Fall of PART OF DENBIGH CASTLE.-Much alarm has been occasioned in Denbigh by the fall of a large portion of the solid old masonry of its ancient castle. Nearly forty yards of wall fell with a crash that was heard at an immense distance. A row of cottages built just below, with one exception, happily escaped without injury, but they were in great danger of being overwhelmed. It appears that the western side of the edifice is built upon a precipitous bank, and it is thought that the long continued rains, succeeded by the recent frosts, have loosened the soil on which the walls stood, and caused the unexpected downfall. We understand that the crown surveyor has received directions to inspect the ruins.

DISCOVERY OF A SEPULCHRAL URN.-On the 27th of January last, the men employed in a gravel pit adjoining the Caernarvon Railway, near Waterloo Port, discovered a barrow full of supposed human bones; and, within three yards of the same spot, they dug out, on the following Saturday, a sepulchral urn. The urn is, we understand, of red clay, in shape resembling the common Roman vase. It contained calcined bones and ashes. The spot at which the relic was found is about twenty yards from the Menai shore; and Porthamal, at which a celebrated battle was fought, is situated in the immediate vicinity on the Anglesey side, where similar remains have been brought to light. The urn is now in the possession of Mr. Israel Evans, gatekeeper, Waterloo Port.

PETRIFIED TORTOISE. In reply to this query in our last Number a geological friend says, that "the so-called petrified tortoise is doubtless a trilobite, one of the marine crustaceans which abound at intervals in the slaty rocks of the region in which it was found."

ERRATA. In the Report of the Cambrian Archæological Association, read at the Ludlow Meeting, also in the Preface to Vol. III. New Series, for "J. Peake," read "R. Peake."

COLLECTANEA ANTIQUA.-We are glad to learn that Mr. Smith intends to continue this periodical. The volume for the present year will include papers on the Anglo-Saxon sepulchral remains discovered at Osengal in Thanet; Roman architectural remains found at Wroxeter, near Shrewsbury; the Roman bridge near Tadcaster, and on some Roman sepulchral remains discovered near Dorchester, Dorset, &c.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF ANCIENT ART, SELECTED FROM OBJECTS DISCOVERED AT POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM.-We have much pleasure in calling the attention of our readers to this proposed work, a subject well worthy of their notice, as the materials to be used have been hitherto attainable only in very costly books, and we much want an illustrated manual of classical antiquities. It is proposed in a small quarto volume to illustrate the arts and habits of the people of the above-named most interesting towns. Subscribers' names will be received by the Rev. E. Trollope, Leasingham, Sleaford, Lincolnshire.

Reviews.

Y GODODIN. A POEM ON THE BATTLE OF CATTRAETH. By ANEURIN, a Welsh Bard of the Sixth Century. With an English Translation, and numerous Historical and Critical Annotations, by the Rev. JOHN WILLIAMS, (Ab Ithel,) M.A., Rector of Llanymowddwy, Merioneth. Llandovery: Published by William Rees. London: Longman and Co. 1852.

In these days of philological and historical research, when the archives of nations are ransacked and the fountain heads of languages are explored, every literary contribution that throws even the smallest light on the objects of investigation is hailed as an important acquisition not only to the people or locality immediately concerned, but also to the cause of ethnology in general. The sifting of legendary Latin history by Niebuhr-the interpretation of Egyptian Hieroglyphics by Champollion-the researches into the structure of the the Mæso-Gothic dialect by Grimm-the Ninevite discoveries of Layard-and the development of the meaning and elucidation of the language of the Gododin by Ab Ithel-all tend to serve the same important purpose, that of connecting the past with the present, by furnishing additional links to the golden chain that binds man to man, and connects nation with nation, in respect of history, manners, and language, however mutually dissimilar, and however remote from each other as to age and country.

To take an interest in the half worn out pavements of a newly discovered city that had been buried for thousands of years; to trace up with pleasure a refined and cultivated language until we find ourselves among its rude elementary beginnings; to conjecture, from the disconnected fragmentary relics of a language, how vivid or how copious it may have been when it flourished most; and, to come to the subject before us, to study the battle field that was the scene of military prowess in a spot that has, from its very antiquity, become obscure; to contemplate alike the armour and the motives of the warriors who then encountered each other in the conflict for victory or death-heroes, whose very names have long sounded half barbaric to ears accustomed only to hear the more soft and sonorous names that fill the pages of modern history, and such is the study of the Gododin;-all this, if one does it in a becoming spirit-a generous unselfish spirit-that has for its practical motto the sentiment of the Latin poet, "nil humani a me alienum puto,"—all this cannot but humanize the heart and warm the feelings, enlightening thereby the mind and the understanding, and improving our moral and social

nature.

The literature of this country is greatly indebted to the learned Rector of Llanymowddwy for this edition of a unique and very archaic poem; a production that illustrates in a very considerable degree the manners of the ancient British people and their habits of

thought; it also, in connexion with the songs of Taliesin and Llywarch Hen, verifies a great number of our national Triads; while at the same time we trace in it the germs of several of our bardic metres, those curious relics of the age of our warrior poets, and, if you please, of our literary monks, who sat encloistered in their homely cells, devising in what shape of verse the sentiments of the battle field and of the religious closet would most effectually and happily strike upon the national ear, accompanied with the sweet modulations of the crwth a thelyn.

The plan of the poem, if indeed it has a plan, and if it be not merely the rhythmical expression of the thoughts as they floated from the mind of the gifted author, irrespective of the effect that might result from artistic arrangement,-the plan of the poem is a very simple one. The beginning consists of pensive and melancholy meditations on the fate of the British chiefs who nobly fell at the battle of Cattraeth, in the unsuccessful attempt to uphold their country's cause against the foe: the middle informs us, more in pathetic hints and descriptive touches than in a continuous narrative, what they did and suffered: the end, and this is the most valuable portion of the work, comprises several episodes relative to the personal character and merits of the principal leaders in the battle.

It has been customary with Welsh critics to regard the Gododin as an epic poem; but even a slight perusal of it will at once convince the classical reader that, so far from being an epic, it is an elegy in memory of the patriotic warriors who fell on the bloody field of Cattraeth. Its composition in this respect somewhat resembles a sorrowful chorus of a Greek tragedy; its structure reminds one very forcibly of that fine chorus of Eschylus in his drama of the Persa, where he makes a body of Persian nobles bewail the fall of their countrymen in their attempt to subjugate Greece, naming them with grief one after another, and feelingly describing their characteristic qualities. This chorus, which forms the opening scene of the above play of the Greek dramatist, will be found to be a very close counterpart of Aneurin's Gododin; the Ariomardes, Megabates, Sosthenes, Artembares, and Masistres of the one, correspond sufficiently with the Owain, Ceredig, Marchleu, Budfan, and Gelorwydd of the other.

The language of the Gododin seems to be pure Welsh, having but a very slight admixture of words of foreign origin. But it is so obsolete that an ordinary Welsh scholar would find it no easy task to construe any two continuous lines of it with success. It is as difficult to a common reader as the ancient songs of the Salian priests were to the ordinary Romans of the time of Cicero, or as the writings of the Venerable Bede would be to an ordinary Englishman of the present day. But Mr. Williams seems, except in a few instances, to have succeeded very happily in deciphering the meaning in his translation, which is so elegantly done as amply to repay perusal even without consulting the original. And he supports his renderings and illustrates the numerous allusions with a very valuable and complete

body of annotations, which evince profound and extensive knowledge, and display a great skill in critical research. As the English language is not, however, the best medium to convey the meaning of such a poem as this, full of abrupt transitions and words of pregnant meaning, it is to be regretted that the volume does not contain a Latin version of it, which, without notes and in a smaller type, would have occupied but a few pages.

A material circumstance that enhances the value of this antique relic of ancient bardism, is the diligent care with which the editor has collated all the known MSS. of the work, and his accurate industry in giving the reader all the various readings. In several instances indeed some scholars will almost regret that he did not introduce into the body of the text what he considers as a various reading; the discriminating student will not however be at a loss on that account; Mr. Williams' merit in this point is above all praise. There can be no hesitation in saying that in this and some other respects the Gododin of Aneurin Gwawdryd is the best edited book in the Welsh language; a book which claims for the editor a place in the first rank of Welsh scholars, as he had long before secured his position in the first class of Welsh Archæologists.

Nor must it be omitted that the clearness and elegance of the type and the excellent quality of the paper reflect the highest credit on the already famed press of the enterprising publisher, Mr. William Rees of Llandovery. NICANDER.

PROCEEDINGS AND PAPERS OF THE HISTORIC SOCIETY of LancaSHIRE AND CHESHIRE. Session Fourth. 1851-52. Liverpool, 1852.

This volume, like its predecessors, is full of interesting matter on various subjects, connected more immediately with the antiquities of Lancashire and Cheshire. They comprehend all periods, the primeval, the British and Saxon, the medieval and modern: and all sections, architecture, topography, genealogy, history, with the allabsorbing miscellaneous. Indeed when we say that that the index occupies no less than twenty-four closely printed columns, our readers will be at no loss to conceive how numerous and diverse the particulars treated of must be; and when we add that the different papers are written by able men, and that several of them are cleverly illustrated, we hope that we shall have excited the desire of many to possess themselves of the book, or rather to apply for admission into the Society, for we find that these Sessional Reports are "printed for the use of the members."

We transcribe the paper on "British Burial Places, near Bolton, county Lancaster," by Matthew Dawes, Esq., F.G.S., as the subject is one peculiarly accordant with the character of our own Journal. It is accompanied by two plates, which Dr. Hume has very kindly favoured us with, illustrative of some of the discoveries therein described::

"In a densely populated manufacturing district, like the neighbourhood of Bolton, it is particularly interesting to find traces of the early inhabitants of this island, which the hand of time and the progress of civilization have still spared to the antiquary. I have therefore thrown together a few notes, briefly describing the British burial places which have been discovered near Bolton, during the last twenty-seven years; within which period five tumuli have been exposed to view, the first, fourth, and fifth of which I personally inspected, accompanied in the latter instance by my friend Sir Henry E. L. Dryden, Bart., to whose pencil this Society is indebted for several of the drawings which illustrate this paper, and for the plan and view of the stone circle hereafter mentioned.

"No. 1. Near Haulgh Hall, about a quarter of a mile south-east from Bolton Parish Church, on a piece of high flat land, on the east bank of the Croal, and about fifty feet above that river, was a tumulus, about thirty feet in diameter and four feet deep, consisting of small boulders. The subsoil here is gravel. It was discovered in September, 1825, in forming a branch of the new road leading from Bolton to Bury. It was probably much depressed since its formation, and was covered with a few inches of mould. The cop, or fence, crossed it in a north and south direction. About the centre of this tumulus was a cist-vaen, about four feet six inches long and one foot deep, formed of four upright stones and a coverer, and its length was nearly north and south. In this cist-vaen was a skeleton, with the legs doubled up, and the head to the north. Near the head and on the west side was found an urn inverted, (fig. 1) four and a half inches in the widest diameter and three and a quarter high, and perforated by four small holes below the widest part. On the other side of the head was a bronzed spear head, four inches and three eighths long and one inch and three-eighths wide, (fig. 2) of which the point was bent back and a piece of the side chipped away. The urn and spear head were taken to the Countess of Bradford, the Earl of Bradford being the owner of the land. The Watling Street from Mancunium (Manchester) to Coccium (Ribchester) running north-west and south-east, passes within three miles north-east of this tumulus.

"A man, in the employ of the Earl of Bradford, the superintendent of the workmen who made the discovery, informs me (1852) that two other tumuli [Nos. 2 and 3] were found shortly after the one just described, a few yards to the south of it in the same fence; but of this fact I was not, until lately, made aware.

"No. 4. The next discovery was made in digging for the foundations of the church lately erected at Walmersley, three miles north of Bolton Parish Church, and about 100 yards west of the turnpike road to Blackburn. This was on the southerly end of a long knoll, on the east side of Eagley brook, and about fifty feet above the water; but surrounded on all sides by much higher hills. The soil is gravel with fine sand. It was discovered in 1838, but I was not informed of the circumstance until some days afterwards, so that my description is taken almost entirely from the workmen. This burial place consisted of a tumulus of boulders, like the one at Haulgh Hall; but these and the earth had, when I visited the spot, been nearly all removed. In the centre of the heap of boulders was a cist-vaen, containing a skeleton, lying north-by-cast and south-by-west, and a grey urn, ill baked, and broken to small fragments by the workmen, from whose information it must have been four or five inches in diameter. With this urn was a white flint celt, or knife, about two inches and a half long, and one inch and a half broad. This flint was afterwards lent by me to a temporary museum at Salford, and thence stolen. On the hill called Turton Heights, about one mile north-by-east of this burial place, is a stone circle, (hereafter described,) and at about a mile and a half south-west, on a part of Smithills Deane, called Egbert Dean, were found about forty years since, a stone hammer, and a bronze paalstab, now (1852) in my possession.

"No. 5. The next and last discovery of this kind was made in November, 1851, on the edge of the west bank of the river Croal, about one mile south-west from Bolton Parish Church, and 100 yards east of the turnpike road to Manchester. The bank is sixty or seventy feet above the water, and commands a view of the surrounding country for some miles, and is composed entirely of gravel. This burial place consisted of a tumulus about fifteen feet diameter, and four feet deep, formed