of the fentence, fhe laid the blame on thofe that fuffered with her; and concluded her life, begging pardon both of God and the King. "If this impofture had fallen out in a darker age, in which the world went mad after vifions, the King might have loft his crown by it. This discovery difpofed all to look on older ftories of the trances of monaftical people, as contrivances to ferve base purpofes, and made way for the destruction of that order of men in England." We fhall conclude our account of this Hiftory of Gloucefterfhire, with laying before our readers fome of the moft curious Epitaphs to be found in the different parishes of the county, and which Mr. Rudder feems to have collected with great care and induftry. In the parish of St. John Baptift, in the city of Gloucefter we meet with the two following monumental infcriptions. "Upon a large grave ftone, in grey marble, which was in the chancel before the old church was demolished, but now altered, or taken away, was a plate of brafs, on which the effigy of a man at length between two wives and feveral children, was engra ven, and the following infcription, in old black character: "Here under buried John Semys lyeth, "Upon an ancient flone, engraved on brafs, the effigies of a man in armour, and a woman attired in her proper habit. The man has a sword by his fide, his fpurs on, and at his feet a greyhound couchant, There are alfo the following arms, and infcription: Quarterly, 1. Cheveron. 2. A pile 3. Checky, on a bend three lions paffant. 4. A cross charged with a leopard's head cabofhed. John John a Brigges, Gentilman, lyeth buryed here, ] Have this in mynd and parfite memorie, That prayen for John Brigges and Agnes his wife, For,cherite feith Pater Nofter and Ave." "Not many years ago there was a griffin's head, which was their creft, above the effegies." In the church-yard of St. Katherine's, alias St. Ofwald's, the following Epitaph may be seen. "Here lyeth old Mr. Richard Tully, He died -March, 1619." The following feems to be the Epitaph of a hen-pecked husband, written by himself. "From ev'ry bluftrous storm of life, Which Christ beftows, fhall never cease." Some writers have fpiritualized a pipe of tobacco. The author of the following Epitaph feems to to have fpiritualized a lady's dress. " Here |