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having been betrayed by a hoax into a situationthe most mortifying and trying to the temper that

diculous and shallow critics are to be met with, who either ig-noranfly or maliciously pronounce the whole inscription, &c.to be the forgery of some modern wag. They say, that it wasdesignedly left with the cutler, as a trap for a certain anti-quary, who deliberately and obligingly walked into it:—thatits exhibition was accompanied with a specious request fromits clandestine owner, that he might be assisted by the learned,in ascertaining the quality of the stone, and the true import ofthe mystic characters upon it; though he perfectly knew thatthe substance containing these letters, &c. was no other than abit of broken chimney-piece, Saxonified by himself in the yearone thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.—The same ma-lignant junto likewise disseminate a report, that the capitals inquestion are not engraved, but corroded by aqua-fortis, a chy-mical invention posterior to the reign of Hardyknute. Nay,to such extremes do real or affected prejudices against a genu-ine piece of Saxon literature transport these scoffers, that theyventure to assert that all the captivating discolourations on itssurface are the mere effects of repeated urinary sprinkles,which, by degrees, induced a mellow cast of antiquity over thewhole tablet.—They moreover declare, that ipse doli fabricatorcontrived to procure admission for some of his associates, onthe very evening when the dissertation of Mr. Pegye was readby a Pro-Secretary; and that these accomplices are every wheredescribing it as a production intentionally jocular; and add,that it was as unsuspectingly listened to by the Society, as wasthe performance of a Dutch translation of Fielding's TomThumb, which the Burgomasters of Amsterdam received, fromfirst to last, with that profound and silent attention which be-comes an enlightened audience at a deep tragedy.—Lastly,