INTRODUCTION,

&c. &c.

INGLAND and WALES comprehend such parts of the island of

arbitrary line drawn from Solway Firth to the river Tweed. These districts are finely diversified in character; and partake, in the Cambrian, or western division, of the mountainous rude grandeur of the tracts to the north of the line of boundary. In other directions they are rich in a graceful succession of hill and vale; the former being in partial instances only too steep for cultivation, and the lowlands almost invariably fertile, or capable of responding to the efforts of the Agriculturalist.

England is famed for an abundance of wood, distributed in ornamental proportions; and numerous rivers afford great facilities of inland navigation, whilst their diffusive and winding courses are favourable to the picturesque adornment of the country. Although the metals deemed precious are rarely found in England or Wales, those which are useful to the real wants of man are discovered in salutary plenty; and have, from the earliest recorded period, formed a source of moral energy to the Briton, by propelling him to exertions of industry, and by leading him to habits of Commercial interchange.

But, however estimable may be the natural capacities of a country, its real beauties are to be sought in the progress of mind amongst its inhabitants. The source of opulence is but the

auxiliary of intellect.In the following brief review of circum stances generally connected with the topography of South Br tain and Cambria, I shall make it my pleasing task to direct, every possible opportunity, the attention of the reader to suc events as appear to illustrate the Data of national advancemen in morals, science, or taste; convinced that a majestic ruin, o modern uninjured work of art, depends for leading interest on knowledge of the spirit which induced the erection of the decay ing structure, or which preserves the existing fabric.

The island of Great Britain, of which England and Wales con stitute the predominating parts, extends from fifty to fifty-eigh and a half degrees of north latitude; and is, consequently, about 500 geographical miles in length. Its greatest breadth is found between the Land's End, Cornwall, and the North Foreland, in Kent; and is, in this direction, 320 geographical miles. In British miles the length is computed at 580, and the extreme breadth at 370.

This is the most considerable island of Europe, and approaches, in general outline, towards the form of a triangle. The circuit of the three sides, allowing for the devious character of the coast, is, by a free estimate, supposed to be about 1800 miles.

England, including Wales, is situated between 50° and 56° north latitude. The greatest length from south to north is about 400 miles; and the extent in square miles is computed at 49,450.* England is bounded on the east by the German ocean; on the south by the English Channel; on the west by St. George's Channel; and is divided from Scotland, on the north, by the river Tweed, the Cheviot Hills, and that artificial line before noticed, which proceeds from the Cheviot Hills to the southwest, and meets the Firth of Solway.

This island was originally termed ALBION; a name which ap

pears

• This statement of the extent and contents of Great Britain, founded on Pinkerton's Modern Geography, collated with other authori

chiefly

ties.

pears to have been an usual Celtic term for heights or eminences, and is reasonably thought to have been bestowed on it by the Gas of the opposite shore, from a contemplation of the tall cifs which rise to the view of those who inhabit the coast in the ghbourhood of Calais.*

The name of BRITAIN was substituted for the original mode of designation at a very early period, and probably soon after the first settlement of inhabitants in the island. The conjectures of antiquaries concerning the etymology of this term are extremely

erous-Camden, with the diffidence usual to a man of true gens, when he feels that probable surmise is all that can be dered, submits it as possible that the first syllable, or radical part of the appellation, alludes to the custom of the inhabitants painting their bodies in various colours and devices. But it is not by any means clear that the word Brit, or Brith properly implies painted in the Celtic.

Bochart, having recourse to the Greek name of this island, is vading to derive it from Baratanac; which, in the Phoenician teague, signifies a land of Tin.

1 pass unnoticed the surmises of various minor writers, and state the opinions of Borlase † and Whitaker, as those which appear most ingenious, while they partake least of fancy. On viewing the usual character of the whole range of primary local appellations, it may be rationally believed, with Dr. Borlase, that the word Brit, or Brith, signifies some circumstance relating to natural situation, rather than to any thing so variable as custom or manner. The idea of the disjunction of this country from Gaul would be necessarily a prevailing feature in the consideration of those who resided on the Continent, and of those who

Vide Hist. of Manchester, Vol. I. p. 10. octavo edit. (to which edition M:. Whitaker's work, I, likewise, refer on every subsequent occasion, unless the contrary be noticed;) and Genuine Hist. of the Britons asserted,

p. 91. et seq.

Vide Antiquities of Cornwall, Chap. 1.

tous asserted, p. 29-32, 71-74, 91-93, 95-103.

Hist. of Manchester, Vol. I. p. 10-12; and Genuine Hist. of the Bri

boldly quitted its security and first colonized the shores of Albion. Hence, an etymon expressive of the circumstance of separation may be sought for with propriety; and such a mode of explaining the term is readily found.

According to Whitaker, the appellation of Britain was first applied to the inhabitants rather than to the region; and the radical part of the term is derived from a Celtic word, primarily denoting separation and division. The same intelligent writer observes that the original word appears to have been equally pro nounced Brict, Brit, and Brioth; Breact, Breac, and Brig; and is still retained in the Welsh Brith, and the Irish Breact, any thing divided or striped. "Brit is enlarged into Brit-on, or Britan, in the plural, and Brit-an-ec in the relative adjective; and so forms the appellation Brit-on-es, Brit-an-i, and Brit-an-ic-i; as Brig, in the plural, is altered into Brig-an, and Brig-ant, and forms the denomination Brig-ant-es."*

This argument as to the derivation of the second name by which our island was distinguished, is not offered to the reader of these pages as probably conclusive, but as one that is quite problematical. Still, it appears the more plausible amongst the great variety of conjectures.-It must be added that the appellation of Britain was not anciently peculiar to the island primarily denominated Albion, but was common to many of the smaller neighbouring isles; and it may be remarked that several writers, foreign and native, notice it as a felicitous circumstance that the parent-island retains to the existing day the name by which it was known in the first period of its credible history, while almost every other country has lost its early appellation.

The comparatively modern term of ENGLAND, by which the south part of Britain is now distinguished, is derived from the Angles, a people ascribed to different parts of the north of Germany, but who, at the era of the Saxon invasion, were resident

iB

• Hist. of Manchester, p.

11.

in the district of Anglen, in the duchy of Sleswick.* They were among the most numerous and bold of the successful German inaders; but, according to the conjecture of a modern writer, “the Exlesiastical history of Bede, which was written in that part of the country, that was possessed by the Angli, contributed greatly the extension and general acceptation of the modern name." There is not any solid authority for believing that Egbert arbitrarily abolished the distinctions between the Saxons, Jutes, and Angli, and commanded that the island should thenceforward be called England.

A compendious statement of the opinions of different etymologists, respecting the probable derivation of the names of CAMBRIA, and WALES, usually given to that part of Britain which is situated to the west of the rivers Severn and Dee, is presented in the preliminary pages of the seventeenth volume of this work.†

THE ANCIENT BRITONS.

The period at which Britain was first peopled, and the district from which its population proceeded, are subjects entirely open to the conjectures of the iuquisitive. In common with most other nations, the British possesses no record as to its original ; but pseudo-historians have risen as abundantly in this as in other countries, to shape chimera from obscurity, and to allure by fable where fact is wanting. No instruction can be conveyed by an analysis of such extravagant representations; and it appears that little entertainment is implicated in wild tales respecting "Bruto, or Brito, of Trojan extraction, great grandson of Æneas,

B 3

• Vide Turner's Hist. of the Anglo-Saxons, Vol. I. Introduction.

P. 58;

who

and Camden's

↑ Vide Beauties, Vol. XVII. p. 1—4.——According to the Welsh Triads, three names, of a different etymology to those noticed above, were bestowed, at different periods, on the island of Britain. See these presumed appella Les mentioned, p. 7. note.