In reply to V. from Belgravia (Vol. ii., p. 230.), I am partially at a loss to know the exact bearing of his Query. Adam of Bremen's account of Julin is no legend, nor does he mention it at all as a doomed city. On the contrary, his description is that of a flourishing emporium of commerce, for which purpose he selects very strong superlatives, as in the following account (De Situ Damæ, lib. ii. cap. ii.):
"Ultra Leuticos qui alio nomine Welzi dicuntur Oddera Flumen occurrit; amnis dilectissimus Slavonicæ regionis. In cujus ostro, qui Scythicas alludet paludes, nobilissima civitas Julinum celeberrimam Barbaris et Græcis qui in circuitu præstet stationem. De cujus præconio quia magna et vix credibilia recitantur, volupe arbitror pauca inserere digna relata. Est sane maxime omnium quas Europa claudit civitatum, quam incolunt Slavi cum aliis gentibus Græcis et Barbaris. Nam et advenæ Saxones parem cohabitandi legem acceperunt, si tamen Christianitatis titulum ibi morantes non publicaverint. Omnes enim adhuc paganicis ritibus aberrant, ceterum moribus et hospitalitate nulla gens honestior aut benignior poterit inveniri. Urbs illa mercibus omnium septentrionalium nationum locuples nihil non habet jucundi et rari."
As Adam is supposed to have been a native and a priest at Magdeburg, whence he was translated by Archbishop Adalbert to a benefice in the cathedral of Bremen, he must, from his comparative proximity to the spot, be supposed a competent witness; and there is not reason to suppose why he should not have been also a creditable one. He died about 1072, and the legends, if any, concerning this famous place, here described as the most extensive in Europe, must have been subsequently framed.
For about one hundred years later (1184) we have from Helmold, the parish priest of Bösan, a small village on the eastern confines of Holstein, a repetition of Adam's words, for a place which he calls "Veneta," but always in the past tense as, "quondam fuit nobilissima civitas," etc.; so that it is plain from that and his expression "excidium civitatis;" as well as, "Hanc civitatem opulentissimam quidam Danorum rex, maxima classe stipatus, fundetus evertisse refertur." The great question is, Where was this great city? and, are the Julin of Adam and the Veneta of Helmold identical? Both questions have given rise to endless discussions amongst German archæologists. The published maps, as late at least as the end of the last century, had a note at a place in the Baltic, opposite to the small town of Demmin, in Pomerania:—"Hic Veneta emporium olim celeberr. æquar. æstu absorpt." Many, perhaps the majority, of recent writers contend for the town of Wallin, which gives its name to one of the islands by which the Stettin Haff is formed,—though the slight verbal conformity seems to be their principal ground; for no rudera, no vestiges of ancient grandeur now mark the spot, not even a tradition of former greatness: whilst Veneta, which can only be taken to mean the civitas of the Veneti, a nation placed by Tacitus on this part of the coast, has a long unbroken chain of oral evidence in its favour, as close to Rugen; and, if authentic records are to be credited, ships have been wrecked in the last century on ancient moles or bulwarks, which then rose nearly to the surface from the submerged ruins. But the subject is much too comprehensive for the compressed notices of your miscellany. I hope to have shortly an opportunity of treating the subject at large in reference to the Schiringsheal which Othere described to King Alfred, about two hundred years earlier.
An edition of Adam and Helmold is very desirable in England, even in a translations as a part of Bohn's Antiquarian Series.
WILLIAM BELL, PH. D.
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.
Bess of Hardwick (Vol. i., p. 276.).—The following particulars in answer to this Query will, I hope, elicit some further information from other quarters. I have, in my answer, attempted to be as brief as possible.
John, the fifth recorded Hardwick, of Hardwick, left issue, by Elizabeth Leake, six children: of whom JAMES (or John) was thrice married, and died sine prole, and DOROTHY died an infant: the four remaining daughters became coheiresses.