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CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

CHAPTER I. Nottingham little known during the Roman Dominancy...Notting-
ham Inhabited by the Britons... The Condition of the People how ascertained.......
British Cities as described by Julius Cæsar... Britons and Asiatics similar in
Manners and Customs... Origin of Burgess Lands... Purpose and use of Ditto...
Nottingham once covered by Trees... Error of Deering...A British City.

CHAPTER II. Advantageous situation of Nottingham..An early location here pro-
bable...Spring and ancient course of the Leen...Ditto the Beck...Course of the
Leen diverted by William De Peverel... Recently Arched Over...Old Leen
Bridge how repaired... Described by Leland...One Arch yet standing...Old
Piers discovered ..Seven Arches broken up during the Civil War... Consisted of
Twenty-two Arches... Taken down and the present one erected...Old south road
into Nottingham.

CHAPTER III. River Trent, origin of its name... Drayton's description of...Not
mentioned by ancient Greek Historians...Etymologies, fishes of... Britons must
have had a name for it... Apis not the name of the Humber, but the Trent...
Why called the Apis...A Sacred river...Worshipped as a God like the Ganges
and Nile... Strong presumptive evidence of...A noble river.

CHAPTER IV. Decreasing, depth of... Evidences that part of the county was once
an Ocean...Chester once a Sea-port... Decreased depth of the Mersey...Thanet
once an Island...The Rill a channel in the time of the Saxons, in which ships
could ride...Trent once navigated by ships.

CHAPTER V. Spring head of the Trent...Tributary streams... Rapidity of course of
the Humber...Importance of its navigation...United with the Mersey by a
canal... Trent canal...Concluding remarks on the Trent...Gratitude that it is
not now worshipped as a God.

BOOK III.

CHAPTER I. Contemporary histories of ancient towns... Rights of ancient burgesses
.. Never been forfeited...Nor removed legally...Dress of the ancient Britons...
Ornaments ...Swords...Battle axes...Tatooed... Exaggerations of Roman histo-
rians...Still useful.

CHAPTER II. Rites.. Priesthood and religion... National hierarchies... Orders of
priesthood...Supreme authority...Species of theocracy...Druidism not of British
origin ..Druid, etymology of... This idolatry practised in Nottingham.
CHAPTER III. Brevity of our ancient ecclesiastical history... Prejudice of Julius
Cæsar against the Britons... Britons devoutly religious... Believed in the immor-
talityof the soul... Revered the mistletoe and the oak...The Logan...The
Talman... Propitiatory sacrifices... Resembled the idolators of Moloch... Exceeded
the Ammonites... Human sacrifices by fire...Description of the sacrifices to
Moloch... Testimony of jewish rabbies... Druids accused of cannibalism by
Pliny... Monuments of human sacrifices still remaining.

CHAPTER IV. Orders of Druidical priestbood...Distinctions of dress...Lengthened
periods of study...Druids acquainted with letters... Practised writing on the
bark of trees.. Poets tables... Remarkable practise at Dunkirk and Dour...Story
of a Druid bard.

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CHAPTER V. Druids reverenced by the people... Official dresses...Druid's rod...

Short hair... Long beards... Druid's breast-plate... Imitation of the Urim and

Thummim...Described by Pliny... Ingenious account of, given to the vulgar...

Serpent sacred to light...Ditto interwoven, formed the Druid's egg...Ditto

encased in gold...Worn as a sacred badge.

CHAPTER VI. Sacrifices of the Druids...Altars.. Places of sacrifice...Sacred fire

always burning...Morning and evening sacrifices ..Priest walked round the

altar... Poet Lucan on the Druids...No Druidical grove remaining...Druidical

temple at Holywood... Roots of old oaks discovered.

CHAPTER VII. Cæsar's testimony as to the Idols worshipped by the Druids...

Oriental, origin of...Identified with all ancient idolatries... Britain once full of

idols... Druid's opinion of the destiny of the world...Antiquity of Druidism.

CHAPTER VIII. Lucian's description of Ogmius, the God of eloquence... The

Hercules of the Druids... Etymology of Ogmius... Druid's real philosophers...

Debased by degenerate rites... Remarks on the bold figures and florid language

of the ancients...Every nation had its Hercules.

CHAPTER IX. Apollo of the Greeks, the same as the Bel of the Britons and

Chaldees... Bel an image of the Sun...A statute of discovered... Carns, what!

how situated... Fires of Bel... Passing through the fire to Baal...Temple of

Apollo...Aruns praying to Apollo.

CHAPTER X. Beltein festivals, first of May and November... Manner of celebration

...Sacred fires...Dues of the Druids must be paid... Excommunication worse

than death...Druidism, a corruption of divine truth...St. John's fires... Instances

of Bel's fires still practised.

CHAPTER XI. Druidical temples remains of at Aubury and Stonehenge... Ditto

Island of Lewis, description cf... Identity of purpose with the Tower of Babel...

Druids emigrated from India... Druids descendants of Brahmins... Druids not

barbarians... Occupied the highest rank in the republic of letters... Grecian phy-

losophy derived from them... Preceptors of Pythagoras.

CHAPTER XII. Misrepresentations of Britons by Cæsar, plain inconsistency of...

If they were so weak and barbarous, why did he bring hither the flower of his

army...Why his great difficulty in landing...Why did he not conquer them...

Britain better known to the ancient Greek than Roman philosophers...Strabo's

ignorance of Ireland... Pytheas, description of, in the days of Alexander the

Great.

CHAPTER XIII. Phenician commerce with Britain... Voyage of Himilco, the
Carthaginian navigator to Britain a thousand years before Christ, in the reign
of Solomon... Britons not navigators... Greek name for Britain...Cassiteridas,
or Tin Islands... Description of the inhabitants at that time...Aristotle on British
commerce... Uses of tin in making bronze edge tools...Ditto were made before

steel was known...Tin used as a mordaunt for dying...Brazen vessels used in
Solomon's temple...A compound of copper and British tin... British commerce
with India, before that time.

BOOK IV.

CHAPTER I. Spirit of Druidism... Identified with every ancient form of religion...
No man ever invented a religion, or could...Causes of corruption of religion...
Philosophical speculation the spring of every theological error... Only one reli-
gion, and one divine system of truth.

CHAPTER II. Mystical rites of Druidism... Mystical signification of misletoe...
Time of gathering ditto... Manner of... Corruption of the branch, a well-known
emblem of Christ, and called the curer of all ills... Austere life of the Druids...
Their charms and pretended miracles... Fatal stone now in Westminster Abbey
...Traditional story of,

CHAPTER III. Abuse poured upon the Druids... Ditto philosophically reverenced
the oak...Ditto emblem of sanctuary...Asylum... Oaks of Dodona...Ditto
sacred to Jupiter...Asylum of Romulus... Abraham dwelt in the oaks of Mamre
...Jehovah appeared to him in the oaks of Mamre... Sacred trees.
CHAPTER IV. Druids worshipped the air as a part of the material Creation under
the name Aub, remains of, in Aubury and Averingham... This idolatry was
purely philosophical... Celebrated passage in Aratus... Obelisks... Cromlechs, or
howing stones...Cromlech at Bramcote... Large stones, the ancient emblem of
Jehovah, among the Hebrews and Ancients generally.

CHAPTER V. Celibacy of the Druids... Lived under oaks, or in caverns...were
school masters... Physicians, were very tollerant...Irish tollerant... Geraldus re-
proaches the Irish...Druidical sisterhood...Manner of spending their time...
Highly esteemed... Remarkable story of Xanthus and his wife.

CHAPTER VI. Form of government... Civil polity of the Druids... Petty kings and
Superial kings...Trial of the king of London.

CHAPTER VII. Druidical orders of nobility; gentry, yeomen, tradesmen, &c....
Remarkable custom, the judgment of Rhaith...Excellency of ditto.

CHAPTER VIII. Druidical judges... Manner of deciding controversies... Titles to
land, how settled...Judgment seats, where erected...Ordeal... Mount of pleading.
CHAPTER IX. Division of lands...Land measure...Townships...Manors...Cantreds
...Gafels... Gwlad...Commons, Forests... Pastures...Meadows...British coronets,
or crowns...Distinctions of... Senescal... Swyddog... Amwthig.

CHAPTER X. Druids famous for their literary habits... Literary degrees... How
conferred... No lawyers... Civilization of the Druids.

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CHAPTER XI. Druids received tithes...Did uot originate with Moses...Abraham
gave tithes...Common in every nation of antiquity...Remarkable examples of.

CHAPTER XII. Condition of the people under the Druids...Story of Abaris the

British Ambassador to the court of Athens...Law of marriage, divorce...Singular

custom in Scotland derived from the Druids...Ditto abused their power... Loss by

the destruction of Druidical literature... Power of man to do evil... Impotent for

good...Breast laws... Isle of Man. derived from the Druids...Equity of the

Druids.

CHAPTER XIII. Topographical nomenclature of Nottingham and adjacent places,
proves it must have been a British city...Ancient name of Nottingham... Ashre,
Sher, a grove... Sherwood.

CHAPTER I. Cæsar never penetrated beyond Verulam... Coritania who... Brigantes,

locality of... Power of ditto... Roman commanders... Roman conquests...Suppres

sion of the Druids...Massacre of ditto by the Romans... Roman camp at Holly

Hill, Arnold... Exploratory camps distinguishable...Causennis, the Roman name

for Nottingham...Itinerary of Antoninus.. Opinion of Dr. Gale... Granaries in

subterranean chambers...Ancient manner of bread making... Improvements

under the Romans... Excellency of Roman government...Æneid on the Romans

... Britain coveted by the Saxons... Tranquility under the Romans...Origin of

the Saxons.

CHAPTER II. Romans finally depart from Britain... Ditto defenceless, groans of the

Britains...Ditto invite the Saxons... Warlike character of...Anchor off Thanet...
Saxon allies... Make war on the Britons...Saxon barbarity... Exterminating
wars...Conquer the Britons... Mercia, meaning of... Extent of the kingdom...
Nottingham a part of Mercia...Ditto the Sovereign kingdom... Pilgrimages...
Alfred and his father at Rome... Queen Judith... Incest of Ethelbald ..Death of
...Judith elopes from a convent...Lives in state...Ancestors of Queen Victoria.
CHAPTER III. Danes covet Britain... Ditto enter the Humber...Division of the
English...Danish devastatious... Winter in England... Take York... Ascend the
Trent...Take Gainsborough...Danish camp there... Battle of Gainsborough...
Danes take Nottingham...Besieged by the Saxons...Allied sovereigns...Sorrows
of our ancestors... Saxon lament... Superiority of the Danes... Infidelity of Ditto
Ravage the country...Saxon allies raise the siege...Strength of the castle...
Reason of Danish cruelty... King Ivar in Nottingham...Persecutes the Saxon
Christians...Defeat of the Danes... Grief of Buthred... Retires to Rome... Danes
alternately victorious and routed...Ditto masters of England... Hocktide sport
remarkable, origin of...Danish pride...Battle of Nottingham defeated, and ex-

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