CHAPTER I.
1. The shore of Gaul would be the boundary of the world, did not the island[353] of Britain claim from its magnitude almost the appellation of another world; for if measured to the Caledonian promontory[354] it extends more than eight hundred miles in length.[355]
2. Britain was first called by the ancients Albion,[356] from its white cliffs; and afterwards in the language of the natives, Britain. Hence all the islands hereafter described were denominated British.[357]
3. Britain is situated between the north and west,[358] opposite to, though at some distance from, Germany, Gaul, and Spain, the most considerable parts of Europe, and is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean.
4. On the south of Britain lies Belgic Gaul, from which coast passengers usually sail to the Rhutupian port.[359] This place is distant from Gessoriacum,[360] a town of the Morini, the port most frequented by the Britons, fifty miles, or according to others, four hundred and fifty stadia. From thence may be seen the country of the Britons whom Virgil in his Eclogues describes as separated from the whole world,—
"—penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos."
5. By Agrippa, an ancient geographer, its breadth is estimated at three hundred miles; but with more truth by Bede at two hundred, exclusive of the promontories.[361] If their sinuosities be taken into the computation, its circuit will be three thousand six hundred miles. Marcian, a Greek author, agrees with me in stating it at MDIƆƆLXXV.[362]
FOOTNOTES:
[353] The early Greeks and Romans doubted whether Britain was an island, or part of the continent. This uncertainty gave rise to a controversy which was not settled till the time of the proprætor Julius Agricola.—Tac. Vit. Agric. c. 38. Dio. Cass. Hist. Rom. lib. 39.