send some qualified person to take an exact copy of that very antique inscription on the rock at Mount Sinai. It may seem very daring in any one, whilst we have so few data, and while little more is known relating to this inscription, but that it exists, to adventure any conjecture con cerning it, and yet I think one may guess something, from analogy about the subject matter of it. I believe it will prove to be historical, since I have observed that such ancient memorials have been preserved in that manner. "That the most ancient people," says Mr. Wise, "before the invention of books, and before the use of sculpture upon stones, and other smaller fragments, were wont to represent things great and noble, upon entire rocks and mountains, seems so natural, that it is easily imagined and assented to by all. And that the custom was not laid aside for many ages after, is plain from history. Semiramis, to perpetuate her memory, is reported to have cut a whole rock into the form of herself. Hannibal, long after the invention of books, engraved characters upon the Alpine rocks, as a testimony of his passage over them; which characters were remaining about two centuries ago, if we may believe Paulus Jovius. But, what is most to our purpose, it appears to have been particularly the custom of the northern nations, from that remarkable inscription, mentioned by Saxo, and several ages after him delineated, and published by Olaus Wormius. This was inscribed by Harold Hyldeland, to the memory of his father; it was cut on the side of a rock in Runic characters, each letter of the inscription being a quarter of an ell long, and the length of the whole thirtyfour-ells."* These northern examples are indeed the most for this learned author's purpose, who contends that the white horse, in the vale of that name in Berkshire, is a monument of this sort, and was intended to perpetuate the numbers of ancient characters are hewn in the rocks; if a person was sent to live sometime among the Arabs, he might get copies of the characters, and some helps by which the ancient Hebrew characters now lost, may be recovered. He adds, "I do not know whom to apply to, more properly to look out for a suitable person. As to the expence, I am willing to bear any proportion you shall think proper, in order to have this design effected." The Prefetto had with him persons acquainted with the Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Coptic, Latin, Arminian, Turkish, English, Illyrican, German, and Bohemian languages, yet none of them had any knowledge of the characters which were cut in the said rock, twelve and fourteen feet high, with great industry. The bishop declares that he does not make this proposal as a matter of curiosity, but as it may be of great service to the Christian revelation, by corroborating the history of Moses. * Mr. Wise's letter to Dr. Mead, p. 25. VOL. J. L remembrance of a signal victory obtained by the Saxons at Ashdown, under the conduct of king Elfred, over the Danes. But the custom was eastern as well as northern, as appears from that very remarkable instance which we have in captain Hamilton's Account of the East Indies. The author, after giving a short history of that successless attack, which the Dutch made upon the island of Amoy in China, A.D. 1645, adds, "This history is written in large China characters, on the face of a smooth rock that faces the entrance of the harbour, and may be fairly seen as we pass out and in to the harbour."* This is but a late date compared with the monument at mount Sinai; but as the eastern people in general are extremely tenacious of their ancient customs, as appears from the travels both of Dr. Pocock and Dr. Shaw, the conjecture is not the less probable, that this Arabian inscription will be found to afford us some historical fact. MR. Warburton, in the year 1715, caused a survey and plan to be made of the ancient Roman wall and military way, to shew the necessity of rendering it passable for troops and artillery, from the eastern to the western sea; but the rebellion, which had drawn his attention to this subject, being soon after suppressed, the reparation of the way was neclected till it was again wanted in 1745. Upon the suppression of the rebellion which then happened, the work was undertaken, an act of parliament having been passed for that purpose, and Mr. Warburton was among others, appointed to superintend the execution. But he did not desist from his inquiries, when the principal view with which they were begun was disappointed; he extended his survey through the whole county of Northumberland, and discovered almost every day some remains *Hamilton's Voyages, vol. IL p. 241. of cities, castles, camps, or other military antiquities that had been hitherto totally unknown among us; the parts called the wastes appeared never to have been trodden by any human foot since the ruin of the buildings and streets, which he could easily trace by the foundations, though they were covered with grass. An account of these discoveries he has now published, with representations of the Roman inscriptions and sculp tures. There are two walls which cross the north of England, beginning about three miles more eastward than Newcastle, and extending ten miles farther west than Carlisle, at the distance of near seventy miles. One of these walls is of turf, called Hadrian's vallum; the other of stone, called the wall of Severus, and were both intended to keep out the Picts or Scots, for which purpose Julius Agricola had before carried a series of forts or stations across the country in the same direction, and of equal extent. Hadrian's fence consists of a bank or wall on the brink of a ditch, another bank at the distance of about five paces within it, called the south bank, and a third nearly the same distance beyond the ditch to the north. These four works are every where parallel to each other, and probably formed a military way from one part of the old stationary fence to another. To Severus's wall, which is of stone, belongs the paved military way, which is now repairing; it is on the south side of the wall, but not in all parts parallel to it. On the north of this wall there is a large ditch, but no appearance of a bank, though the ground is in some places raised by the earth thrown out of it, and a little resembles a glacis. Castles were placed upon this wall at unequal distances, which, however, except two or three at the east end, are all less than a mile; the buildings appear to have been squares of sixty-six feet, of which the wall itself forms the north side. The space between these castles was equally divided by four watch towers, each of which appears to have been about four yards square at the bottom; and as the centinels in these towers were within call of each other, a communication might easily be continued along the whole line, without the help of speaking trumpets, or subterraneous pipes, contrivances which have been feigned in times of gross ignorance; and as men are generally credulous of wonders in proportion as the time when they are said to have happened is remote, this method of communication appears to have been believed by almost every writer on the subject, and particularly by Echard. There were also upon this wall eighteen larger forts, or stations; the mean distance between these would he about four miles, but they are placed much nearer to each other in the middle, and towards the extremities of the wall, than on the other parts. The wall generally runs along the ridge of the higher ground, the descent being to the enemy on the north; and to preserve this advantage it is frequently carried out, and brought back in an angle. Hadrian's vallum, on the contrary, is continued nearly in a strait line, from station to station; and the paved military way, where the wall passes along the brink of a precipice, or runs into angles, is carried so as to keep the level, and as much as possible the line. It does not appear that there were any gates in this wall, or passes through it, except just in the stations, and where it is crossed by the great military ways from south to north. The original dimensions of the walls, ditches, banks, and military ways, cannot now be certainly known; but Hadrian's wall is thought to have been about eight feet broad, and twelve high, and that of Severus, in thickness measures seven feet, being nearly equal in all parts that remain entire, except at Kirkland's on the Solway Frith, where it is increased to nine feet, for a manifest reason, because at full sea the water has certainly flowed up to it. The breadth of the military way must have been about three Roman paces and a half, as it now measures near seventeen feet. Hadrian's ditch measures nine feet deep, and eleven feet over, which appears to have been its original dimensions, and Severus's ditch is every where wider and deeper. The distance between the two walls, is sometimes scarcely a chain, and sometimes more than fifty; and the distance between Severus's wall and the military way, is generally between two and three chains, sometimes six; and between the two forts west of Shewen Sheels, it is fifteen. The materials of which these walls are constructed may be certainly known by their remains. Hadrian's is of earth, which in some places is mixed with stone, but is no where strengthened by timber. Severus's is of free-stone, and where the foundation was not good, it is built on piles of oak; the interstices between the two faces of this wall are filled with broad thin stones, placed not perpendicularly, but obliquely on their edges; the running mortar or cement was then poured upon them, which, by its great strength and tenacity, bound the whole together, and made it firm as a rock. But though these materials are suffici ently known, it is not easy to guess where they were procured, for many parts of the wall are at a great distance from any quarry of free-stone; and though stone of another kind was within reach, yet it does not appear to have been any where used. It will also be difficult to conceive how the Romans could carry on such a work in the face of an enemy, except it be supposed that it was not then the bounds of their conquest, but that they possessed great part of the country farther north. Of the present state of these walls it will be sufficient to say, that in some places that of Hadrian cannot be traced without difficulty, though in others it continues firm, and its height and breadth are considerable. In some parts of the wall of Severus, the original regular courses are remaining; in some the stones remain upon the spot, though not in a regular disposition; in others, the rubbish is high and distinct, though covered with earth and grass, and frequently the vestiges are extremely faint and obscure, 1754, April. SIR, XXXI. Explanation of the Word BRANDONS, IN the table for twenty-four years, prefixed to the "hore intemerate beate Mariæ Virginis secundum usum romanum," printed by Thielman Kerver, the first column is la date de l'année, the second les brandons, the third pasques, &c. and so afterwards to explain the table it is written, "Qui veult scavoir les brandons, pasques, &c." And it appears evidently from the table, that the brandons correspond to what we call quadragesima, or the first Sunday in Lent. But how comes the first Sunday in Lent to be called les brandons? You will find nothing in any French dictionary, not even in Cotgrave or Menagius, that will clear this; and therefore we must try further. Now Sir Henry Spelman in his Gloss, tells us, that brandeum signifies a veil: these are the words, "Brandeum opperimenti quidpiam sanctorum reliquiis impositum ne te |