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

THE BRITONS ASSERTED. 8$
nominated Eneon Urd, the fame word with Ard,
t)nly varied by the pronunciation, and fignifylng
JEneon the Honourable or Great ^ ; and as we have
a promontory in Scotland^ bearing the equal ap-
pellation of Urd and Ord Head at prefent.
The etymon of Silures is evidently deduced
from too trifling and remote a circumftance, their
bordering upon the Severn in one part, or, as
Mr. Macpherfon expreffes himfelf, their refiding
beyond it. And the true etymon may perhaps
be, S, II, or He, Ur, the Great Men. So we
have Elgovse and Selgovx in Ptolemy, as the
name of the fame people. And the Silures had
a jufl; claim to this magnificent appellation, being
a very powerful tribe, and having fubdued the
Ordovices and Dimetce of Wales. They appear
alfo pretty plainly, though they have never been
fufpefted, to have once poffefled the Cafliterides.
The principal of thefe iflands is denominated Si-
lura infula by Solinus, as all of them are to this
day denominated the Silley Ifles. Richard has
applied to the Silures, what Soli-nus has fpoken of
the inhabitants of Silura -. And Tacitus evi-
dently carries the poffefrions of the Silures to th«i
Caffiterides, by placing ^lem oppolite to Spain :
Silurum cblorati vultus, & torti pl^rumque crines,
^pofAiL contra Hifpan'ianiy &c. s.
' See Carte, vol. 1. p. 179, » P. 21.
3 Agric, vlt. c. 1 1,
p. 38.