"As we have seen that, according to Ptolemy, there were, in his time, different tribes of Belgæ, settled on the northern
extremity of our country: the most natural idea undoubtedly is, that they came directly from the Continent. For had these Belgæ crossed the English Channel, according to the common progress of barbarous nations, it is scarcely supposable that this island would have been settled to its utmost extremity so early as the age of Agricola.
"There is every reason to believe, that the Belgic tribes in Caledonia, described by Ptolemy, were Picts. For as the Belgæ, Picts, and Saxons seem to have had a common origin, it is not worth while to differ about names. These frequently arise from causes so trivial, that their origin becomes totally inscrutable to succeeding ages. The Angles, although only one tribe, have accidentally given their name to the country which they invaded, and to all the descendants of the Saxons and Belgæ, who were by far more numerous.
"It is universally admitted, that there is a certain national character, of an external kind, which distinguishes one people from another. This is often so strong that those who have travelled through various countries, or have accurately marked the diversities of this character, will scarcely be deceived even as to a straggling individual. Tacitus long ago remarked the striking resemblance between the Germans and Caledonians. Every stranger, at this day, observes the great difference and complexion between the Highlanders and Lowlanders. No intelligent person in England is in danger of confounding the Welsh with the posterity of the Saxons. Now, if the Lowland Scots be not a Gothic race, but in fact the descendants of the ancient British, they must be supposed to retain some national resemblance of the Welsh. But will any impartial observer venture to assert, that in feature, complexion, or form, there is any such similarity as to induce the slightest apprehension that they have been originally the same people?"[[31]]
It is doubtful, however, whether Cæsar meant to say more than that over above certain differences which distinguished the Belgæ from the other inhabitants of the common country Gallia, there was an intermixture of Germans.
The import of a possibly Germanic origin for the Belgæ gives us the import of a possibly Germanic origin for—
[§ 193]. The Caledonians.—A speculative sentence of Tacitus indicates the chance of the Caledonians being Germanic:—"Britanniam qui mortales initio coluerint, indigenæ an advecti, ut inter barbaros, parum compertum. Habitus corporum varii: atque ex eo argumenta: namque rutilæ Caledoniam habitantium comæ, magni artus, Germanicam originem adseverant."—Agricola, xi.
The continuation of the passage quoted in § 193 has induced the notion that there have been in Britain Spanish, Iberic, or Basque tribes:—"Silurum colorati vultus, et torti plerumque crines, et posita contra Hispania, Iberos veteres trajecisse, easque sedes occupâsse fidem faciunt."—Agricola, xi.
As this, although an opinion connected with the history of the languages of Great Britain, is not an opinion connected with the history of the English language, it is a question for the Celtic, rather than the Gothic, philologist. The same applies to the points noticed in [§§ 136]-138. Nevertheless they are necessary for the purposes of minute philological analysis.