Chap. II
1. Albion, called by Chrysostom Great Britain, is, according to Cæsar, of a triangular shape, resembling Sicily. One of the sides lies opposite to Celtic Gaul. One angle of this side, which is the Cantian promontory,363 is situated to the east; the other, the Ocrinian promontory,364 in the country of the Damnonii, faces the south and the province of Tarraconensis in Spain. This side is about five hundred miles in length.
2. Another side stretches towards Ireland and the west, the length of which, according to the opinion of the ancients, is seven hundred miles.
3. The third side is situated to the north, and is opposite to no land except a few islands;365 but the angle of this side chiefly trends towards Germania Magna.366 The length from the Novantian Chersonesus,367 through the country of the Taixali, to the Cantian promontory,368 is estimated at eight hundred miles. Thus all erroneously compute the circuit of the island to be two thousand miles; for from the Cantian promontory to Ocrinum,369 the distance is four hundred miles; from thence to Novantum, a thousand; and from thence to the Cantian promontory, two thousand two hundred. The circumference of the whole island is therefore three thousand six hundred miles.370
4. Livy and Fabius Rusticus compare the form of Britain to an oblong shield or battle-axe; and as, according to Tacitus, it bears that figure on the side of Caledonia, the comparison was extended to the whole island, though the bold promontories at its further extremity give it the shape of a wedge. But Cæsar and Pomponius Mela assert that its form is triangular.
5. If credit may be given to the celebrated geographer Ptolemy and his contemporary writers, the island resembles an inverted Z,371 but according to the maps the comparison is not exact. The triangular shape, however, seems to belong to England alone.372
Footnotes
363 North Foreland.
364 Lizard Point.
365 The Orkney and Shetland isles.
366 Under this name the ancients comprised not only Germany proper but Denmark, Norway, &c.
367 Rens of Galloway.
368 North Foreland.
369 Lizard Point.
370 Bertram has endeavoured to reconcile the various and discordant calculations given by different ancient authors of the circuit of our island. On such vague principles as these estimations are made, it would be almost impossible, even now, for two persons to produce the same result.
371 Ptolemy’s expression is obscure; but he was evidently led to this supposition by the notion that Caledonia or Scotland trended to the east, as appears from his latitudes and longitudes. This form, therefore, he not unaptly compares to the inverted Z. It would be a trespass on the patience of the reader to attempt to reconcile what is irreconcilable.
372 These words are chiefly taken from Tacitus. The obscurity of the expression and the absurdity of the comparison, will sufficiently show the ignorance of those ancients whose works have reached the present time, in regard to our island.—Tacit. Vit. Agricolæ, sec. 10.