limits of the Roman possessions, and built the great rampart 18 which bore his name (Vallum Hadriani Picts' Wall,) a. D. 120, nearly in the same place as Agricola his first. Under the reign of Antoninus Pius the country acquired by Agricola, and lost by Hadrian, was recovered by Lollius Urbicus, who, A. D. 140, restored Agricola's second wall, from that time called Vallum Antonini19 Graham's Dyke: it was 40 geographical, or 50 Roman miles, long. Finally, the emperor Severus, at an advanced age, penetrating into the N. parts of the island, to repel the Caledonians, who had broken through the ramparts raised against them, built the Vallum Severinum 20, A. D. 210, only a few yards from that of Adrian. This last wall, the strongest of the whole, commenced at Segedunum Cousin's House, and ended at Tunnocelum Bowness, a distance of 66 geographical, or 82 Roman, miles: it was a continued succession of castles and towers, requiring a garrison of more than 10,000 men.

12. ALBION, or BRITANNIA Great Britain, was bounded on the W. by 21 Mare Vergivium St. George's Channel, Mare Hibernicum Irish Sea, and Oceanus Deucaledonius, part of the Atlantic Ocean; on the N. by Mare Orcadum, or the Orkney Sea; on the E. by Oceanus Germanicus v. Septentrionalis German Ocean, or North Sea; and on the S. by Oceanus Britannicus English Channel. The narrowest part of this last, where Britain and Gaul approximate the nearest, was called Fretum Oceani (otherwise Morinum and Gallicum,) Strait of Dover, and is only 18 miles across; it has been supposed by many, that the two countries were once connected together, but that they were torn asunder, in some great convulsion of nature. Great Britain was likened by Cæsar to a triangle, of which the Southern shore, or that next to Gaul, formed the base; Livy, and Fabius Rusticus, have compared it to an oblong shield, or a two-edged axe, and this comparison Tacitus imagined to be very just, if we except Caledonia, which stretches out a vast distance towards the North, and terminates

18 Britanniam petiit, in qua multa correxit, murumque per octoginta millia passuum primus duxit, qui Barbaros Romanosque divideret.

19 Capitolin. Antonin. Pius, c. 5.

Elii Spart. Hadrian. c. 11.

20 Ælii Spart. Sever. c. 18.-Aurel. Victor. Epit. c. 36.-Eutrop. VIII. 19.— Orosius, VII. 17.

21 The sea about Britain was in early times much frequented by whales, and of a vast size; as appears from Juvenal, Šat. X. 14:

Quanto delphinis balana Britannica major.

Wherefore Horace calls it 'beluosus Oceanus :'

Beluosus qui remotis

Obstrepit Oceanus Britannis.

Carm. IV. xiv. 47.

in the shape of a wedge. The distance from the North Foreland, at the Eastern extremity of Kent, to the Land's End, at the Western extremity of Cornwall, measures 283 miles, in direct distance; and this is the greatest breadth of England. It's greatest length may be reckoned from the Lizard Point, which is the Southernmost cape of Cornwall, to Dunnet Head, the Northernmost extremity of Scotland, which two places are 530 miles apart, in direct distance: but the Eastern side of the Island, from Dunnet Head to the North Foreland, only measures 470 miles.

13. The ranges of hills traversing Great Britain, though by no means inconsiderable, are not noticed by any ancient authors, if we except Mons Grampius, or the Grampian Mountains, in the heart of Scotland, where are the highest points in the whole island. It is this range, which divides the whole of Scotland into the Highlands and Lowlands, the former comprehending the N. and N. W. parts of the country, and the latter the S. and S. E. parts. The Grampians continue winding in a Southerly direction, till they reach the frontiers of England and Scotland; here they attach themselves to the Cheviot Hills, which run from N. E. to S. W., along the borders of the county of Northumberland, which they separate from the Scotch shire of Roxburgh. This last range formed

a free chase, commonly called Chevy Chase, rendered famous by the well known ballad of that name, founded on an encounter which took place at Otterburn, a. D. 1388, between the families of Percy and Douglas. From the Cheviot Hills, a range winds to the Southward, through the counties of Cumberland, Durham, Westmorland, York, and Derby; it contains the most elevated hills in England, amongst others that of Pen-nigant in Yorkshire, which is one instance of the many that might be adduced, of the Britons calling the summits of their mountains Pen, in the same manner that the Gauls did, after the deity Pen, or Penninus, to whom the tops of hills were consecrated. Another great range strikes off from the mouth of the R. Humber, winds through the counties of Lincoln, Rutland, Northampton, Warwick, and Gloucester, and terminates, in a manner, above Bath, on the River Avon : the Southern part of this range is called the Cotswold Hills, and contains the sources of the famous R. Thames. The whole of the Southern counties, from the N. Foreland to the Land's End, are intersected by a continuity of ranges, of various heights and names, which traverse the country in the most beautiful manner: they rise to the greatest height in

22 Where Agricola defeated the Britons under Galgacus, A. D. 84.

Tacit. Agric. Vita. 29.

Devonshire. Wales is a very mountainous country, being intersected from North to South by one principal range, which throws off many arms, both towards the sea-coast, and the English counties: it contains higher land than any in our own country. 14. The heights of the principal mountains in Great Britain may be seen in the following tables:

PRINCIPAL MOUNTAINS IN ENGLAND AND WALES.

15. The principal capes of G. Britain are, on the N. coast Ebudium Pr. C. Wrath, Tarvedrum, or Orcas Pr. Dunnet Head, the Northernmost point of the island, and Virvedrum Pr. Duncansby Head. On the E. coast are Tæzalum Pr. Kinnaird's Head, the N. E. cape of Aberdeenshire, Ocellum Pr. Spurn Head, the S. E. termination of Yorkshire, and Cantium Pr. the N. Foreland, which is the last point of Kent towards the N. East. The Lizard Point, where Britain reaches farthest to the S., was known by the name of Ocrinum, or Damnonium Pr.; and the Land's End, distinguished as the Westernmost point of England (though not of G. Britain,) was called Belerium, or Antivestæum Pr., both capes being in Cornwall. On the W. coast, Herculis Pr. now bears the name of Hartland Point, on the coast of Devonshire; St. David's Head, the W. extremity of Wales, was distinguished as Octapitarum Pr., and Braichy Pull H., in Caernarvonshire, as Canganorum Pr. Novantum Pr. in Wigtown, is now the Mull of Galloway, and Epidium Pr. in Argyllshire, the Mull of Cantire.

16. Amongst the principal rivers of Britain, known to the ancients, we may mention Thamesis fl., or the R. Thames23, the largest in the United Kingdom; it rises in the Cotswold Hills, in Gloucestershire, and flows with an Easterly direction, for 204 miles, into Tamesis Estuarium: Shoebury Ness, in Essex, and Sheerness, in Kent, may be considered as the common limits of the estuary and river, and to them the abovementioned length applies. The greatest tributaries of the Thames are the Lea, the Coln, the Thame, and the Charwell, which all enter it's Northern bank: the Cunetio, or Kennet, the Way, and the Medway, enter it's right bank; the last rather joins

23 So went he, playing on the watery plaine:

Soon after whom the lovely bridegroome came,
The noble Thamis, with all his goodly traine;
But him before there went, as best became,

His auncient parents, namely, th' auncient Thame;
But much more aged was his wife than he,
The Ouze, whom men do Isis rightly name:
Full weake and crooked creature seemed shee,
And almost blind through eld, that scarce her

way

could see.

And round about him many a pretty page
Attended duely, ready to obay;
All little rivers, which owe vassallage
To him, as to their lord, and tribute pay:
The chaulky Kenet, and the Thetis gray,
The morish Cole, and the soft-sliding Breane,
The wanton Lee that oft doth loose his way,
And the still Darent, in whose waters cleane
Ten thousand fishes play and decke his pleasant streame.

Spenser. Faery Queene, IV. xi. 24. 29.

the estuary of the Thames, than the river itself, as it's mouth is at Sheerness. The Sabrina Severn, rises in Plynlimmon, on the borders of Cardiganshire and Montgomeryshire, and runs, with a curved, and generally Southerly direction, into the Bristol Channel or Sabrina Estuarium; it's length, to the mouth of the Bristol Avon, is 185 miles.

17. After two-thirds of it's course, it receives, on it's left bank, at Tewksbury, the Aufona Minor fl. or R. Avon, which rises on the borders of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, and Warwickshire, and runs past Warwick and Stratford; which last town gave birth to our immortal Shakspeare. The other Aufona, or Antona R. Avon, or Nen, rises in Northamptonshire, at no great distance from the preceding river, flows, with a North-easterly course, past Northampton and Peterborough, and, having joined the Welland, runs into Metaris Estuarium, or The Wash. The little R. Avon, which runs past Bath and Bristol, into the Sabrina Estuarium, and partly forms the boundary between the counties of Gloucester and Somerset, must not be confounded with either of the other Avons: indeed, there are several other rivers bearing the name of Avon, in England, a circumstance which is accounted for by Avon signifying river in the language of the ancient Britons.-In the Southern part of England, we may notice the R. Stour, in Kent, which runs past Canterbury, and entering the sea at two mouths (the one at Rutupiæ, and the other at Regulbium), forms Thanatos I. or Isle of Thanet. The Trisanton Anton R. rises in Hampshire, and flows past Southampton into the English Channel, opposite Vectis I. Isle of Wight: to the West of it is the Alaunus fl. Avon, which has its source in Wiltshire, and flows past Salisbury into the English Channel. Still farther West is Isca fl. Ere, the greatest river of Devonshire, which rises on the edge of Somersetshire, and runs past Exeter into the Oceanus Britannicus: beyond it is the Tamarus Tamar, which forms the greater part of the boundary between the counties of Devon and Cornwall, running past Launceston and Plymouth, into the English Channel, nearly opposite the Eddystone Light House.

18. The R. Ouse rises in the S. part of Northamptonshire, close on the borders of Oxfordshire, flows past the cities of Buckingham, Bedford, Huntingdon, Ely, and Lynn Regis, at which last it enters the Metaris Estuarium. The R. Humber, between the counties of York and Lincoln, was formerly called Abus; but it is rather an estuary than a river, being formed by the Trent, and Ouse of Yorkshire, neither of which are mentioned by the ancient authors. The Trent rises on the borders of Staffordshire and Salop, not far from the city of Stafford, runs through the Southern part of Derbyshire, past Nottingham, and so along the Western limits of Lincolnshire,