hundred court; and on the confines of the parishes of Godmersham and Chilham, in Kent, a place is to this day called Hundred-beech, from some large beech, no doubt, there formerly growing, and where the hundred court was usually kept. The famous Augustine's Ac, or oak, mentioned by Venerable Bede, lib. ii. c. 2, where the Saxons had the conference with the Britons, will certainly occur to the learned reader on this occasion; and other instances of the same kind will probably be recollected by your readers; so that the name of the Parliament Oak, in my opinion, stands upon a plausible, reasonable, and analogical foundation; though it be only supported by tradition, and may be taken, consequently, for a proper appellation, grounded on real matter of fact. 1791, June. Yours, &c. L. E. CXXIV. Conjecture on the Etymology of London. MR. URBAN, Clement's-lane, Dec. 8. So many able antiquaries have attempted to find the true etymology of the name of my native city, London, that it may appear presumptuous to offer any thing farther on the subject; yet, as a conjecture has occurred to me, which I think both new and plausible, I am induced to lay it before the public by means of your entertaining Magazine. Mr. Pennant, who, I believe, is the latest author who has published an account of London, says (p. 16 of the first edition)" The Surry side was, in all probability, a great expanse of water, a lake, a llyn, as the Welch call it, which an ingenious countryman of mine, not without reason, thinks might have given a name to our capital; llyn din, or the city on the lake." But I cannot think this derivation satisfactory, because Mr. P. allows (p. 34) that "in St. George's-fields have been found remains of tessellated pavements, coins, and an urn full of bones, possibly the site of a summer camp of the Romans. In this place it could have been no other. It was too wet for a residentiary station. Its neighbour, Lambethmarsh, was, in the last century, overflowed with water; but St. George's-fields miglft, from their distance from the river, admit of a temporary encampment." But the city itself, in my opinion, is clearly described by its ancient name, if the following etymology is the true one. I learn, by Lhuyd's Archæologia, that the British word for a valley is glynn; and it is well known that the initial g in that language is often omitted in construction. That the surface of the ground which London occupies was very uneven when the Romans took possession of it is evident; the remains of Roman buildings, found at very different depths in many parts of it, and the rivulets of Walbrook and Fleet, favour this opinion. I conjecture then that the original British name of this city was Glynn Dyn, or, in construction, Lynn Dyn; and, if this be allowed, it is very strikingly characteristic of the place; and, from the last name, the Romans might easily learn to call and write it Londinum. Perhaps it may be objected to me, that the Welch spell it with ll, which my derivation does not seem to authorize. In answer to this I say, that some nations now pronounce the letter g very soft: the modern Greeks (and I believe the Germans in some cases) do so. This soft g is to the English hard g as the Welch ch is to k, or as th in this is to d. The sound of this soft g, and 7, following it, is so similar to the Welch ll, that I think it strengthens my argument, by shewing that the British name of the city of London probably began with the soft g (which for several reasons, I am persuaded was used by the ancients ;) and is a good reason why the Welch write it with I, though Roman authors spell the Latinized name, Londinum, with a single l. I shall conclude by observing, that the fact on which I rest my conjecture, whether that conjecture be true or not, is undeniable, namely, that the British city was a Glynn Dyn, a town containing valleys and rising grounds*; and that I agree with Mr. Pennant, that it is probable that it existed before the time of Julius Cæsar, as well as many more in this island, which have names clearly Welch, but which the Romans afterwards seized, colonized, and fortified. 1792, Suppl. Yours, &c. JOHN JACKSON. For, though the Roman wall does not include the river Fleet, the Western bank of it might be a part of the earlier British town, or settlement. CXXV. Antiquity of the use of the Ring in the Marriage Service. MR. URBAN, A CORRESPONDENT inquires the reason, why the ru bric of the marriage-service, in our Liturgy, directs the priest to take the ring, and to "deliver it to the man, to put it upon the fourth finger of the woman's left hand." In answer to this inquiry I have to remark, that it appears from Aulus Gellius's entertaining Miscellany (lib. X. cap. 10,) that the ancient Greeks, and most of the Romans, wore their ring on this very finger: in digito sinistræ manus qui minimo est proximus. He adds, that Apion says, that a small nerve runs from this finger to the heart; and that, therefore, it was honoured with the office of bearing the ring on account of its connexion with that master-mover of the vital functions. Macrobius (Saturnal. lib. VII. cap. 13) assigns the same reason; but also quotes the opinion of Atteius Capito, that the right-hand was exempt from this office because it was much more used than the left-hand, and therefore the precious stones of the rings were liable to be broken; and that the finger of the left-hand was selected which, was the least used. The reasons here so gravely alleged are, perhaps, equally absurd. They serve, however, to shew the antiquity of the practice. It is well known that, when the empire became Christian, the clergy retained as many customs and usages as were indifferent, for the purpose of conciliating the minds of the people, and promoting the progress of their religion. Finding this practice established, they adopted it into their ritual; perhaps, from the supposed connexion of this hand with the heart, in token of sincerity; and to imply, that the contracting parties with their hands made also an interchange of hearts. That the ring was used by the Romans in marriage, see Juvenal, Sat. VI. ver. 27. It is well known with how much moderation and temper our Reformers proceeded in clearing the ritual from the corruptions of the church of Rome. Such usages as had received the sanction of the Catholic church before the springing up of the Papal usurpation, and such as were not unscriptural or idolatrous, they preserved. Hence the resemblance between the English Liturgy and the Romish Breviary, which ignorance, with her usual petulance, is ever forward to object to the church of England, is, in effect, highly honourable to her, inasmuch as it shews her reverence for primitive antiquity, her liberality in admitting reformation when indispensable, and her wisdom in rejecting needless innovation. How little the Reformation has varied our office of matrimony, may appear from a comparison of the following passage of Chaucer's Merchant's Tale with the opening exhortation to that office: "Ther speketh many a man of mariage, Of children, to the honour of God above, A little farther on, he describes the marriage ceremony, and alludes to two collects still in use: "But finally y-comen is the day That to the chirche bothe ben they went, For to receive the holy sacrament. Forth cometh the preest, with stole about his nekke, In wisdome and in trouthe of mariage: And sayd his orisons, as is usage, And crouched hem, and bade God shuld hem blesse, Thus we see the great antiquity of some of our modern ceremonies; a subject on which I have elsewhere touched, and on which Dr. Taylor had made large collections. Indeed, if we may believe him," the present ceremony (now in fashion all over Europe,) of "saluting the bride” is to be derived from the practice of the ancient Romans, among whom the husband and his relations used to salute the wife, in order to perceive whether she had been guilty of drinking wine, which they made equally criminal with adultery. The Doctor concludes: "If my reader was acquainted with but half the passages I could produce, wherein modern customs, though somewhat alienated from their original design and institution, retain however so much of their old feature or complexion, as to claim an indisputable relation to some Roman or Grecian solemnity, he would not be startled, as perhaps he was, at the first mention of this opinion. I was tempted here to lay before him an instance or two of this sort, of which I have by me a plentiful collection; but was checked upon the reflection that I but very lately took him out of the road to shew him a prospect, and therefore rather chose to prosecute my journey, to which it is possible he may now have no objection." Elements of Civil Law, p. 357. I believe most readers will unite with me in lamenting that this learned writer followed his second thoughts in this instance, and will permit me to repeat my hopes that the collection above-mentioned may not be for ever concealed from the public eye. 1795, Sept. SCIOLUS. CXXVI. Druidical Customs retained in Cornwall. MR. URBAN, IT is a research no less interesting than amusing, to trace back several customs and expressions now used to their Druidical or Saxon original. I am informed by a friend, that an immemorial and peculiar custom prevails on the sea-coast of the Western extremity of Cornwall, of kindling large bonfires on the evening of June 24; and on the next day, the country people, assembling in great crowds, amuse themselves with excursions on the water. For the origin of this, no satisfactory reason can be given; therefore, conjecture is allowable, where certainty cannot be attained. I .cannot help thinking it the remains of an ancient Druidical festival, celebrated on Midsummer-day, to implore the friendly influence of Heaven on their fields, compounded with that of the first of May, when the Druids kindled large fires on all their sacred places, and on the tops of all their cairns, in honour of Bel, or Belinus, the name by which they distinguished the sun, whose revolving course had again clothed the earth with beauty, and diffused joy and gladness through the creation. Their water-parties on the 24th prove, that they consider the summer season as now so fully established, that they are not afraid to commit |