Paid to the same, the expence of a horse from September 1st, on which day the hunting-season began, after the dead-season, to the 19th of November, 80 days, at three-pence per day P. 103. Paid to William d' Blatherwyck, huntsman of the King's fox-dogs, for wintershoes for himself and his two boys, to each of them two shillings and four-pence P. 317. Paid to the same, for his habit during the present year Paid to the same for habits for his two boys, ten shillings each £.23 7 1 If these sums are multiplied by fifteen, there will be nearly the due allowance made for the difference in the value of money between that time and the present*; and consequently the whole of the King's annual expence under this article amounted to somewhat more than three hundred and fifty pounds six shillings and three-pence of our money. Nor was this by any means a trivial charge, if it be considered upon how small a scale this part of his Majesty's establishment was formed; for it consisted of only the huntsman, two boys, twelve dogst, and one horse to carry the toils. Such a hunt, though honoured by the title of royal, would be ridiculed by the subscribers to a modern fox-hunt. The cry of a dozen dogs (qu. terriers?) could make but a slight impression upon the ears of persons accustomed to the burst of twenty-five couple, and more, of hounds, which is apt to *This calculation is made without taking into the account the last article, amounting to 17. 4s. Od. which appears in the original Latin statement. E. + Besides these dogs, there is no other mentioned in the MS. except the hare-greyhound, leporar' gruar', at p. 96.-Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, derives the term greyhound from grig hund, (Saxon,) canis venaticus; though a hunting-hound seems to be an addition too general. May it not rather be a corruption of the French gruier, in Latin gruarius, a principal officer noticed in the forest laws; thus distinguishing a dog that must have been in high estimation for its fleetness in coursing in an uninclosed country. The allow ance for fetching this greyhound by the King's command, and keeping it, was 11. 4s. Od. It is obvious that it could not be, according to the notion of Chambers, with respect to the colour of the dogs, that they were stiled grey, or gray; but green, with allusion to the kind of ground over which they generally ran, would not have been un-apposite, for the like reason that verdurers of forests are thus denominated. "Gruier, Gallis, apud quos idem, secundum locorum discrimina, qui verdier, forestier, &c, ex quibus pronum est vocis etymon, ex Germanico nempe gruen, vel groen, viridiş; unde nostris iridarius, idem quod gruarius," Du Fresne, ad verbum. excite so great an ebullition of joy, as seems for a time to deprive them of their senses, and stimulate them to "o'er the hedge high-bound,-into the perilous flood bear fearless, and of the rapid instinct full, rush down the dangerous steep."-This choice of glorious perils was not, however, indulged to their ancestors; since it appears from the entries, that they were pedestrian hunters. Mortua seisona, as here used, are words that merit our attention. To the generality of people, the warm and fertile months of May, June, July, and August, are enlivening and cheerful; though by fox-hunters of former days it was deemed a dead season of the year. And from some expressions that have occasionally dropped from sportsmen of this class, with whom I have the pleasure of conversing, I am inclined to suspect that the epithet dead, when prefixed to summer, is, in their opinion, pertinent and emphatic. But it is a lucky circumstance, that the late revival of the play with bows and arrows has somewhat lessened the torpidity of the hunter's vacation. The same phrase brings to my mind a glaring anachronism advanced by Mr. Addison in one of the entertaining papers he is supposed to have written whilst he was visiting Sir Roger de Coverley; who, we are told, hunted almost every day in the first fortnight in July: an idea surely as incongru ous, and to a farmer as horrid, as Sterling's hot buttered rolls for breakfast in that month was to Lord Ogleby! The conclusion I draw from this lapse of the pen is, that Coverley-hall was situated at either Chelsea or Islington; and that Mr. Spectator was not ambling upon the chaplain's easy pad, but walking over the Five Fields, or the Spa Fields, when he had in view the imaginary doubles of the Hare*. And perhaps in this my trailing I may have been so often at a fault, as to betray my having no right to the signature of W. D. FOXHUNTE P. 308. Will'o de Foxhunte, venatori Regis vulper venanti in diversis forestis et parcis ad vulpes, pro vadiis suis, et duorum garcionum custod' canes Regis vulper', a 20 die Novembr', anno presenti 28, incipiente usque 19 diem ejusdem mensis anno revoluto, per See Spectator, No. 116; in which is the following passage: "Sir Roger being at present too old for fox-hunting, to keep himself in action has dispos d of his beagles, and got a pack of stop-hounds.”—-Qu. In Addison's days was it the practice to hunt foxe, with beagles, and a hare with stop-hounds? Eidem pro putura 12 canum Regis vulper' per idem tempus, pro quolibet per diem ob. Eidem pro expens' unius equi portantis retia sua, a 20 die Novemb', anno presenti 28, incipiente usque ultimum diem Aprilis, utroque computato, per 163 dies, per diem 3d. Lidem pro expens' ejusdem equi portantis reta modo predicto, a primo die Septembr', que die incipit seisona ad venand' ad vulpes post seisonam mortuam anni presentis usque 19 diem Novembr' anno presente finiente, utroque computato, per 80 dies, per diem 3d. £.1 0 0 P. 103. Will'mo de Blatherwyk, venatori Regis ad vulpes, pro calciamentis hiemalibus anni presentis, pro se et garcionibus suis, cuilibet eorum 2s. 4d. P. 317. Eidem, pro roba sua totius anni presentis Eidem, pro robis duorum garcionum suorum, pro quolibet 10s. £.0 7 0 £.0 13 4. 0 0 P. 96. Henrico de Blakeburn, eunti per preceptum Regis pro quodam leporar' gruar' ad opus Regis querend' pro expensis suis eundo, morando, et redeundo, et pro putura ejusdem leporar' veniendo ad Regem; per manus proprias apud Berewy cum, 28 die Decembris 1790, Sept. £.1 CXXII. Description of several Barrows opened in Dorsetshire. MR. URBAN, Winchester, Oct. 1. IF the Life of Man be short, as it is termed in Scripture, it is a wish congenial to his heart, that his memory at least should be of long continuance. This sentiment accounts for the universal practice of raising Sepulchral Monuments, and is finely illustrated by the plaintive Gray : For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, This pleasing, anxious being e'er resign'd; The most simple and natural kind of Sepulchral Monument, and therefore the most ancient and universal, consists in a mound of earth, or a heap of stones, raised over the remains of the deceased. Of such monuments, mention is made in the book of Joshua, and in the poems of Homer, Virgil, and Horace; and of such, instances occur in every part of this kingdom; especially in those elevated and sequestered situations where they have neither been defaced by agriculture nor inundations. It has often been a subject of surprise to me, that, in an age marked by its taste for Antiquarian researches, greater attention should not have been paid to these most ancient and genuine records of past ages, so far, at least, as to ascertain to which of the successive inhabitants of this island they are to be ascribed, or whether, in fact, they are the work of more than one people. This can only be done by an examination of the contents of several of them in different counties, and in differentsituations, by persons whose learning, ingenuity, and attention, qualify them for the task. In searching, however, into these rude memorials of our forefathers, the true antiquary will ever respect their remains; and, whilst he enters into their views by endeavouring to revive their memory, he will also as far as possible consult their wishes, in leaving to their bones their ancient place of sepulture. Having been lately on a visit to a gentleman in Dorsetshire, on whose estate an incredible number of these barrows are found, he kindly complied with my wishes in causing several of them to be opened. I shall first describe, in the most accurate manner I am able, the contents of the several barrows; and then give such conjectures as occur to me, concerning the people to whom they belonged: not without a view, however, that greater light may hereafter be thrown on the subject by persons whose experience and information, in this branch of antiquarian study, are superior to my own. We began with two barrows of no great dimensions opposite to East Lullworth, on a level piece of ground that is met with in the ascent up of a steep and lofty mountain, the top of which is crowned with a bold double intrenchment, of Roman or Barbaric workmanship, and which is known by the name of Flower's barrow. If we pay any regard to the conjecture of Hutchins, in his History of Dorsetshire, who derives the name of Flower's barrow from a supposed Roman General of the name of Florus, the question will be solved at once what people raised this strong intrenchment; and it will afford some kind of presumptive proof that the barrows below contained Roman remains. But we are to observe, that he produces no proof whatever of any Roman General of the name of Florus ever having been in those parts; nor does the figure of the camp affect the Roman quadrangle, but seems rather to humour the natural shape of the hill. Indeed part of it, by some convulsion of Nature, appears to have sunk below its original level, while no small portion of it has fallen into the sea below, which, at the depth of seven hundred feet, is for ever undermining its rocky base. In these two barrows we found promiscuously scattered perfect human teeth, burnt human bones, together with those of animals, such as pieces of the jaw-bones of horses or oxen, teeth of the same animals, tusks of boars, small round stones of the Portland kind not bigger than children's marbles, pointed stones that possibly have been the heads of weapons, certain lumps of corroded metal, seemingly iron, but of an undetermined shape, a few particles of yellow metal, which being lost could not undergo the assay, some crumbling pieces of dark-coloured unburnt urns, together with a few lumps of brick or earthenware, that appeared to have been well burnt. In addition to all this, we perceived a considerable quantity of fine, rich, black earth, with a certain white mouldiness between the particles, which must have been fetched from a considerable distance, and which I have invariably found strewed over the remains of the dead in these ancient sepulchres. The bottom of one of these graves was paved with large, round stones, that had been worked smooth by the action of the sea, and which apparently had been fetched from the adjacent shore. From the confused state in which we found the contents of these two barrows, which indeed were situated near what had formerly been an inhabited spot, as the name of Arish Mill indicates, we were satisfied they had been in some past time disturbed: we therefore determined to make our next research in a more remote and inaccessible situation. With this view we pitched upon a large barrow, being twelve feet in perpendicular height, and two hundred in circumference, situated at the highest point of a lofty mountain about midway between the Points of Portland and Purbeck Islands. This tumulus is known in the country by the name of Hambury-taut, or toote, the first of which words I conjecture, may be the name of the chieftain there buried, while the other two appear to be the corruption of Saxon and British words expressive of a barrow. Many of the same articles were found on the surface and at the extremities of this, as in the former barrows, such as burnt human bones, bits of metal, &c. but on our approaching to the centre, at about |