CHAP. 30. (16.)—BRITANNIA.
Opposite to this coast is the island called Britannia, so
celebrated in the records of Greece[1] and of our own country.
It is situate to the north-west, and, with a large tract of
intervening sea, lies opposite to Germany, Gaul, and Spain,
by far the greater part of Europe. Its former name was
Albion[2]; but at a later period, all the islands, of which we
shall just now briefly make mention, were included under the
name of "Britanniæ." This island is distant from Gesoriacum,
on the coast of the nation of the Morini[3], at the spot where
the passage across is the shortest, fifty miles. Pytheas and
Isidorus say that its circumference is 4875 miles. It is
barely thirty years since any extensive knowledge of it was
gained by the successes of the Roman arms, and even as yet
they have not penetrated beyond the vicinity of the Caledonian[4] forest. Agrippa believes its length to be 800 miles, and
its breadth 300; he also thinks that the breadth of Hibernia
is the same, but that its length is less by 200 miles. This
last island is situate beyond Britannia, the passage across
being the shortest from the territory of the Silures[5], a distance
of thirty miles. Of the remaining islands none is said to
have a greater circumference than 125 miles. Among these
there are the Orcades[6], forty in number, and situate within
a short distance of each other, the seven islands called
Acmodæ[7], the Hæbudes, thirty in number, and, between
Hibernia and Britannia, the islands of
Mona[8], Monapia[9], Ricina[10],
Vectis[11], Limnus[12], and Andros[13]. Below it are the islands
called Samnis and Axantos[14], and opposite, scattered in the
German Sea, are those known as the Glæsariæ[15], but which
the Greeks have more recently called the Electrides, from
the circumstance of their producing electrum or amber.
The most remote of all that we find mentioned is Thule[16], in
which, as we have previously stated[17], there is no night at the
summer solstice, when the sun is passing through the sign
of Cancer, while on the other hand at the winter solstice
there is no day. Some writers are of opinion that this state
of things lasts for six whole months together. Timæus the
historian says that an island called Mictis[18] is within six days'
sail of Britannia, in which white load[19] is found; and that the
Britons sail over to it in boats of osier[20], covered with sewed
hides. There are writers also who make mention of some
other islands, Scandia[21] namely, Dumna, Bergos, and, greater
than all, Nerigos, from which persons embark for Thule.
At one day's sail from Thule is the frozen ocean, which by
some is called the Cronian Sea.
1. Britain was spoken of by some of the Greek writers as superior to
all other islands in the world. Dionysius, in his Periegesis, says, "that
no other islands whatsoever can claim equality with those of Britain."
2. Said to have been so called from the whiteness of its cliffs opposite
the coast of Gaul.
3. Afterwards called Bononia, the modern Boulogne. As D'Anville
remarks, the distance here given by Pliny is far too great, whether we
measure to Dover or to Hythe; our author's measurement however is
probably made to Rutupiæ (the modern Richborough), near Sandwich,
where the Romans had a fortified post, which was their landing-place
when crossing over from Gaul. This would make the distance given by
Pliny nearer the truth, though still too much.
4. Probably the Grampian range is here referred to.
5. The people of South Wales.
6. The Orkney islands were included under this name. Pomponius
Mela and Ptolemy make them but thirty in number, while Solinus fixes
their number at three only.
7. Also called Æmodæ or Hæmodæ, most probably the islands now
known as the Shetlands. Camden however and the older antiquarians
refer the Hæmodæ to the Baltic sea, considering them different from the
Acmodæ here mentioned, while Salmasius on the other hand considers the
Acmodæ or Hæmodæ and the Hebrides as identical. Parisot remarks
that off the West Cape of the Isle of Skye and the Isle of North Uist,
the nearest of the Hebrides to the Shetland islands, there is a vast gulf
filled with islands, which still bears the name of Mamaddy or Maddy,
from which the Greeks may have easily derived the words Ai( Maddai\,
whence the Latin Hæmodæ.
8. The Isle of Anglesea.
9. Most probably the Isle of Man.
10. Camden and Gosselin (Rech. sur la Géogr. des Anciens) consider
that under this name is meant the island of Racklin, situate near the
north-eastern extremity of Ireland. A Ricina is spoken of by Ptolemy,
but that island is one of the Hebrides.
11. This Vectis is considered by Gosselin to be the same as the small
island of White-Horn, situate at the entrance of the Bay of Wigtown in
Scotland. It must not be confounded with the more southern Vectis, or
Isle of Wight.
12. According to Gosselin this is the island of Dalkey, at the entrance of
Dublin Bay.
13. Camden thinks that this is the same as Bardsey Island, at the south
of the island of Anglesea, while Mannert and Gosselin think that it is
the island of Lambay.
14. According to Brotier these islands belong to the coast of Britanny,
being the modern isles of Sian and Ushant.
15. As already mentioned, he probably speaks of the islands of Œland
and Gothland, and Ameland, called Austeravia or Actania, in which
glœsum or amber was found by the Roman soldiers. See p. 344.
16. The opinions as to the identity of ancient Thule have been numerous
in the extreme. We may here mention six:—1. The common, and
apparently the best founded opinion, that Thule is the island of
Iceland. 2. That it is either the Ferroe group, or one of those
islands. 3. The
notion of Ortelius, Farnaby, and Schœnning, that it is identical with
Thylemark in Norway. 4. The opinion of Malte Brun, that the
continental portion of Denmark is meant thereby, a part of which is
to the
present day called Thy or Thyland. 5. The opinion of Rudbeck and of
Calstron, borrowed originally from Procopius, that this is a general
name for the whole of Scandinavia. 6. That of Gosselin, who thinks
that under this name Mainland, the principal of the Shetland Islands, is
meant. It is by no means impossible that under the name of Thule
two or more of these localities may have been meant, by different authors
writing at distant periods and under different states of geographical
knowledge. It is also pretty generally acknowledged, as Parisot remarks, that the Thule mentioned by Ptolemy is identical with Thylemark
in Norway.
17. B. ii. c. 77.
18. Brotier thinks that under this name a part of Cornwall is meant, and
that it was erroneously supposed to be an island. Parisot is of opinion
that the copyists, or more probably Pliny himself, has made an error in
transcribing Mictis for Vectis, the name of the Isle of Wight. It is not
improbable however that the island of Mictis had only an imaginary
existence.
19. "White lead": not, however, the metallic substance which we
understand by that name, but tin.
20. Commonly known as "coracles," and used by the Welch in modern
times. See B. vii. c. 57 of this work, and the Note.
21. Brotier, with many other writers, takes these names to refer to
various parts of the coast of Norway. Scandia he considers to be the
same
as Scania, Bergos the modern Bergen, and Nerigos the northern part of
Norway. On the other hand, Gosselin is of opinion that under the name
of Bergos the Scottish island of Barra is meant, and under that of
Nerigos, the island of Lewis, the northern promontory of which is in
the old
maps designated by the name of Nary or Nery. Ptolemy makes mention of
an island called Doumna in the vicinity of the Orcades.