There is no Cause to apprehend that the Works of Nature degenerate in the
least, as it is a Supposition which is repugnant to all the Observations
which may be made upon the Generation of Animals. Any one who has bred
Horses, Dogs, or Poultry, must have observed, that instead of degenerating,
they always improve upon his Hands, unless he opposes Nature, which seems
to struggle hard against a Stagnation, by confining the Breed too long in
the same Family.
We have two Reasons, then, to suppose that the present Inhabitants of Great
Britain are larger in Stature than the old Romans were, viz. because they
are the Posterity of a taller People, and because the Breed is so much
crossed.
But we beg Leave to offer a Reason why it may be apprehended that the
Ancients were not larger in Stature than the Moderns, which seems to carry
along with it something which has very much the Air of a Proof.
Whoever observes the Size of the Remains of those People who lived in the
Time of the old Romans, or before that Time, will find, that they are no
larger in their Dimensions than the Remains of those who died fifty Years
ago. I have seen Abundance of Stone Coffins, which, as they are found in a
Place which has all the manifest Signs of having been a Roman Camp, both in
respect of it's advantageous Situation, the Name of the present Town, which
is Caster, the Roman Coin which is constantly found there, the Urns in
which the Coin is found, the Inscriptions cut in Cedar in the Coffins, the
Stones of a Bridge, which may be felt with a Sprit, at the Bottom of the
River, at the Back of an Enclosure, which is called the Castle Ground to
this Day; all these are Indications of a Roman Camp, and may be seen near
the great North Road between Stilton and Stamford; where the Curious, by a
proper Application, may have a Pocket full of Roman Coin for a Shilling.
Indeed, whether these Stone Coffins, which are found in this Camp,
contained the Bodies of Romans, no one can positively determine, especially
as the Romans generally burnt their Dead, if they had a convenient
Opportunity: However, as they are found in a Roman Camp, upon the same Spot
where the Coin is found, it is enough to make one think that they are Roman
Coffins, and that the Romans did sometimes bury their Dead; nevertheless,
we leave that to the Determination of the Curious.--Of whatever Nation
their Contents were, the Marks of great Antiquity are strong upon them; and
we can assure the Reader, that none of them were ever troubled with Remains
of a Patagonian.
But these are not the only Reliques by which we may form our Judgments;
numberless Libraries and Repositories in this Kingdom afford us Instances
of the Size of the Ancients: We have several Egyptian Mummies which seem to
be of very ancient Standing, and must have contained the Bodies of Men of
less Stature than the present English.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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