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

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THE GENUINE HISTORY OF
*' the appellation of Albion to the Gael. Coi-rt*
** paring the elevated coafl of Britain to the fenny
*' plains of the Lower Germany, they called it
*' BRAIT-AN, a word compounded of Brait High
" and An or In a Country '."
The author has again impofed upon himfelf
by the ufe of the equivocal term Belgium. And
he has even applied it here in a double accep-
tation. . -As relating to " the fenny plains of the
*' Lower Germany," it can mean only Holland.
But as the place from which the Cimbri could
" defcry Albion,*' and mark " the elevated coaft
" of Britain," it refers only to Belgic Gaul.
Britain may be feen from the cliffs of the latter,
but cannot be difcerned from the low plains of
the former.— Nor is the author quite confiflent
with himfelf in this and the preceding account.
The name of Britain, we are told, was '' ex-
" preiTive of the fame idea which firfl fuggefted
" the appellation of Albion to the Gael." And
yet Albion is faid to be " a name expreffive of
" the fa^e of the country," and Britain to be de-
rived from a view of its " elevated coajl."—But,
even if thefe accounts were confident, it fhews
furely a great want of attention, to deduce the
name of Albion from the appearance of the coun-
try to thofe who had migrated into it, and the
name of Britain from the afpe£l: of the coaft to
^ So Dr. Macpherfoio, p. 33^, iuterprets Eritaia to fignify
Hills.
the