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eafily fufceptible of injuries from weather or outward accidents.

--It was brought to light by a farmer, who obferving his plough obftructed by fomething, through which the fhare could not make its way, ordered his fervants to remove it. This was not effected without fome difficulty, the stone being three feet four inches deep, and four feet fquare in the fuperficies, and confequently of a weight not easily manageable. However, by the application of levers, it was at length raifed, and conveyed to a corner of the field, where it lay for fome months entirely unregarded: nor perhaps had we ever been made acquainted with this venerable relique of antiquity, had not our good fortune been greater than our curiofity.

A Gentleman, well known to the learned world, and distinguished by the patronage of the Macenas of Norfolk, whofe name, was I permitted to mention it, would excite the attention of my reader, and add no small authority to my conjectures, obferving, as he was walking that way, that the clouds began to gather and threaten him with a shower, had recourfe for fhelter to the trees under which this ftone happened to lie, and fat down upon it in expectation of fair weather. At length he began to amufe himself in his confinement, by clearing the earth from his feat with the point of his cane; and had continued this employment fome time, when he obferved feveral traces of letters antique and irregular, which by being very deeply engraven were ftill easily diftinguishable.

This discovery so far raifed his curiofity, that going home immediately, he procured an inftrument proper

for

for cutting out the clay, that filled up the fpaces of the letters, and with very little labour made the infcription legible, which is here exhibited to the public:

POST-GENITIS.

Cum lapidem hunc, magni
Qui nunc jacet incola ftagni,
Vel pede equus tanget,

Vel arator vomere franget,

Sentiet ægra metus,
Effundet patria fletus,

Littoraque ut fluctu,
Refonabunt oppida luɛtu:

Nam fæcunda rubri
Serpent per prata colubri,

Gramina vaftantes,

Flores fructufque vorantes,

Omnia fœdantes,

Vitiantes, et fpoliantes;
Quanquam baud pugnaces,
Ibunt per cuneta minaces,
Fures abfque timore,
Et pingues abfque labore.

Horrida dementes

Rapiet difcordia gentes,

Plurima tunc leges

Mutabit, plurima reges

Natio, converfa

In rabiem tunc contremet urfá

Cynthia, tunc latis

Florebunt lilia pratis,

Nec fremere audebit
Leo, fed violare timebit,

Omnia confuetus
Populari pafcua lætus.

Ante oculos natos
Calceatos et cruciatos

Jam feret ignavus, ́
Vetitaque libidine pravus.
En quoque quod mirum,
Quod dicas denique dirum,
Sanguinem equus fugit,

Neque bellua vita remugit.

These lines he carefully copied, accompanied in his letter of July 19, with the following translation.

To POSTERIT Y.

Whene'er this ftone, now hid beneath the lake,
The horse fhall trample, or the plough shall break,
Then, O my country! fhalt thou groan diftreft,
Grief fwell thine eyes, and terror chill thy breaft.
Thy Streets with violence of woe fhall found,
Loud as the billows bursting on the ground.
Then thro' thy fields fhall fcarlet reptiles ftray,
And rapine and pollution mark their way.
Their hungry fwarms the peaceful vale fhall fright
Still fierce to threaten, ftill afraid to fight;

The

The teeming year's whole product shall devour,
Infatiate pluck the fruit, and crop the flow'r :
Shall glutton on the industrious peasants fpoil,
Rob without fear, and fatten without toil.

Then o'er the world fhall difcord stretch her wings;
Kings change their laws, and kingdoms change their kings.
The bear enrag'd th' affrighted moon shall dread;
The lilies o'er the vales triumphant Spread;

Nor fhall the lyon, wont of old to reign
Defpotic o'er the defolated plain,
Henceforth th' inviolable bloom invade,
Or dare to murmur in the flow'ry glade;
His tortur'd fons fhall die before his face,
While be lies melting in a lewd embrace;

And, yet more ftrange! his veins a horse shall drains
Nor fhall the paffive coward once complain.

I make not the least doubt, but that this learned perfon has given us, as an antiquary, a true and uncontrovertible representation of the writer's meaning, and am fure he can confirm it by innumerable quotations from the authors of the middle age, fhould he be publicly called upon by any man of eminent rank in the republic of letters; nor will he deny the world that fatisfaction, provided the animadverter proceeds with that sobriety and modefty, with which it becomes every learned man to treat a subject of such importance.

Yet with all proper deference to a name so justly celebrated, I will take the freedom of obferving that he has fucceeded better as a fcholar than a poet; having fallen below the ftrength, the concifenefs, and at the

fame time below the perfpicuity of his author. I fhall not point out the particular paffages in which this difparity is remarkable, but content myself with faying in general, that the criticifms, which there is room for on this tranflation, may be almoft an incitement to fome lawyer, ftudious of antiquity, to learn Latin.

The infcription which I now proceed to confider, wants no arguments to prove its antiquity to thofe among the learned, who are verfed in the writers of the darker ages, and know that the Latin Poetry of those times was of a peculiar caft and air, not eafy to be understood, and very difficult to be imitated, nor can it be conceived that any man would lay out his abilities on a way of writing, which though attained with much study could gain him no reputation, and engrave his chimeras on a stone to astonish posterity.

Its antiquity therefore is out of difpute, but how high degree of antiquity is to be affigned it, there is more ground for enquiry than determination. How early Latin rhymes made their appearance in the world is yet undecided by the critics. Verfes of this kind were called Leonine, but whence they derived that appellation the learned * Camden confeffes himself ignorant, so that the ftile carries no certain marks of its age. I hall only obferve farther on this head, that the characters are

See his Remains, 1614, p. 337, "" Riming verfes which are called Verfus Leonini, I know not wherefore (for a lyon's taile • doth not answer to the middle parts as these verfes doe) began "in the time of Carolus Magnus, and were only in request then and in many ages following, which delighted in nothing more "then in this minftrelfie of meeters."

E.

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