was contested by the Stuart, and fortified by the engineers of Victoria.

Without doubt the use of these roads to the Romans was military and administrative. Nor must we, in reference to the wants of the British people, figure to ourselves, except on a few of them, loaded wains, or even the strings of ponies in which the Kymri still delight. But few commodities. except those of local production as the iron of Sussexthe tin of Cornwall the salt of Worcestershire, required portage along interior roads. The "Salter's way commemorates this kind of traffic. The light imports of amber, glass, and bronze, were probably carried up the rivers to certain emporia,-such as Isca Silurum, and Venta Belgarum, and Isurium,-to be there exchanged for the peltry, lead, and other products of the herdsmen, foresters, and miners.

Still by reflected light we read in these roads much concerning the state of the British tribes and territory. For they connect the Roman Stations-and these were set close to the sites of earlier British settlements, strongholds or towns (oppidum, Cæsar-оλis, Ptolemy.) At first Præsidia-afterwards softened to Municipia, they took the names of the British towns which they overawed and defended; Eburacum for Aber-ach-Olicana for Llecan-Cataractonium for Cathair-righ-dun, &c. Only when new stations purely military were founded, as on the line of the wall, does this etymology frequently fail - the names of these stations unconnected with native settlements being then untraceable to British roots.

as

It is equally remarkable and significant that these Roman municipia and coloniæ became in general the centres of Saxon and Anglian strength; and if in this day of the steam-engine their relative importance is less conspicuous, it is still a matter of English history. The Roman rule in Britain is in fact both a clue to its earlier and a guide to its later history, which it is possible to combine with another thread furnished by nature, the hills and valleys-the rocks and minerals-the rivers, the springs, the lakes, the woods.

With these ideas in our minds the land and sea acquire a new meaning for the archæologist. Through all that is present we discern much that is past; we reascend the

3 Tacitus.

stream of time, and drink at the well-heads of unwritten history. From the top of a Brigantian mountain we may reanimate the busy world which has long passed away from life; the jealous boundaries of property disappear; the chimneys vanish; the thundering hammer is silent. From the midst of boundless forests of oak and pine, rise many peaks of rock or bare summits of heath, crowned with monumental stones or burial mounds. The rivers, gliding through the deepest shade, bear at intervals the light wicker boat, still frequent in Dyfed, loaded with fish, or game, or furs. On dry banks above, are the conical huts of the rude, hunters, near them the not narrower houses of the dead,perhaps not far off the cave of the wolf. Lower down the dale the richest of green pastures, covered with the fairest of cattle and the most active of horses. Still lower, the storehouse of the tribe-the water-station, to which large canoes,* hollowed from the mighty oaks of Hatfield Chace, have brought from the Humber the highly prized beads and amulets, perhaps the precious bronze, which is to replace the arrow, spear and axe of stone. Returning with the boat we pass through wide marshes, and sweep rapidly with the tide to the country of the Parisoi-the men of the isles and lakes of Holderness, the ferrymen of the Humber, probably very well acquainted with the pirates of the Baltic.

4

Both north and south of the Humber very different scenes appear on the high and open Wold-within the memory of man many parts of these wild regions were untouched by plough, traversed by bustards, and covered with innumerable flocks. The more we reflect on the remains which crowd this region-the numerous tracks, the countless tumuli, the frequent dikes, the clearer grows the resemblance between the Yorkshire Wolds and the Downs of Wilts and Dorset. On opening the tumuli we discover similar ornaments, and, from whatever cause, consanguinity of race or analogy of employments and way of life, the earliest people must be allowed to have been very much the same along the dry chalk hills from the vicinity of Bridlington to the country of Dorchester. This is the region of the tumuli-on its surface are not unfrequent foundations of the British huts-yet we are not to suppose the main population to have been resident on these hills, or that even the flocks and herds were

4 Such are dug up in several parts of the Northern river-channels.

abandoned to a free wandering upon them. This could not be-for these Wolds are for miles and miles naturally dry. But from below their edges rise innumerable bright streams, the very sight of which excites grateful thoughts to the Giver of all good-pity that such thoughts should so easily stray into idolatry and suggests ideas of rest and rural enjoyment suited to all time and every phase of human society. By these springs no doubt were the settled habitations, the Cyttiau of the early Britons, followed by the Saxon tun and the Danish by; on the hills above were long boundary fences, and within these the raths and tumuli, the monumental stones and idols. In situations where nature gave particular advantages, one of the grand manufactures of the tribes was established. The fabrication of pottery, from the Kimmeridge clay about Malton, was undoubtedly very extensive in British days, and characteristic both as to substance and fashion; that of bricks and tiles at York was equally considerable in Roman days; and it is curious to walk now into the large brick-yards and potteries which are successfully conducted at these same places on the very sites which furnished the funeral urn, shaped like a bascauda of wicker-work, and the perforated tube which distributed air from the hypocaust.

I cannot be singular in the conviction, that in many particulars, depending on natural peculiarities and interesting to human society, the changes of race, language, and creed, have not had so great an influence as wholly to obliterate the things that were; and that among the most powerful aids to a sober and correct idea of the early state of the British people, we must count a large and considerate view of the great physical features of the country in which they lived. Abest persona, manet res.

ST. MARY'S LODGE, YORK,

July 9, 1853.

ON THE CURE OF SCROFULOUS DISEASES ATTRIBUTED TO

THE ROYAL TOUCH.'

BY EDWARD LAW HUSSEY,

SURGEON TO THE RADCLIFFE INFIRMARY, OXFORD.

THE subject I propose to bring before you is the custom of touching by the Sovereigns of this country for the cure of scrofula, as recorded chiefly by medical authorities who lived during the five or six centuries it prevailed, and illustrated by the observations of historians and other writers of repute. It has scarcely been noticed by enquirers of this century; and it is due to a professional friend,2 whose attention had been directed to it, to premise that he first suggested the enquiry to me, and pointed out many sources of information. Such as the facts are, collected from the multifarious works throughout which they are scattered, I have thought they are worthy of being brought together, and that in their present shape they will not be undeserving of the attention of those who take interest in the investigation of our Natural History and Antiquities.

The disease, which is still seen by surgeons in its most aggravated and inveterate forms, though less frequently perhaps than formerly, seems to have been peculiarly the scourge, as it was the inheritance, of the mixed races settled in this island. Its first outbreaks are generally seen in the glands; they swell, become inflamed, the tissues around partake of the inflammation,-matter, the product of inflammation, forms and is discharged through the skin, which opens by ulceration. In mild and otherwise favourable cases, where the patient is young, or free from more serious constitutional disease, the mischief ends here; the wounds heal, the glands return almost to their former diminutive size, and the patient

This paper was originally addressed to the Ashmolean Society at Oxford, and was afterwards read at a meeting of the Archaeological Institute, in London. And this seems a fit opportunity for acknow

VOL. X.

ledging the kindness with which I have been allowed access to the Bodleian and Radcliffe Libraries.

2 Mr. H. Spencer Smith, Senior Assistant Surgeon to St. Mary's Hospital,

D D

recovers without any damage beyond the scars left by the wounds as they heal. In all its phases it is of a lingering nature, slow to yield to known remedies, and showing itself, when the constitutional taint is fully developed, by extensive ravages in every part of the bodily system. The name of the King's Evil, or Morbus Regius, was not always restricted to this disease. Jaundice, called also aurigo, from the golden colour of the skin, was also distinguished by this name;" and, it is said, the Kings of Hungary had the power of curing it. Leprosy has also been known under the same name.5 But it was to scrofula that the name of the King's Evil was confined in England; and for it alone the Royal Touch was sought, as a remedy in every stage of the disease.

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Upon the application of some of the King's nobles, or of the poor themselves who were diseased, a certain day was appointed by Proclamation for a " Public Healing." Here it may be well to observe, that healing and touching were used synonymously at that time." The patients who applied are described as being "young or old, rich or poor, beautiful or deformed," no exception was made: and that none might approach the Royal presence but those really troubled with the evil, several officers were appointed. Among the most

London, and Lecturer on Surgery; whose intimate acquaintance with subjects of medical literature is well known.

3 Ut mala quem scabies, ut morbus regius urget,

Aut fanaticus error, et iracunda Diana, Vesanum tetigisse timent fugiunt que poetam,

Qui sapiunt. Horat. de Arte Poet., 453. Morbus, quem, interdum arquatum, interdum regium, nominant. *** Utendum est lecto etiam, et conclavi cultiore, usu, loco, ludis, lasciviâ, aliis per quæ mens exhilaretur: ob quæ regius morbus dictus videtur.-Celsus, de Medic., lib. iii., c. 24.

4 Regibus Hungariæ arquati morbi (icterum vocant,) curationem datam ferunt.Andreas Laurentius, de mirabili strumas sanandi vi, Paris, 1609, p. 31.

5 Vir corpore et animâ leprosus, et interiùs exteriùsque morbo Regio corruptus. Rufinus, Eccles. Hist., lib. x. c. 25. Post aliquantum tempus computruit morbo Regio. S. Hieron., lib. ii. adv. Rufinum, quoted by Du Cange, Glossar. Also Comment. in Isai. xxxviii., 21, and Epist. ad Pammach. lxvi., 5. Pope Zacharias (about A.D. 750) mentions it, Bonifac. Epist. cxlii., p. 213, ed. Serarii:

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he writes of horses having it; that it was sometimes hereditary and from birth, and that it was contagious. For these references I am indebted to the Rev. R. Hussey, Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History.

6 The ceremonies are fully described by William Tooker, D.D., Dean of Lichfield, Charisma, sive donum Sanationis : seu explicatio totius quæstionis de mirabilium sanitatum gratiâ, &c. London, 1597, cap. vii.; and John Browne, Charisma Basilicon, or the Royal Gift of Healing Strumaes or King's Evil Swellings, &c. London, 1684, chap. vii.

7 William Beckett, A Free and Impartial Enquiry into the antiquity and efficacy of Touching for the cure of the King's Evil. London, 1722, pp. 33, 34.

s Hath not the French, Dutch, Scotch, Irish, Welsh and English been all happy partakers of the benefits of His Majesty's gracious touch? Hath there been scarce any city, town, or country which cannot speak well of his curative faculty? Has there, or is there scarce a street in this populous city, that hath not found the benefit of his sacred hand? — Browne, Char. Bas., chap. viii.