E. H.
I have somewhere read of the introduction of a foreign breed of snails into Cambridgeshire, I forget the exact locality, for the table of the monks who imported them; but unfortunately it was before I commenced making "notes" on the subject, and I have not been able to recollect where to find it.
Seleucus.
INSCRIPTION NEAR CIRENCESTER.
(Vol. viii., p. 76.)
This inscription is not "in Earl Bathurst's park," as your correspondent A. Smith says, but is in Oakley Woods, situated at some three or four miles' distance from Cirencester, and being separated and quite distinct from the park; nor is the inscription correctly copied. Rudder, in his new History of Gloucestershire, 1779, says:
"Concealed as it were in the wood stands Alfred's Hall, a building that has the semblance of great antiquity. Over the door opposite to the south entrance, on the inside, is the following inscription in the Saxon character and language [of which there follows a copy]. Over the south door is the following Latin translation:
"'Fœdus quod Ælfredus & Gythrunus reges, omnes Anglia sapientes, & quicunq; Angliam incolebant orientalem, ferierunt; & non solum de seipsis, verum etiam de natis suis, ac nondum in lucem editis, quotquot misericordiæ divinæ aut regiæ velint esse participes jurejurando sanxerunt.
"'Primò ditionis nostræ fines ad Thamesin evehuntur, inde ad Leam usq; ad fontem ejus; tum recta ad Bedfordiam, ac deniq; per Usam ad viam Vetelingianam.'"
I copy from Rudder, with the stops and contracted "et's," as they stand in his work; though I think the original has points between each word, as marked by A. Smith.
The omissions and mistakes of your correspondent (which you will perceive are important) are marked in Italics above.