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werdus, a Saxon writer who fiourifhed two centuries before. 

 I have not had an opportunity of confulting him, but he is 

 thus quoted by Ulhcr, Ecckf. Brit. Primord. " Habitante plebe 

 " britannica incuriofe, caufa firmitatis intra foffam quas a Severe 

 " Casfare condita erat, infurrexerunt^f^/^j- duas Pidi Scihcet ab 

 " aquilonali plaga, Scoti, ab occidentali contra eos, vaftantes eo- 

 " rum poffeffiones." Now no nation of Scots could come upon 

 the Britons from the weft of Severus's wall except thofe from 

 Ireland, and the firft colony of Scots had fled back thither after 

 their defeat by the Romans. This brings our accounts of the 

 Irifh invafion of Britain ftill nearer the time when it is faid to 

 have happened. But to put the truth of this piece of hiftory 

 beyond all exception, we have the teftimony of a writer ftill 

 more antient, and that is Gildas the Briton, who may be efteemed 

 almoft a cotemporary with the calamity that he relates. Thefe 

 are his words. " Exin Britannia omni armato milite, militari- 

 " bus copiis, redoribus (licet immanibus) ingenti iuventutc 

 " fpoliata, quas comitata veftigia fupradidi tyranni (Maximi 

 " Scilicet) domum nufquam rediit ultra, et omnis belli ufus 

 " penitus ignara, duabus gentibus tranfmarinis, Scotorum a 

 " Circio, Pidtorum ab Aquiloiie calcabilis, multos ftrepet gemitque 

 " annos." Thefe appear to have been the commotions to which 

 Claudian refers in his poem in Laudem Stilichonis, as they 

 lafted for a confiderable time, and were not concluded 'till the 

 total defeat and diffipation of the Scots by Gratianus Municeps. 

 Which Fordun, the nioft antient of the Scottifh hiftorians, places ■ 

 about the year 360, in the reign of Eugenius. " His diebus 

 " in beilo rex Scotorum Eugenius cecidit cum iilio, multique 

 (E 2) " cum 



