The invention of gun-powder is too important and beneficial a difcovery to be flightly mentioned by the military hiftorian. The date of the invention, and the person to whom mankind are indebted for it, are equally unknown. Captain Grose relates the common ftory of its accidental difcovery by the German Monk, Bartholdus Schwartz, about 1320*; but by extracts from various writers, he confirms the opinion of feveral modern authors, who have placed the invention of gun-powder, and its application to artillery, in the remote ages of the world. The Captain fhews that in the Gentoo laws t, fuppofed at least as ancient as the time of Mofes, fire-arms, gun-powder, and cannon, are exprefsly mentioned; he renews the fufpicion that Alexander the Great did abfolutely meet with fire-arms in India, as a paffage in Quintus Curtius feems to intimate. Ufano alfo is quoted, who places the invention in the year of Chrift 85. Other extracts are made for fupporting the opinion; and then the Captain proceeds to fhew when it was firft employed in our army. He gives alfo the proportions of the ingredients used in different ages; fome of which, especially the earliest, would indeed make very weak gun-powder: nor are any of them fuch as are found by experience to be the beft, viz. 75 parts of purified nitre, 15 of charcoal, and 9 of fulphur.

At what time cannon were firit used in Europe, is not clearly afcertained. The earliest record here quoted is one preferved in the Chamber of Accounts at Paris, which fhews that the French ufed cannon in 1338. Villani, an Italian author, fays, that the English had cannon at the battle of Creffy, in 1346. And John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, fays, Edward III. had artillery in his first campaign against the Scots in 1327. After a long investigation, in order to fix the time when cannon were firft ufed, the Captain goes on to defcribe their forms and conftruction at different periods, and gives feveral drawings of cannon, bombards, colouverine, bombs, &c.

Fortification is the next fubject of our Author's enquiry. The ancients feem to have had but very imperfect ideas of this science. Their chief dependance was on the height and thickness of their walls; they found, however, that the enemy, when clofe under the wall, could not be molefted but by arrows, darts, or stones thrown perpendicularly on their heads; hence they conftructed round towers, projecting out of the wall, and the portions of wall between the towers were built in a right line, so that from the tower they could fhoot at the enemy attacking the wall. The

* For the story at length, we refer to the Review, vol. xliii. p. 410. 1320 feems to be a typographical error for 1380.

+ Of Mr. Halhed's tranflation of the Code of Gentoo Laws, we gave fome account in vol. lvi. p. 363.

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form of the fortification was confequently changed from a circle to a polygon with towers in the angles. This, in a great meafure, removed the inconvenience, but ftill there remained parts of, and near, the towers, which could not be feen, called dead angles to remedy thefe, the towers were built fquare, and placed with one of their angles in the angle of the wall. Near as this contrivance was to the true shape, it did not fully answer the purpose for which it was intended at length neceffity feems to have dictated the method of defcribing the falient faces of the towers by right lines drawn from the angles, made by the fides of the adjacent towers and the curtain. This conftruction was perfectly complete, leaving no fpot of the outfide unfeen or undefended.

After the general hiftory of the progrefs of fortification, of which we have given the above very fhort abridgment, Captain Grofe accurately defcribes an ancient fortress with references to the explanatory delineations: he gives alfo an account of the manner in which a fiege was conducted, with general figures, not only of the operations, but particular ones of the different machines and contrivances ufed both by the befiegers and the befieged.

The town having furrendered, Captain Grofe recites the method of treating the prifoners of war, and of ransoming them. The rigid treatment fhewn to them in ancient times, ftrongly marks the ferocity and uncultivated manners of our ancestors, even to ladies of high rank, notwithstanding the homage said to have been paid to the fair fex in the days of chivalry. Many inftances are given from Rymer, among which is one respecting the Countess of Baghun or Buchan, a Scottish prifoner, for whofe confinement the Chamberlain of Scotland, or his lieutenant, were, by writ of privy feal, 34 Edward I. A. D. 1306, directed to fit up one of the turrets of the caftle of Berwick, and therein to build a ftrong cage of lattice-work well ftrengthened with iron; in which the Countess was to be kept, without being fuffered to go out on any account whatfoever. The fifter of Robert Bruce was prifoner at the fame time, and treated in the fame manner.

With the article of Prifoners, Captain Grofe concludes his work, having,' he fays, to the utmost of his abilities endeavoured to complete the plan propofed in the advertisement.' For the faults and errors, particularly the typographical ones, he relies on the candour and indulgence of his readers, as he affures them, fuch errors were not caused by negligence or inattention.' We have now gone through the contents of thefe elegant and curious volumes, containing a great mass of valuable information, which we moft heartily with, for our own fakes as well as for that of other readers, had been fomewhat more methodically arranged.

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arranged. Had the work been divided into chapter's or fec. tions, or had the different parts of it been diftinguished, only by a fmall blank space, it would, moft probably, have pleased the modern reader more than we imagine it will, in its present continued and uninterrupted form; in which two large quarto vo Jumes proceed regularly from the beginning to the end, without the requifite intimations where one fubject terminates and another begins. This circumftance however may be confidered, perhaps, as a mere point of tafte, in which our judgment may happen to differ from that of the very ingenious author; who has made choice of the method which best pleased himself, in compiling a work that must have coft him much time and great labour; and which will be read with pleasure by every lover of hiftory, antiquities, and military affairs.

The accuracy of Captain Grofe's drawings, and the elegance with which the plates are executed, will amply fupport the reputation which this intelligent antiquary has juftly acquired by his former publications.

ART. VII. Archaeologia, or mifcellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity: published by the Society of Antiquaries of London, Vol. VIII. concluded. See our laft.

HA

AYMAN ROOKE Efq. having examined the Druidical Monuments in Derbyshire, with fome fuccefs, in the twenty-firft number of this volume, gives an Account of the Brimbam Racks in Yorkshire. They are a wonderful affemblage, fcattered about the moor, feven miles from Ripley, on the road to Pately-bridge; occupying, all together, a space of about forty acres. The extraordinary pofition of thefe rocks is fuppofed to have been owing to fome violent convulfion of nature, but it is evident, we are told, that art has not been wanting to render their fituation yet more remarkable. Fragments of rocks obtained great regard, and even veneration, from people of very remote antiquity: here they are found, placed one on another, fome having plainly the marks of the tool. This writer, though he does not venture to determine, conjectures that they are the work of the Druids. The Britons having had early communications with the Egyptians and Phoenicians, it is probable, he thinks, that the latter imparted their arts and religious ceremo nies to the Druids, who would politically conceal them from the people, that by means of auguries and divinations, the greater fubmiffion might be yielded to their decrees. To purposes of this kind Mr. Rooke imagines thefe rocks to have been destined. They are of various forms; fome are rock-idols; others are rocking-ftones; feveral have been perforated, in one inftance at leaft, quite through. To these our author affignus the name

of

of the oracular Alone, fuppofing that hence the crafty Druids might contrive to deliver predictions and commands which the credulous people would receive as proceeding from the rockdeity. It is well known, that many, who enjoyed far fuperior advantages for religious knowlege, have in later times employed fuch deceitful and fcandalous methods to promote their ambitious and tyrannical views. Whether it was thus in the very remote and uncultivated periods to which Mr. Rooke alludes, muft remain in the uncertainty wherein time has involved this with many other points of hiftorical difquifition.

Doubts and Conjectures concerning the Reafon commonly affigned for inferting or omitting the words "Ecclefia and Prefbyter," in Domesday Book. By the Rev. Samuel Denne. The reafon commonly affigned for the above omiffion is, that at the time of the furvey, there was not a church in any of the districts to which the claufes refer. Mr. Denne expreffes a doubt whether this may not be an hypothefis rather taken for granted, than founded on an accurate enquiry into its validity.' He examines the fubject with great attention. The result is, that Domesday Book, however exact it may be in other articles, cannot be decifively appealed to for the non-existence of parifh churches in the age in which it was compiled, and confe quently, that there were many more edifices of that kind exifting than can be ascertained from that ancient volume.

It has been long a fubject of debate, whether the origin of printing was at Haarlem, Mentz, or Strasbourg. In No. 23. Ralph Willis Efq. ftates the reafons which determine him in favour of Mentz: it must be allowed that they carry with them fome degree of fatisfaction; yet, after all the ingenious labours of the learned, affording fome amufement and information, this topic remains in confiderable obfcurity. It was long fuppofed that TULLY's Offices, ed. 1465, was the first printed book; long after the fame thing was afferted of Durand's Rationale, in 1459; fince that, two earlier books have been difcovered, the Codex Pfalmorum, in 1457, and fome letters of indulgence from Pope Nicholas the fifth, printed at Mentz, and with a date, in 1454, by Fuft and Schoeffer. The Speculum Salutis, a book in the poffeffion of Mr. Willet, is thought to have been printed about the year 1445: from the cuts which appear in it, and from fome other arguments, it is concluded that the Germans have alfo the claim of priority in the art of engraving.

We are prefented, in the twenty-fourth number, with an additional account of the Caves of Cannara, Ambola, and Elephanta, in the Eaft Indies, in a letter from Hector Macneil Efq. then at Bombay, dated 1783. Though the article is very entertaining, we can do little more than briefly mention it; referring the

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reader

reader alfo to the Review for April 1786, p. 269, 70, 71. Mr. Macneil is very attentive in giving the relation, and warmly expreffes his aftonishment at this fingular fcene, which filled him with new wonder at every step. He laments the injury which the works at Elephanta have received from bigotted zeal, particularly that of the Portuguese, and at the fame time feverely and with juft indignation chaftizes the folly, stupidity, and barbarifm of Britons, who have defaced and mutilated thefe ftupendous monuments, fome of whom have left their names behind as teftimonies to their own difgrace. The works of modern hands, fays this writer, compared with thefe, dwindle into the mere amufements of children, nor can we view fuch ftupendous caverns cut out of folid rocks, and moulded into fuch a variety of forms, without fubfcribing our opinion to a bold affertion that fuch laborious productions must have been the work of ages. He inclines to fuppofe that thefe caves have been wrought by Gentoos, and he offers fome plaufible reafons to fupport the hypothefis. Farther time and inveftigation may poffibly throw more light on this extraordinary fubject.

The following article owes its rife to a North American fermon, preached in 1783, at Hertford, before Jonathan Trumbull Efq. governor of Connecticut, by Ezra Stiles, D. D. The preacher fuppofes that fome of the defcendants of Canaan expelled by the Ifraelites, wandered till they fettled in America. As a kind of foundation for this hypothefis, the Naraganfet racks with infcriptions on them are introduced, Dr. Stiles imagining them to be in the old Punic or Phoenician character and language. Dr. Lort, obferving this, has laid before the fociety an account of this infcription on a rock in Taunton river, Naraganfet bay. Copies have been taken of it at different times, and fent to this country: the laft was made by Mr. Sewell, in 1768; an abridged draught of which was conveyed to Timothy Hollis Efq. and by him communicated to the Society. Dr. Stiles imparted a like draught to the late M. Gebelin; who rapturously pronounced it Phoenician: others fuppofe it rather an hieroglyphic infcription than an alphabetic character, and that therefore it may be the work of the Chinese or Japanese; while fome may be inclined to conceive of it as nothing more than the rude fcrawls of fome of the Indian tribes commemorating their military achievements, hunting parties, &c. But we have farther obfervations on the fubject, in the twenty-fixth number, by Colonel Charles Vallancey. This gentleman apprehends that the defcendants of the old Scythians of Armenia extended themselves to Siberia, fome of whom may have croffed over to America from Kamtchatka, and that, therefore, in Siberia we may

*

See Rev. for May 1784. p. 350.

expect