Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend

l not disparage our reader to repeat. Only the last and lasting part in their urns, collected bones and ashes

her.-Not all strictly of one figure, but most answering these described; some containing two pounds of bones, and teeth, with fresh impressions of their com- bustion; bes

conjecture that this was the ustrina or place of burning their bodies, or some sacrificing place unto the Mane

wn by ancient record under the name of Branodunum. And where the adjoining town, containing seven parishes, in no very different sound, but Saxon termination, still retains the name of Burnh

n of Claudius a great overthrow was given unto the Iceni, by the Roman lieutenant Ostorius. Not long after, the country was so molested, that, in hope of a better state, Prastaagus bequeathed his kingdom unto Nero and his daughters; and Boadicea, his queen, fought the last decisive battle with Paulinus. After which time, and conquest of Agricola, the lieutenant of Vespasian, pro- bable it is, they wholly possessed this country; ordering it into garrisons or habitations best

have been found at Castor, some also about Southcreak, and, not many years past, no less than ten in a field at Buston, not near any recorded garrison. Nor is it strange to find Roman coins of copper and silver among us; of Vespasian, Trajan, Adrian, Commodus, Anto- ninus, Severus, &c.; but the greater number of Dio- clesian, Constantine, Constans, Valens, with man

head upon the obverse, and an ill-formed horse on the reverse, with inscriptions Ic. Duro. T.; whether implying Iceni, Durotriges, Tascia, or Trinobantes, we leave to higher conjecture. Vulgar chronology wi

a multitudo est cr

before, was enlarged, builded, and nominated by the Saxons. In what bulk or populosity it stood in the old East-Angle monarchy tradition and history are silent. Considerable it was

rict- ness of their laws forbidding to transfer them to any other uses: wherein the Spartans were singular, who, to make their copper money useless, contempered it with vinegar. That the Britons left any, some wonder, since their money was iron and iron rings

ave made the first progress into these parts, since Boadicea was overthrown by the forces of Nero, and Agricola put a full end to these conquests, it is n

tion yet extant: the province of Britain, in so divided a distance from Rome, beholding the faces of many imperial persons, and i

y urns, and found in those of Spitalfields, by London, which contained the coins of Claudius, Vespasian, Commodus, Antoninus, attended with

d, that it ceased with the Antonini,-most safely to be understood after the reign of those emperors which assumed the name of Antoninus, extending unto Heliogabalus. Not strictly after Marcus

not in other provinces, we hold no authentic account; for after Tertullian, in the days of Minucius, it w

et damnant ignium sepu

account. And, perhaps, not fully disused till Christianity fully est

ity of bones, thinness of skulls, smallness of teeth, ribs, and thigh-bones, not improbable that many thereof were persons of minor age, or woman. Confirmable also from things contained in them. In most were found sub- stances resembling combs, plates like boxes,

Roman urn preserved by Cardinal Farnese, wherein besides great number of gems with heads of gods and goddesses, were found an ape of agath, a grasshopper, an elephant of amber, a crystal ball, three glasses, two spoons, and six nuts of crystal; and beyond the content of urns, in the monu- ment of Childerek the first, and fourth king from Pharamond, casually discovered three years past at Tournay, restoring unto the world much gold richly adorning his sword

e custom of burning with many other nations, might somewhat doubt whether all urns found among us,

loss of that letter which Cicero ex- pected or received from his brother Quintus, as a resolu- tion of British customs; or the account which might have been made by Scribonius Largus,

tice in Gallia, Caesar expressly delivereth. Whether the Britons (probably descended from them, of like religion, lan- guage, and manners) did not sometimes make use of burning, or whether at least such as were after civilized unto the Roman life and manners, conformed not unto this practice, we have no historical assertio

German practice, is also asserted by Tacitus. And though we are bare in historical particulars of such obsequies in this island, or that the Saxons, Jutes, and Angles burnt their dead, yet came they f

nus, some from Frotho the great, who ordained by law, that princes and chief commanders should be committed unto the fire, though the common so

e persons, while for an hundred and eighty years Paganism and Christi- anity were promiscuously embraced among them, there is no assured conclusion. About which times the Danes were busy in England, and particularly infested this country; where many castles and strongholds were built by them, or against

ented by the learned physician Wormius. And in some parts of Denmark in no ordinary number, as stands delivered by authors exactly describing those countries.

ones in England, or sepulchral monument probably erected by Rollo, who after conquered Normandy; where 'tis not improbable somewhat might be discovered. Meanwhile to what nation or person belonged that lar