The genuine history of the Britons asserted against Mr. Macpherson ...

92
THE GENUINE HISTORY OF
the cafe. This we imifl: fuppofe to have hap-
pened, if no name had been tranfmitted to us
that was charafteriftic of the circumftance. And
the coincidence of the reafon and name is a
Itrong evidence of the faft. As the Gauls be-
held the heights appearing on the other fide of
-the water, they naturally diitinguiftied them by
a name, that was expreffive only of the fenfible
appearance which they formed to the eye, and
called them Alb-ion or Heights. Alb in the
fmgular lengthens into Alb-an, Alb-on, Alb-ain,
or Alb-ion in the plural. And we have the fame
word in the Gallic appellation of the mountains
that divide Italy from Gaul, The Alps, fome
ages before the days of Strabo, were called
Albia ; and a very high mountain, that
terminated the Alps upon one fide, was de-
nominated Albius in his time ^ And, equally
fome ages before, the Alps were denominated
Albia and Alpionia; and in his time there re-
mained two tribes on the mountains, that bore the
names of Albiccci and Albienfes
-. The name^
therefore, was the natural Celtic term for heights
or eminences. As fuchj it was applied to the
' P. 309 and 483, Strabo.
* Strabo, p. 309 and jii.—Thefe mountains were r^ot
inhabited when Bellovefus croiTed them into Italy (Livy, 1. v.
c. 34) : and they were afterwards polTefled by many bodies of
the Gauls (Strabo, p. 190.).
clvTs