A Letter from Dr John Harwood, LL. D. and F. R. S. to Dr Hans Sloane, R. S. Secr. concerning the Forementioned Hypocaustum. With Part of Two Letters from Mr William Baxter to Dr Harwood, Relating to Wroxeter, and the Hypocausta of the Ancients

II. A Letter from Dr John Harwood, LL. D. and F. R. S. to Dr Hans Sloane, R. S. Secr. concerning the forementioned Hypocaustum. With Part of two Letters from Mr William Baxter to Dr Harwood, relating to Wroxeter, and the Hypocausta of the Ancients. SIR, The first notice I had of the Hypocaust discover'd at Wroxeter, was from a Letter Mr Baxter communicated to me, which he received from the Reverend Mr Markham, the present worthy Incumbent of that Place; which gave me occasion of making farther enquiry, by writing to the Reverend Mr Richard Lloyd of Salop; who, at my request, was so obliging as to take a Journey and view it: The Remarks he then sent me, being mislaid, I must refer you to Mr Lyster's accurate Model and Description, which I am glad to hear you are about publishing in the Phil. Transactions. I have for some years cherished an Acquaintance with Mr Lyster, whose Assistance in the late Edition of Camden ought not to have been past over in Silence, but deserved a more publick Acknowledgement; sure I am, had it not been for this Worthy Person, the Memory of so remarkable a Piece of Antiquity would in all probability have been lost to Posterity. I think it not impertinent, upon this occasion, that some Account should be given of the Place where it was dis- discover'd, as likewise of the nature or kind of the Antiquity itself: And certainly Wroxeter was one of the most Considerable Military Stations or Colonies the Romans had in this Island; the City Wall, as appears from a Survey taken by Mr Lyster, was not much less than three Miles in Circumference; 'tis not improbable, but that it was founded by Suetonius Paulinus, or after by Agricola, in their March to subdue Mona, now Anglesey: But not to trouble you with my own Conjectures, I send you along with this an Extract out of a Learned Work (which I hope will ere long see the Light,) I mean A Glossarium Antiquitatum Britannicarum, which was transmitted to me, by the obliging Author, my worthy Countryman, Mr Baxter, whose Skill and Knowledge in our British, Roman and Saxon Antiquities, as well as in all other useful Literature, is sufficiently known to you, and the rest of the Learned World. The other Paper I send you, is A Letter I received some time since from the same Worthy Person, in Answer to some Enquiries relating to the Hypocausta of the Antients. Since I did myself the Honour of presenting Mr Lyster's Module to the Society, I have been inform'd by the justly-admir'd Vitruvius of our Age and Nation, Sir Christ. Wren, that he discover'd the remains of such another Hypocaust, when they were laying the Foundation of the Kings House at Winchester. Mr Christ. Hunter, in a Letter to Dr Lyster, dated May the 15th, 1702, since publish'd in the Transactions, gives an Account of an Antiquity of this kind dug up in Yorkshire, as appears from the Description he gives of it, in the Phil. Trans. for the Months of March and April, Anno Dom. 1702. Numb. 278. p. 1131. The Ingenious Mr Edward Lhwyd in his useful Additions to Camden, takes notice of another discover'd at Kaer byn in Caernarvonshire; one of the Hollow Bricks or Tunnels nels whereof he there describes, and gives a Figure of it, in the Table of the Curiosities added at the end of the Welsh Counties; it occurs Numb. 8. to which I refer you. Mr Camden himself mentions an Hypocaust discover'd at Hope in Flintshire, an Account of which is to be met with in his Britannia, Pag. 688, of the English Edition. You see, Sir, how ready I am to comply with your Commands, and shou'd be glad of any other occasion, of farther approving myself. Your Obliged Humble Servant, Mr Baxter's first Letter to Dr Harwood, concerning Wroxeter. Now transmit to you what I have Written in my Glossarium Antiquitatum Britannicarum concerning Wroxeter. VEROCONIUM Antonini, atq. Ptolemæi Raven. nati Monacho prodigiose, ut ferè omnia, UTRICONION est CORNONINORUM, pro VERICONIUM CORNOVIORUM, undè discimus VEROCONIUM, seu VERICONIUM, fuisse CORNAVIARUM, sive CORNOVIORUM caput. Saxonibus VRECENCEASTER, nobisq hodiè correete WROXETER est, pro WEROCGESTER. Nomen dedit hæc Urbs vicino monti WREKEN appellato, atq; etiam vicino vico WROCWARDN, quod ARCEM sonat VEROCONIENSE M. Nennio Britanno CAERURNAHappellatur; verum corrupte puto pro CAER. ÚARNAUG, sive CIVITAS ad CERVICEM AQUÆ. De URNACO enim Gigante, de quo crepant Britan- norum Fabella, piget quicquam referre. Necque sànd VEROCONIUM ipsum quicquim siend sunt, quàm ÚAROCONÚI, sive, CERVIX AQUÆ PRIN. PRINCIPIS, vel SABRIANÆ. Nam & COND, & KEND Britannis erat pro CAPITE, & PRINCIPE. Idem igitur CONDUII, sive CONII quod & SAVRIAN, sive AMNIS REGINA. Exstat etiam antiqui operis insignis Patietina, accolit vocati THEOLDWORK, sive ANTIQUUM OPVS, vel AEDIFICIUM: quod equidem conjecterim ex Arcuum vestigiis Romanum fuisse Balneum. Antiqua durat inter plebem fama, hanc Urbem fuisse, immisso de VEROCONIO monte Passeribus, à Danis incensam; quod quid sit alij forsan melius dicent. Certè vel ferreum sigillum ibi erutum cui Reguli cujusdam Christiani caput Romano Diadema cinctum, & promissa coma, sub hac Inscriptione CAPUT SERVI DEI, satis indicio est, eam non fuisse à Saxonibus deletam. Hujus Sigilli Ættypon aliquot retro annis perquam humaniter mecum communicavit modò Reverendus VEROCONIENSIS Ecclesiae Presbyter, Thomas Markham. Imò & crediderim vel ex Ravennatis Itinerario eam ad ejus tempora, hoc est penè ad Octavum Saeculum, adeoque aliquanto diutius, floruisse, & caput fuisse CORNAVORUM, forsan etiam Regia Merciorum Sedes. De tantæ urbis ruderibus, melioribus, ut quidem speramus, auspiciis caput suum extulit VEROCONIUM NOVUM, non ita longe à vetere positum, de Alneto Britannis, ut vulgo fertur, dictum PENGUERN; cum nobis ex Autoritate vetustissimi cujusdam Bardi PENGUERN POWYS in VENEDOTIS in Agro Montegomerico. Saxonibus appellatur SCROBESBYRIC, quod est CIVITAS INDUMIS. Britannis etiam hodie eodem plane intellectu AMWITHIC. Si quidem WYDH, sive GWYDH, vel, ut in Legibus Regis Howel scriptum legimus, WYTH Britannis dicitur SYLVA, additaq; Præposizione AM, quod illis, ut & Latinis circum est, AMWYTH dicentur humiliora fruticeta, Saxonibus SCROBES, & vernacula Dialetto SHRUBS. De AMWITH etiam Adjectivum effingitur AMWITHIC, sive DUMO- SA. Normanni tandem, complanato agresti sono, de SCROBESBERIE fecere SLOPESBERIE, de quo Latinizantium SALOPIA, ut & SALISBE- RIE de SARISBERIE. Hæc equidem eo liben- tius commemoro, quo antiquæ Patriæ meæ memori- am redderem illustriorum. Siquidem in hæc Urbe duo- bus retro sæculis Majores mei Daumviratu, summo ejus loci honore, functi sunt, posteriq; eorum civitate gaudent perpetuâ: quod de Romano antiqui VEROCONII jure tractum existimo. A second Letter from Mr Baxter to Dr Harwood, concerning the Hypocausta of the Ancients. SIR, The Ancients had two sorts of Hypocausta; the one called by Cicero, Vaporarium, and by others, Laconicum, or Sudatio, which was a large Sweating Bath. In which were Tria vasaria abena, called Caldarium, Tepidarium, and Frigida- rium, from the Water contained in them. The other sort of Hypocaustum is not so distinctly handled by Antiquaries, and it was a sort of a Fornax, or Kill to heat their Win- ter Parlours, or Cenatiunculae Hybernae. Erat & Dieta, sive Cenatiuncula (faith Argol upon Panvinius) sub quâ ignis accendeatur: Unde & Cenatio Hypocaustum. Cenati- uncæ Æstiva & Hybernae, are mentioned by Cicero in Epi- stolis. The Terrace Floor is called by Vitruvius, Testudo. Testudines Alveorum in Commissis Hypocauste califacientur, saith the same Author. This Hypocaustis was called Al- veus, and Fornax: And the man that tended the Fire Fornacator. The Tubuli seems to have been contrived to convey away the Smother, that otherwise would choke the Fornacator. This kind of Stove seems to be graphi- cally described by P. Statius in Balneo Hetrusci... Of the Terrace Argol has these words: Testudines sunt pavimenta sub quibus Fornax ardet. P. S. By the way, I take the word Stove to be derived from Ἑστίας, quasi Ἑστιοῦμεν: there wanting hitherto a probable Etymon. III. A Letter from Dr William Musgrave, Fellow of the College of Physicians, and R. S. to Dr Hans Sloane, R. S. Secr. concerning the Jaundice, occasioned by a Stone obstructing the Ductus communis bilarius, which was afterwards voided by Stool. SIR, Being of late at Clifton, in Dorsetshire, the Seat of Mr Harvey, Nephew to the Celebrated Physician of that Name, I was there shewn a Curiosity, which I thought remarkable, and may perhaps be worthy your notice. It is a Stone, that Gentleman voided, some years since, by Stool; and which he represented to me, as having come from the Ductus communis bilarius: But the Large ness of it is such, as made the latter part of the account seem, at first hearing, somewhat dubious. The Figure of this Stone is Oval; the Length almost an Inch; the Breadth, (or shortest Diameter) \( \frac{7}{8} \) of an Inch: It weighed 59 Grains, when I saw it; but, at its coming off, was (as I am inform'd) above a Dram in weight: Some