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

THE BRITONS ASSERTED. 93.
cliffs of Britain and the mountains of Gaul.
•And, as fuch, it is retained by the prefent High-
landers for their own, very mountainous, divifion
of Britain.—The firfl name of the ifland, then>
was given before the country was inhabited. Had
it been given after that period, and from a view
*' of the face of the country:" derived as the
firfl inhabitants were, acrofs the narrowefl part
of the channel, from the bold fhore of Calais
and fo very level, in general, as all the fouthern
part of the ifland undoubtedly is ; they could
never have diflinguifhed it by the name of
Albion. But accuftomed to fee it daily from
their own fhores, and to call it the Heights,
they foon palTed over in all probability from
mere motives of curiofity, they perhaps flocked
fome of the nearer woods with wild beafls for
their hunting, and ages afterwards formed a re-
gular fettlement on the Albion, that they had fo
long feen, denominated, and vifited \
P. 39.
*' The Cimbri — arriving in Belgium,
*' and defcrying Albion, gave it a new name ex-
" prefTive of the fame idea which firfl fuggefled
* The Romans therefore frequently defcribe Albion as 3
level country. Mela fays, Sicilise maxime fimilis, Plana^
ingens, &c. (1, iii. c. 6.). And Strabo fays, in ^' 71 "ra•^£^« tdj
^nsa riEAIAS (p. 305.).
'*the